Ben Bernanke’s Blog – Ben Bernanke: Inaugurating a new blog March 30, 2015 6:00AM Ben Bernanke’s Blog – Ben Bernanke: Why are interest rates so low? A similarly confused criticism often heard is that the Fed is somehow distorting financial markets and investment decisions by keeping interest rates “artificially low.” Contrary to what sometimes seems… Continue reading Anyone With Electricity Can Be A Blogger!
The Wall Street Journal – Andy Kessler: The Glory Days of Private Equity Are Over Private equity is done. Stick a fork in it. With Kraft singles and Heinz ketchup as toppings, there are many signs that private equity has peaked as an asset class. Sure, private equity is pervasive, which is one of its… Continue reading Headwinds Working Against Private Equity
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Bloomberg.com – North American Railroads Caught by Speed of Crude-Oil Collapse The slowdown that North American railroad companies had been bracing for in crude oil shipments has turned into a rout, with volumes falling faster than executives had predicted. With energy companies scaling back drilling after prices for the commodity fell about 50 percent since… Continue reading Crude Oil Bullishness
Reuters – Fed market gurus prep rate hike amid last-minute anxieties The New York Federal Reserve officials tasked with prying interest rates off the floor have been meeting with bankers and traders to plot how best to do it, amid deep uncertainty over how much control they will really have over short-term lending markets. With… Continue reading More On The Questions Surrounding The Fed’s Ability To Raise Rates
Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – Fed Shouldn’t Raise Rates Yet Because Job Market Still Ailing The Federal Reserve should be very cautious about raising interest rates just because the headline unemployment rate is falling, according to new research from two former central bank officials who are concerned the often-cited figure vastly overstates improvements in… Continue reading Quantifying The Employment Gap
The Wall Street Journal – Hedge Funds: Don’t Call Us a Hedge Fund One of the keys to running a hedge fund is learning how to say you don’t. Grappling with years of uneven performance, image problems and deep-pocketed clients who have publicly distanced themselves from the industry, hedge-fund managers are taking pains to avoid… Continue reading ‘Hedge Fund’ Has Become A Taboo Term
Swiss Re – Current high levels of financial repression create significant costs and lower long-term investors’ ability to channel funds into the real economy, a new Swiss Re study shows Seven years after the financial crisis, central banks are still keeping interest rates at historically low levels. Low interest rates help finance governments’ debt and… Continue reading The Cost Of QE To Savers
Business Insider – 47% of American households save nothing This could be the scariest chart in the world, from Deutsche Bank’s Torsten Sløk. Nearly half of American households don’t save any of their money. If it it isn’t obvious, this has a broad range of implications. People who don’t save won’t have any buffer should… Continue reading A Nation Of Non-Savers
Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – Thomas Piketty Says Labor’s Share of Income is Declining, But is It? The capital-labor split leaped to prominence when the French economist Thomas Piketty’s book Capital in the Twenty First Century became a surprise bestseller last year. He cited the rise in capital’s share of income in rich countries… Continue reading Refuting Thomas Piketty On Labor’s Share Of Income
The Wall Street Journal – Japan’s Zero Inflation a Setback for Abenomics The core gauge of Japanese consumer prices was flat from a year earlier in February, deepening worries Japan is heading back toward deflation two years after its central bank launched a radical economic-revival program. The government said Friday the core consumer-price index hit… Continue reading Abenomics Has Not Quelled Deflationary Fears
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