Crain’s Chicago Business – Sam Zell’s latest stab at market-timing Sam Zell gained a reputation for impeccable timing with the $39 billion sale of Equity Office Properties Trust on the eve of the 2007 financial collapse. Eight years after that deal with private-equity firm Blackstone Group, the Chicago real estate billionaire wants to prove he… Continue reading Is Sam Zell Creating Another High?
Comment The video above is the 2014 version of Money For Nothing. It was originally released in 2012 and the producer, Jim Bruce, has been reworking it since. We found it to be informative and interesting and highly recommend it. Money For Nothing – Inside the Federal Reserve MONEY FOR NOTHING is a feature-length documentary… Continue reading Money For Nothing
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<Click on graphic for larger image> The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta – GDPNow The GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the first quarter of 2015 was 0.6 percent on March 12, down from 1.2 percent on March 6. The nowcast for first-quarter real consumption growth fell from 2.9… Continue reading GDPNow Heads Lower Again
<Click on graphic for larger image> Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – Jon Hilsenrath: Do You Still Think The Fed Is Behind The Curve? When The Wall Street Journal asked economists last August what worried them more – that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates too soon or too late – the response was… Continue reading Timing The First Rate Hike
The Wall Street Journal – IEA: Strong U.S. Production Could Set Stage for Oil Price Fall The oil market’s recent rebound may not last, an influential energy watchdog warned on Friday, as the U.S.’s ability to keep pumping more crude has defied expectations and could set the stage for prices to fall again. In its… Continue reading The IEA Warns On Oil Prices
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – Consumers’ Fate in the Face of Falling Oil Economists have argued for several months that oil’s plunge will be a boon to the economy with savings at the gas pump spurring more purchases. In turn, it should benefit sectors such as retailers, transportation and utilities and help make up for the… Continue reading When In Doubt, Just Blame The Weather
The Financial Times – An ultra-low interest rate show that could run and run The eurozone (like Japan before it) is hovering near deflation, marred by a woeful lack of demand and fragmented political structures that seem unable to promote rapid structural reform. If “Europification” becomes the new buzz phrase, there are at least three… Continue reading Low Yields In The EU
The Wall Street Journal – Revisiting the Big Plan to Save the Euro It was supposed to be the missing piece in the revamped eurozone architecture, ensuring that the euro will be spared “existential threats” of the kind it faced from 2010 to 2012. Or so it was presented, back in 2012, when a quartet… Continue reading The Idea Of Common Debt Issuance In Europe
The Wall Street Journal – Currency Drops Don’t Always Usher In Export Booms Past episodes of sharp devaluations in developed economies show the impact often boosts growth, but positive results aren’t guaranteed—a lesson relevant for Europe today…Economic models that look at the determinants of trade point to geographical distance, the income of importing countries, and… Continue reading Currency Wars & Trade
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Small Is Beautiful in U.S. Stock-Index Futures: Chart of the Day The demise of trading in larger futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq-100 Index is in keeping with a shift into smaller U.S. stock-index contracts that has been building for years. The CHART… Continue reading Say Goodbye To The Full-Sized S&P Futures
Bloomberg.com – What You Tweet Might Tell Janet Yellen It’s Time to Raise Rates Your Google search or a tweet about your job is part of a vast trove of private economic information that might help Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and her colleagues get a more complete picture of where the economy is headed.… Continue reading Tweet Janet, Change Policy!