Is Europe's economy perking up? The PMI's today were better than expected

EUROPE: January services purchasing managers’ indexes

–EUROZONE was 52.7 against 52.2 forecast and from 51.6 in December.

–FRANCE was 49.4 agaisnt 49.5 forecast and from 50.6 in December.

–GERMANY was 54.0 against 52.7 forecast and from 52.1 in December.

–ITALY was 51.2 against 50.0 forecast and from 49.4 in December.

–SPAIN was 56.7 from 54.3 in December.

–U.K. was 57.2 against 56.5 forecast and from 55.8 in December.

Sovereigns are in a peck of trouble

Euromoney's sovereign risk index is rising. This is surprising because easy money usually reduces sovereign risk. Special factors also come into play, like commodity prices and politics (e.g. Ukraine and Venezuela.)

The strong dollar is the unmentioned culprit in this analysis as many of these countries have US$ debt coming due.

By the way, the Russian Central Bank has just cut interest rates, bringing to 14 the number of CB who have eased policy in January. Would it be better to describe this as an avalanche or a tidal wave?

Mind the Gap: Strong dollar hollows out US industry

Production will continue to move offshore.

Ronald McDonald says US$ overvalued against all major currencies

In July 2014, the US$ was still fairly valued against the GBP, the euro, the Aus$, and the Can$. Now, however the US$ is overvalued in relation to every signficant economy in the world save Brazil.

It is no surprise CAT reported bad earnings today. The currency effect produced revenue declines everywhere in the world outside of North America. We should expect the same in the future from other global companies.

US economy "totally different" from the others

Chinese official explains why they won't follow the US lead in monetary policy. (The US had apparently been suffering from "insufficient money supply.")

Bubble, Bubble bonds and bunds

Interesting price moves in Japan and Germany.

Latest IMF projections show good global growth

Gloom is widespread, but if the IMF is correct the world will do well in 2015 and 2016.