Next week begins with Canadian markets closed Monday for Victoria Day and the U.S. Treasury market shutting early afternoon on  Friday for the Memorial Day weekend.  The Bank of Japan will publish its monthly economic assessment and release minutes of a previous meeting, and policymakers in Colombia and Mexico will be holding interest rate-setting meetings. [...]

The industrialized economies share many common problems and challenges.  Recovery from the financial crisis and Great Recession has been uneven and frustratingly moderate on the whole.  The scent of possible stagflation fills the air.  Fiscal deficits need to be reined in, and exit strategies from unsustainably loose monetary policies either remain in early planning stages [...]