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joi, 22 august 2013

40+ Tools to Advance Your International SEO Process

Posted: 21 Aug 2013 07:28 PM PDT

Posted by Aleyda

One of the most frequent questions I get is about the tools that I use for international SEO, and although I included most of them in my international SEO presentation at MozCon, since I didn't had the time to focus on them, I would like to share how I use them to support my international SEO activities.

There are tools to support every part of your journey, including identifying the potential, targeting an international audience, optimizing and promoting the websites, earning international popularity, and measuring and achieving benefit with the international SEO process. Let's get started!

Identify

Your initial international search status

Google Webmaster Tools

Identify your initial international search visibility, from the volume and trends of queries to pages' impressions, clicks, and the CTR you get per country. Use the "Search Queries" report in Google Webmaster Tools and filter by location.

Google Webmaster Tools

Google Analytics

In the Google Analytics "Demographics" report, check your current visits, conversions, conversion rate volume, and trends coming from different countries and languages, along the traffic sources, keywords, and pages used.

Google Analytics

Your international search potential

SEMrush, SearchMetrics Essentials, Moz Keyword Difficulty Tool

Beyond researching the search volume for relevant keywords in the language and country that you want to target (using the keyword tool of the most popular search engine in the relevant country), you can also use tools like SEMrush and SearchMetrics â€" which support many countries â€" to identify your current market activity and competitors.

To find out which search engine is the most popular in your target country, you can use StatCounter or Alexa, and then use their keyword tools to verify the specific search volume. It would most likely be Google Keyword Planner for the western world that mostly uses Google, Yandex Keyword Statistics for Russia, and Baidu Index for China.

SearchMetrics and SEMrush

Your international keyword ideas

Ubersuggest, SEOchat Suggestion Keyword Finder

Identify additional keyword ideas with Ubersuggest (where you can choose between many different languages and countries) and the Suggestion Keyword Finder tool.

Ubersuggest and SEOchat Suggestion Keyword Finder

Why I don't recommend Google's Global Market Finder

I'm also frequently asked why I don't recommend (or recommend, but only very carefully) Google's Global Market Finder in my International SEO advice, and here's the reason: It's frequently inaccurate with the translations and term localization, and can easily lead to confusion and misunderstandings.

The tool has an "important note" below the results:

"...since the translations are created using Google Translate, they are not always perfect so be sure to confirm that the terms you're selecting are accurate..."

Even so, people usually assume that since it's a Google tool the results should be okay. In some cases, though, when you're not a native speaker of a language, it's very hard to know for sure when it's right or not.

Because of this, the tool is useless most of the time, since it only adds additional complexity to the process. In the end, you'll need native support anyway, as well as validation with other keyword tools for more accurate keyword ideas and their search volume.

For example, let's say I'm from an American company looking for the potential search volume in Mexico related to "apartments" and "rent apartments":

Google Global Market Finder

The tool suggests "pisos", "alquiler apartamentos", and "alquilar apartamentos". These results have the following issues:

The term "pisos" in Mexico is not used as a translation of "apartments," but instead is what the "floor" is called. It is in Spain where apartments are called "pisos."
"Alquiler apartamentos" is "apartment rentals," and "alquilar apartamentos" is "rent apartaments," but while these terms are popular in Spain (and some other countries), they are not in Mexico. In Mexico, for "Alquiler apartamentos" it would be "Renta departamentos," and "Alquilar apartamentos" would instead be "Rentar departamentos."

You can see how if you search for these Global Market Finder-suggested terms in Google's own keyword research tool, their local search volume is very low compared to the ones I mention, which are the correct ones to use in this situation:

Rentar Departamentos / Alquilar Apartamentos Keyword research

Additionally, the term "Alquiler apartamentos" is not grammatically correct, since it needs a "de" preposition. It should be "Alquiler de apartamentos" (literally meaning "Rent of apartments" in Spanish). Although it's true this can also happen with any keyword research tool, in this case it adds even more confusion to the process. As I mentioned before, you will end-up requiring native support to be accurate anyway.

Target

Your international audience profile

TNS Digital Life and Google's Consumer Barometer

Understand your target international audience's demographic characteristics and online buying preferences not only by researching with studies like the Comscore Data Mine, but by browsing the TNS Digital Life and Google's Consumer Barometer sites. These sites let you select and interact with their data for almost every industry, country, and demographic characteristic.

TNS Research and Consumer Barometer

Your international industry's behavior and characteristics

Alexa, Rnkrnk, SimilarWeb, and Google Display Network Research

Identify your competitors in the international market, including their characteristics and trends, by researching with Alexa, Rnkrnk, Google's Display Network Research, and SimilarWeb.

You should understand which are their most popular products and content, their unique selling proposition, their weaknesses and strengths, which marketing activities they're already developing, and a little about their online communities.

SimilarWeb Tool

Optimize

Your hreflang annotations

MediaFlow's Hreflang Sitemap Tool, DejanSEO Hreflang Validator, Rob Hammond's SEO Crawler, and Screaming Frog SEO Spider Tool.

Make sure to include the correct hreflang annotations on the different versions of your international pages, indicating the language and country targeting of each page, following the ISO639-1 format for the language attribute and ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 for the country attribute.

You can use the DejanSEO hreflang validator to check the usage on a specific page, or Rob Hammond's SEO Crawler to quickly verify if all the pages are correctly featuring the notation. If you need to validate more than the 250 internal pages allowed, you can use the filters in Screaming Frog to specifically identify those pages which contain (or don't contain) the desired hreflang tags.

hreflang Tools

Your country-targeted website's geolocation

Google Webmaster Tools Geolocation Feature, Bing Webmaster Tools Geotargeting Feature, FlagFox extension for Firefox, and Flag for Chrome extension

If you're country targeting and using a top-level domain, you can geolocate it using Google, Bing, and Yandex Webmaster Tools' geolocation features.

Nonetheless, the best way to geolocate a domain is by using the relevant ccTLD for each country. Take a look at IANA's database with each country code registry operator that usually allows domains to be purchased on their sites, or feature those approved domain registrars in each country.

Additionally, although it doesn't play as important a role as before, take a look at the example below. Minube, one of the most important travel communities in Spain, is hosted in Germany. If you can have a local IP for your website without much effort, that could be beneficial. You can check any website IP by using the FlagFox extension for Firefox or the Flag for Chrome extension.

Identify IP Tool

Your international web content

Twitterfall, Google Trends, Talkwalker, PROMT, WordReference, and ProZ

It's important that you develop attractive and optimized content for your international target audience that not only includes the desired keywords, but is interesting, serves to connect with your visitors, and helps you achieve your international website goals.

For this, it's fundamental that you have native support. If it's difficult for you to find that, check out online translator communities such as ProZ.

In order to validate your content, you might want to use professional translation software (more reliable than Google Translate) that also integrates with Office for example, making it easier to use. PROMT is one good example.

If at some specific point in the process (hopefully not for long) you don't have direct access to a native language speaker, or you just want to double-check something specifically, you should take a look at the WordReference forum. There's an amazing number of threads around phrases and translations for many languages.

On a day-to-day basis, you should also keep updated with the international trends and hot topics in order to identify new content for the website. For this, you can use Google Trends (take a look at the Hot Searches per country); Twitterfall, which lets you to easily follow up with a specific topic and has geotargeting features; and Talkwalker, a tool that supports many languages and easily generates alerts via email or RSS.

International Alerts and Trends

Promote

Your international popularity analysis

Open Site Explorer, MajesticSEO, LinkRisk, Social Crawlytics, SimplyMeasured, and CognitiveSEO

To research and understand your international competitors' link-building strategies, sources, and the popularity gap you have with them, you can use the same link- and social-analysis tools you likely already have, like Open Site Explorer, MajesticSEO, LinkRisk, and SocialCrawlytics.

Nonetheless, in this case, you should pay extra attention to the international audience's preferences, beyond link quality, volume, trends, sources, and types. Look at the social activity and profile, the most linked and shared content, the seasonality, the terms used and sites shared, the local industry influencers, and the favorite types of content, topics, and formats.

International Link Analysis

Your international link-building

Link Prospector, FollowerWonk, BuzzStream, Topsy

Promote your international website assets by leveraging relevant local sites, understanding cultural factors, building relationships with local influencers and media, and identifying what works best in each country to scale and track the response to each international version.

For international prospecting you can use Link Prospector, FollowerWonk, and Topsy, and then follow up and manage your links with BuzzStream.

International Link Building

Measure

Your international search visibility

I Search From, Search Latte, FoxyProxy for Firefox and Chrome, Hide My Ass, and Trusted Proxies

To easily verify how your international search audience sees your site ranking in their search results, you can use I Search From or Search Latte to quickly get the desired country and language's results.

Nonetheless, to make sure you're really seeing what your audience from other locations is seeing, it's best to do so with a local IP by using a proxy service. This will also let you verify your website from the desired international location and check to see if there's any types of settings for them, like a redirect, for example.

For this, you can use a free proxy browser add-on, like the ones from FoxyProxy, along any of HMA's Public Proxy list. If you want to have more reliable service, better speed, and select between many IPs, you also have paid ones, such as Hide My Ass or Trusted Proxies.

Geolocation tools

Your international search results

Moz Rank Tracker, SEscout, Authority Labs, Advanced Web Ranking, SEO SERP for Chrome, Rank Checker for Firefox, Google Analytics, and Google Webmaster Tools

Measure each of your International web versions independently, from the rankings for each relevant country and language to the visits and conversions. Remember to pay extra attention to the currency settings, cross-domain tracking, and the country and language traffic alignment.

For each of the international versions, segment and analyze the rankings, visits, conversions, average conversion value and rate, the used keywords, pages, sources of traffic per languages, location, and devices.

For your search rankings, you can use web-based tools like Moz Rank Tracker, SEscout, and Authority Labs, which support international search engines, or use desktop applications such as Advanced Web Rankings, along with a proxy service to avoid being blocked. For quick revisions you can use free browser extensions such as Rank Checker for Firefox and SEO SERP for Chrome.

For the site behavior with the search engines, it is important that you also follow up with Google Webmaster Tools (or the Webmaster Tools of the relevant international search engine) along with Google Analytics, from a traffic and conversion analysis perspective. That will let you to continuously follow-up with your International SEO results, and allow you to make the appropriate decisions.

International Search Rankings

Benefit

Your international SEO ROI

The International SEO ROI Calculator

Calculate what's required in order to achieve your conversion goals and a high ROI in your international SEO process while taking the SEO process costs into consideration. You can use the International SEO ROI calculator to facilitate this activity.

International SEO ROI Calculator

Always use your brain

Last but not least, let's not forget that despite all the help that these tools might give you the most important tool you have is your own brain.

Unfortunately I've seen how we forget sometimes about turning on an "autopilot," missing great opportunities (or even making mistakes) as a consequence.

Tools are not meant to replace you, but to support you, so do your own analysis, test everything and validate frequently, using your brain.

Tools are meant to help not to distress. Never stop using your brain, is the most important tool.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

White House Office Hours: College Affordability

Featured

White House Office Hours: College Affordability

Today, President Obama is on the road to talk about an ambitious new agenda make college more affordable, tackle rising costs, and improve value for students and their families. Back at the White House, senior staff will be on hand to answer your questions on Twitter.

Have questions about the President's plan? Join us today at 1 p.m. ET for a session of White House Office Hours with Deputy Communications Director Katie Beirne-Fallon and Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council James Kvaal.

Click here and find out how to join the chat at 1 p.m. today.

President Barack Obama delivers remarks on interest rates on student loans at the University of Colorado Coors Event Center in Boulder, Colo., April 24, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

Seth's Blog : 120 seconds (shipping vs. rushing)

120 seconds (shipping vs. rushing)

If you have a ten-mile commute to work, the difference between pushing yourself to drive 40 miles an hour and driving safely at 35 works out to about two minutes. In the first scenario, you're running yellow lights, passing bicyclists and rolling stop signs. In the second, you're not only dramatically safer, but you're also breathing.

Decades ago, when I had a Saab, I used to drive fast (95 mph fast) on trips home to Buffalo. The highway is straight and designed for speed, but it was an incredibly stupid, selfish and dangerous thing to do. The upside was that I ended my trip from Boston an hour or two faster than I would have otherwise. Of course, then I'd sit, nearly in a stupor, for at least two hours until the world was moving slowly enough for me to engage again.

The problem with setting the standard at super-fast, up to 11, is that you can't sustain it. You've extracted all the slack and safety out of the system and gotten very little in return.

Of course, this isn't true if you're actually in a race, if responding to the RFP first or getting around the track a nanosecond faster is actually the point. But for most of us, most of the time, it's not actually a race.

The other extreme is the one I rant about often, the extreme of not shipping, of going slowly because you're afraid, of stalling as a way of avoiding the fear of feedback and the need for vulnerability. That clearly doesn't work either.

Yes, ship. Do it with flair and guts and grace. But take two more minutes before you do, because slack pays dividends.

• Email to a friend •

miercuri, 21 august 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Stabilization or Stagnation? Expect Downward Surprise
Panic Flip-Flop Moves by India Central Bank Fail to Halt Currency Plunge
Political Hot Potato; Germany Election Update: Snoozer or Big Surprise?
Mish Video: Troubled Currencies (And There are Lots of Them), Gold, Bernanke, Carry Trades, Bubbles

Stabilization or Stagnation? Expect Downward Surprise

Posted: 21 Aug 2013 11:02 PM PDT

The HSBC Flash China Manufacturing PMI™ reports states Operating conditions stabilise in August.

Key points

Flash China Manufacturing PMI™ at 50.1 (47.7 in July). Four-month high.

Flash China Manufacturing Output Index at 50.6 (48.0 in July). Three-month high.

Commenting on the Flash China Manufacturing PMI survey, Hongbin Qu, Chief Economist, China & Co-Head of Asian Economic Research at HSBC said:

"China's manufacturing growth has started to stabilise on the back of modest improvements of new business and output. This is mainly driven by the initial filtering through of recent fine-tuning measures and companies' restocking activities, despite the continuous external weakness. We expect further filtering-through, which is likely to deliver some upside surprises to China's growth in the coming months."

China PMI

Expect Downward Surprise

Since Mid-2009 the trend is pretty clear. Bounces have been weak, but so have the declines. Since 2011, more time has been spent in negative rather than positive territory on the PMI, on production, and on new business.

Hongbin Qu sees "upside surprises to China's growth in the coming months".

I suggest the coming months are iffy (at best). More importantly, surprises over the next few years to a decade will be to the downside.

Most economists cannot see beyond their own nose. Rebalancing is going to knock more off China's growth than most can possibly imagine.

Not Just China

The struggle for growth same applies to nearly every country on the planet for a multitude of reasons

Excess debt
Poor demographics
Tapering
Unwinding of leverage
Unwinding of carry trades
Higher interest rates
Reversion to the mean on corporate profits

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Panic Flip-Flop Moves by India Central Bank Fail to Halt Currency Plunge

Posted: 21 Aug 2013 12:43 PM PDT

The India Rupee fell to fresh record lows today in spite of panic moves by the Reserve Bank of India.

Rupee 1-Week Chart

Rupee 5-Year Chart

The Rupee is down 5% in a week, 46% in just over two years.

Carry Trade Unwinds

When carry-trade money is pouring in, everything looks fine. Things get messy in a hurry when there is capital flight.

See Mish Video: Troubled Currencies (And There are Lots of Them), Gold, Bernanke, Carry Trades, Bubbles.

Panic Flip-Flop Moves by India Central Bank

The Financial Times reports India gripped by mood of crisis as rupee falls again

The Indian rupee fell to a new low against the dollar on Wednesday and stocks declined after a central bank promise to inject liquidity into the country's financial markets provided only temporary relief from a deepening sense of crisis.

Bank shares and bond prices had jumped in the morning after the Reserve Bank of India's latest intervention, but the euphoria quickly evaporated.

On Tuesday night the RBI announced that it would purchase Rs80bn ($1.2bn) of long-dated government bonds and take other steps to ease pressures on Indian banks, whose valuations have been badly hit by a series of measures introduced to protect the rupee over the past month.

The latest moves partially reversed previous monetary tightening measures and led to accusations from analysts of Indian policy "flip-flops".

The government and the RBI have issued a series of edicts in recent days designed to reduce the current account deficit and bolster the rupee, including increases in the import duty on gold, the end of duty exemptions for flatscreen televisions brought in by airline passengers and restrictions on outward direct investment by Indian companies and individuals.

Official Denials

Emphasis mine. Amusingly, those capital controls are supposedly not capital controls according to government officials.

For additional comments and "official denials" please see "No Question" of Economic Crisis; Rupee Plunges to Record Low; Gold Coin Imports Banned.

Wanting the Impossible

India is in a world of hurt. It wants to maintain 6% growth, rein in inflation, stop capital flight, and stop the plunge in the Rupee. That combination is impossible.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Political Hot Potato; Germany Election Update: Snoozer or Big Surprise?

Posted: 21 Aug 2013 11:14 AM PDT

In response to Surprise Awakening Awaits Merkel in September Election: No Stable Government, a close friend of mine pinged me with this comment "I think it will be a snoozer. It's just a question of whether Steinmeier or Bruderle is vice-chancellor."

72% Still Undecided

My friend displays quite a bit of confidence given the Vast Majority of Voters Still Undecided.

Via translation from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ)...

Nearly three-quarters of voters have still not finalized who they want to vote in the Bundestag. Currently, black and yellow is on a par with the left-wing of the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party.

72 percent of respondents stated that it is in principle possible for them to choose another, or even several other parties.

63 percent were of the view that nothing had been decided yet, although 64 percent expect an election victory of the CDU / CSU and Chancellor Angela Merkel.

AFD Update

Reader Bernd who lives in Germany is sticking with his story. He writes ....

Hello Mish

A few noteworthy things happened during the weekend.

1: Manfred Güllner of FORSA Institute is speculating that AfD will enter German Parliament. He believes that AfD might actually have a latent potential of 7-8%, which is significant.

2: Der Spiegel reports in a detailed article, that CDU is contemplating a second (renewed) election, if a coalition between CDU/CSU/SPD proves to be the only option after Sept 22nd. Under no circumstances does the party want to enter into such a "grand coalition".

In a poll conducted last week, only 10% of voters believe the Euro-Crisis to be ended. Only 30% of voters have decided who to vote for.

I maintain: September 22nd will be a day full of surprises. I have made my predictions months ago. I see no reason to change my basic position. It will be difficult for Germany to find a stable Government in the coming four years, unless it is a CDU/CSU/SPD coalition. This, however, is becoming very difficult, considering personal animosities between the leading figures in those parties.

AfD will likely be in Parliament. I wonder, if AfD might be a coalition partner for Mm Merkel. Her latest statements regarding Europe, the EU and Germany are much less convincing sounding, than earlier. Her position seems to near that of David Cameron: bring back power to the national States, rather than the EU. If Merkel sernses changing sentiment in Germany, she will quickly position herself at the helm of this new sentiment. She is the ultimate opportunist!

Best regards

Bernd

Manfred Güllner of FORSA Institute on AfD

From Junge Freiheit via translation, please consider Forsa chief concerned about possible AFD success

The head of the Forsa polling institute, Manfred Güllner has shown its concern about the possible success of the alternative for Germany (AFD) in the general election. "I have a bad feeling," he said, according to the Star. Previously he had been convinced that the euro-critics had no chance in the election.

In recent Forsa poll for Stern, the AFD comes to three percent of the vote. The Union is 40 percent, the SPD at 23 Third place secured the Greens at 13 per cent. Left Party and the FDP can expect eight and five percent of the vote. The pirates come to three percent.

Der Spiegel on "Options"

Merkel herself does not rule out a "grand coalition" but is such a coalition workable?

How? SPD is pointing the finger at Merkel for numerous reasons. The Greens want tax hikes and more integration with Europe than Merkel wants, and even CSU party leaders express doubt.

Via translation from Fear of Big Coalition: CDU election scenario plays through.

"A new grand coalition would be missing the anchor of stability", says the parliamentary secretary of the CSU state group in the Bundestag Stefan Müller.

Distrust of SPD leader Gabriel is deep. Many insinuate SPD would leave a black-red coalition government at the first opportunity. "The SPD is toying more and more with the left. It is no longer the SPD of 2005," warns Christian Democrat Laschet. The threat of a leftist coalition would hang like a sword of Damocles over a grand coalition.

After a campaign for tax increases and Veggie Day, a government with the Greens, would be difficult to convey. Quietly, the considerations in both camps is for new elections.

If there is no clear majority, it depends on the President. Joachim Gauck must propose a candidate for the parliamentary election of the Chancellor. But what if there is no candidate who could get a majority? Then the choice from the perspective of the Union strategists would have failed. Elections are a last resort if Gauck did not want to take the risk of a minority government.

It would be a situation as it has not yet experienced the Republic. But the CDU strategists say "Better a new election with the chance of a stable government than a permanently unstable grand coalition."

More Polls

Bernd pinged me again today with more polls.

Hello Mish

Two major polling institutes came out today with detailed analyses regarding the coming German elections.

Institut Allensbach gave a very detailed an long winded report. In a nutshell the report says that the situation at this moment is rather unclear. They predict a surge benefiting smaller parties.

Since the majority of voters apparently are not yet decided they feel hard pressed to make a clear prediction. Especially for AfD and Die Piraten they find it extremely difficult to say. Allensbach has a potential for AfD at 8%, though in today's poll they put them at 3%. For Die Piraten they put them at 4% with a potential at 6%.

Allensbach argues Die Piraten might do better than AfD. Allensbach seems to have observed, that data protection and NSA/BND scandals play into their hands more, than into AfD's.

Institut Forsa, Mr. Güllner came out today with a clear statement that he sees AfD in Parliament, despite of them not showing up in the polls with more than 3%.

His argument: the admission by Finance minister Schäuble on Monday for a third rescue package for Greece has put Euro and Euro rescue politics back on the agenda.

Forsa too are quite astonished by the high number of undecided voters at this point in time. Forsa believes that CDU and AfD will profit from this development.

In summary: elections in Germany are certainly anything but a foregone conclusion. Clearly two leading polling organizations are beginning to throw out "fog" to mask their previous predictions in order to mitigate any further backlash from their poor prediction results in previous elections.

Best regards

Bernd

Political Hot Potato

I am still attempting to figure out the reason German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble came out with a political hot potato statement "Greece needs third bail-out" right before the election.

"There will have to be another programme in Greece," said Mr Schaeuble, addressing a campaign audience in northern Germany. However he maintained that, despite this, there would be no further debt haircut for Athens.

Just hours before Mr Schaeuble spoke, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was quoted in a regional newspaper dismissing questions about further aid for Greece, saying there was no point in discussing the matter until its second package expires at the end of next year.

Opposition leaders, who have relentlessly accused the government of hiding the truth about Greece, pounced on the finance minister's comments. Peer Steinbrueck, leader of Germany's Social Democrat Party, declared it was "time that Frau Merkel tells people the truth". Juergen Tritten, head of the country's Green party, also seized the opportunity to hit out at the Chancellor.

Pre-Election Backlash

Please consider German minister's Greek aid comments spark pre-election backlash.

Schaeuble has said in the past that international lenders may have to consider a new aid programme for Greece after the existing one runs out at the end of 2014. But he has never described this as inevitable, as he appeared to do on Tuesday.

Schaeuble's comments played into the hands of the opposition, who throughout the election campaign have accused Merkel of failing to tell voters the truth about Greece.

"I have made clear that saving Europe and keeping the continent together comes at a cost, also for us Germans," Merkel's Social Democrat (SPD) challenger Peer Steinbrueck said after Schaeuble spoke. "Now it's time that Frau Merkel tells people the truth."

Greens leader Juergen Trittin said Schaeuble had exposed Merkel's "deceit" and criticised the chancellor for advocating austerity policies in Greece that had failed to reduce its debt load.

"Greece is a dangerous subject. It is not clever to bring it up again just as there was a general feeling of calm," said Emnid pollster Klaus-Peter Schoeppner.

Schaeuble's Motivation?

Without a doubt Schaeuble had a reason for his statements. But what was it?

He told the truth of course, but since when do politicians voluntarily admit the painful truth at inopportune times?

Schaeuble's move seems to have backfired, unless of course the intent all along was for the statements to backfire.

Whatever the reason, the political backlash may be enough to throw some of the opposition parties above the 5% threshold. In addition, his statements increased the animosity between parties. Both results make a grand coalition less likely.

I side with reader Bernd. The election appears to be anything but a "snoozer".

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Mish Video: Troubled Currencies (And There are Lots of Them), Gold, Bernanke, Carry Trades, Bubbles

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 11:51 PM PDT

I was on Prime Interest (formerly Capital Account) with Bob English on Tuesday, August 20.

We discussed troubled currencies, the Indian Rupee, the Australian dollar, the US dollar, the Euro, gold, Bernanke, a US property bubble, the carry trade, and other topics.

Link if video does not play: Report 'Troubled Currencies' with Mike Shedlock

At one point I asked Bob "So what do you want to hold?". Given that central banks everywhere are inflating, my answer was "gold".

Synonymous with the carry trade, money poured into India, Brazil, and other markets for currency appreciation and interest rate speculation. That hot money is now fleeing, and various currencies are in a state of collapse.

Here are a few charts.

Indian Rupee

Indonesian Rupiah

Egyptian Pound

Brazilian Real

Japanese Yen

Brazil, India, and Indonesia have acted to prop up their currencies.

Brazil is particularly amusing because just a couple months before the Brazilian government acted to prop up the Real, government officials were complaining the real was too strong.

Here is a chart from my June 18 post Brazilian Currency Touches Four-Year Low Prompting Intervention; Currency Intervention Madness Displayed in Chart Form

Real Monthly Chart Shows Intervention Madness

My Comment at the Time

Is this madness or what?

By the way, with the huge slowdown in China (and Chinese demand for commodities plunging), Brazil is going to have a damn tough time stopping the slide in the Real and an equally hard time controlling inflation.

What happened to the alleged nirvana "When the real appreciates, it reduces our competitiveness?"

I expect similar problems for Japan with its foolish (yet widely praised - for now) actions to destroy the Yen.

Meanwhile, India and Indonesia are both having the same difficulty of maintaining growth while funding current account deficits and battling inflation.

For details regarding India (and also a key focal point of the interview) please see Official Denials Run Rampant in India; "No Question" of Economic Crisis; Rupee Plunges to Record Low; Gold Coin Imports Banned.

The moral of the story is simple: inflation does not cure problems it only masks them temporarily, for the benefit of those with first access to money. The US will pay a price too, just not yet.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

joi, 22 august 2013

40+ Tools to Advance Your International SEO Process

40+ Tools to Advance Your International SEO Process

Your initial international search status

Your international search potential

Your international keyword ideas

Why I don't recommend Google's Global Market Finder

Your international audience profile

Your international industry's behavior and characteristics

Your hreflang annotations

Your country-targeted website's geolocation

Your international web content

Your international popularity analysis

Your international link-building

Your international search visibility

Your international search results

Your international SEO ROI

White House Office Hours: College Affordability

Seth's Blog : 120 seconds (shipping vs. rushing)

120 seconds (shipping vs. rushing)

More Recent Articles

miercuri, 21 august 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

joi, 22 august 2013

40+ Tools to Advance Your International SEO Process

40+ Tools to Advance Your International SEO Process

Your initial international search status

Your international search potential

Your international keyword ideas

Why I don't recommend Google's Global Market Finder

Your international audience profile

Your international industry's behavior and characteristics

Your hreflang annotations

Your country-targeted website's geolocation

Your international web content

Your international popularity analysis

Your international link-building

Your international search visibility

Your international search results

Your international SEO ROI

White House Office Hours: College Affordability

Seth's Blog : 120 seconds (shipping vs. rushing)

120 seconds (shipping vs. rushing)

More Recent Articles

miercuri, 21 august 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

Subscribe to