<Click on graphic for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – OPEC Sees Booming Growth in U.S. Oil Supplies to End in 2015 The booming growth in U.S. oil supplies will end in 2015, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said Thursday, citing a significant cutback in the number of drilling rigs. In its… Continue reading Crude Oil Supply
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Fed has ‘tools’ for smooth rates lift-off A senior Federal Reserve official has expressed confidence that new levers being prepared by the US central bank to raise interest rates will work when needed — while acknowledging differences between senior officials over some key details. Extensive… Continue reading Debating The Size Of The Fed’s Overnight Reverse Repo Facility
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – Tiny Default Risk Won’t Last Forever — Deutsche Bank The risk of corporates defaulting on their debt has hardly ever been lower. A sure signal that investors should boldly pile into junk rated bonds? Not necessarily. In a report Wednesday, strategists at Deutsche Bank write that they “can’t overstate how low… Continue reading Corporate Default Rates
Bloomberg.com – Bullard Says Zero Policy Rate Risks Asset-Price Bubbles Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard repeated his call for beginning to normalize monetary policy and said maintaining interest rates near zero risks destructive asset-price bubbles. “A risk of remaining at the zero lower bound too long is that a significant asset-market… Continue reading Central Bankers Cannot Agree Whether Their Policies Create Bubbles
The Wall Street Journal – Christian Broda & Stanley Druckenmiller: The Fed’s Faulty 1937 Excuse Central bankers aren’t likely to observe financial excesses until it’s too late. After the severe stress generated by the Great Recession, was the cost not sufficient to warrant the pre-emptive use of a blunt tool like monetary policy? Given the… Continue reading Gauging The Risk/Reward Of Central Bank Actions
The Financial Times – Wolfgang Schäuble dashes hope of Greek bailout deal Germany’s finance minister virtually ruled out a deal next week that would release bailout funds to Athens, increasing the possibility that Greece could go bust as soon as May. Wolfgang Schäuble’s comments were the first in public by a senior eurozone policy maker… Continue reading Grexit
Conference Call Presentation/Charts of the Week Audio [audio:https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/SubscriberArea/041615.mp3|titles=Conference Call ] Topics Covered This Week Include: Q1 and Q2 Earnings And Revenue Forecasts 2015 Forecasts And Beat Rates Guidance And Forward PE Market Cap To GDP – Overvalued? GDP Tracking GDP Forecasts Slow GDP Growth March (Post Weather) Data, Not So Hot China’s Growth – Slumping… Continue reading Conference Call Presentation/Charts of the Week
<Click on graphic for larger image> The Financial Times – Martin Wolf: An economic future that may never brighten The decline in potential growth leads to debate about the savings glut and secular stagnation Ben Bernanke, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, rightly argues that ultra-low real interest rates should not be determined purely… Continue reading Where Is The Economic Growth?
Tax Foundation – Tax Freedom Day 2015 is April 24th Tax Freedom Day is the day when the nation as a whole has earned enough money to pay its total tax bill for the year. Tax Freedom Day takes all federal, state, and local taxes and divides them by the nation’s income. In 2015, Americans… Continue reading Tax Freedom Day Is April 24, 2015
Bloomberg View – Megan McArdle: Can We Blame the Fed for Asset Bubbles? It is received wisdom among many Wall Street professionals — and the majority of conservatives of my acquaintance — that the Fed’s monetary policy is capable of producing massive asset price bubbles. And it did so in the late 1990s in the… Continue reading Blaming The Fed For Asset Bubbles
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Challenging times await US junk bonds after banner run When financial market parties end, the worst hangover usually resides with buyers of junk bonds. The party lights may still be flashing for US high-yield but the music has turned more sombre after a stunning run… Continue reading What Higher U.S. Rates Could Mean For The Junk Bond Market