MarketWatch – The point of no return for quantitative easing is getting closer Is there a limit to quantitative easing? The short answer is “yes,” but the trouble is we don’t know where that line in the sand is situated. Total assets of central bank balance sheets at the moment are $17.2 trillion. It is… Continue reading Has QE Hit Its Effective Limit?
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Oil Prices Continue to Fall in Flooded Market A combination of an expanding global gasoline glut, early signs of increasing production in the U.S., and rising output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have dragged down oil prices by around 20% since… Continue reading Crude Oil’s Catch 22
<Click on graphic to view video> Comment Jim Bianco was on FOX Business yesterday discussing the FOMC decision. To view the interview, click on the image above. To view any of our recent interviews, click here. [pageview class=”PDFViewer” url=”https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/wp-content/plugins/PDFViewer/plugin.php?id=321″] The Federal Reserve – Press Release Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met… Continue reading The FOMC Meeting
Comment After each FOMC meeting, we highlight a St. Louis Fed study on the rising complexity of the FOMC statement. As the charts below show, both the word count and the Flesch-Kincaid level have come down from their peaks of the past couple years (the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level measures the number of years of school… Continue reading Understanding Fedspeak
<Click on chart for larger image> AQA – Peter Forbes: Will the Fed Sell Bonds? The flattening Treasury curve and falling growth expectations have prompted questions about whether the Fed might turn to asset sales before it raises rates again. A reversal of the 2011-2012 “Operation Twist” shift to longer maturities may help counter recent… Continue reading What Will The Fed Do With Its Massive Balance Sheet?
Bloomberg.com – Why Economists Are Better Than Markets at Telling You How the Economy Is Doing If you want to know how the economy is doing, trust an expert rather than the financial markets, says a team led by Paul Donovan, UBS Ltd.’s managing director of global economics. That might sound a bit self-serving coming from… Continue reading The Markets vs. Economists
<click on graphic for larger image> Federal Reserve Bank Of Atlanta – Latest forecast: 2.3 percent — July 27, 2016 The GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the second quarter of 2016 is 2.3 percent on July 27, down from 2.4 percent on July 19. After this morning’s advance… Continue reading Tomorrow Is GDP, What To Expect
The Telegraph – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Brexit has been an excuse for the world to throw a roaring party The great fiscal fair of 2016 has begun. The world’s governments are seizing on the flimsy excuse of Brexit to prime pump their economies, hoping to stretch the ageing global cycle for a little longer. Japan’s Shinzo Abe… Continue reading Brexit And World Markets
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – ETFs Held Up Under Brexit Pressure Better Than Their Last Big Test U.S. exchange-traded funds came under early pressure during the post-Brexit selloff last month, but the industry’s main trade group said the system quickly adjusted and operated smoothly during this “real-life stress test.”…To illustrate its findings, the ICI compared the… Continue reading ETF Liquidity
<Click on graphic for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Greg Ip: The Economy Is Again Under the Sway of Asset Prices The past two recessions were ushered in by a collapse in asset prices. The risk of a repeat is growing. After plunging in the aftermath of Britain’s vote to leave the European… Continue reading High Valuations Could Create Problems For Economy
<Click on graphic for larger image> MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – S&P 500 Sales Increasingly Concentrated in the U.S. U.S. investors are turning their attentions abroad more and more as they look to market drivers like the British vote to leave European Union and China’s slowing economic growth. But the companies in the S&P 500 are… Continue reading Foreign Sales vs. Domestic Sales
The Financial Times –If you thought you knew what a ‘safe’ asset was, think again Role of government bonds in investors’ portfolios is changing as central banks get radical The definition of a “safe” asset is undergoing a secular shift. The higher bond prices rise, the greater the risk to bond values from even moderate… Continue reading Government Bonds As Risk Assets