The Wall Street Journal – HILSENRATH’S TAKE: THAT DIDN’T GO WELL, MADAME CHAIR It was hard to walk out of that hearing without a feeling that the Fed is in for a long, hard battle with lawmakers this year. Proposals are multiple, including investigations into its decision-making by the Government Accountability Office, a requirement that… Continue reading The Fed/Congress Relationship
The Economist – The economic recovery: Not quite what it seems Talk of a renaissance in American manufacturing is overblown Manufacturing’s golden years were the late 1970s, when employment in the sector hit nearly 20m (see chart 1). That was a fifth of the labour force at the time. From then until the millennium, though,… Continue reading Worry About The Economy
Bloomberg.com – Irving Kahn, Investor Who Profited in ’29 Crash, Dies at 109 Irving Kahn, the Manhattan money manager whose astounding longevity enabled him to carry firsthand lessons from the Great Depression well into the 21st century, has died. He was 109. He died on Feb. 24 at his apartment in Manhattan, his grandson, Andrew… Continue reading Wall Street Loses A Legend
Quartz – tumbleweed: America’s trading desks are imploding What is the Royal Bank of Scotland going to do with all that space on the gargantuan trading floor that once served as the centerpiece of its American headquarters? It wasn’t so long ago that the British bank’s global ambitions and hefty trading revenues pushed it to… Continue reading Wall Street’s Dinosaur, Big Trading Desks
Comment Today at 9 AM CT (10:00 AM ET, 7:00 AM PT, and 15:00 GMT), Bianco Research, in conjunction with Arbor Research & Trading, will be hosting a webcast/teleconference moderated by Jim Bianco. Join us today as we discuss the outlook for: * Earnings (disappointing with 2015 growth predicted to be negative) * Revenues (also… Continue reading Are We Off To A Disappointing Start?
Bloomberg – Right or Wrong on the Fed, It’s All Good in Treasury Bond Market But there’s a third view about how Yellen’s testimony applies to the bond market, as expressed by Jim Bianco, the founder of Bianco Research LLC in Chicago: It doesn’t really matter. In his alternative scenario, “everybody’s right,” Bianco said, in… Continue reading The Divergence Between Market & Fed Opinion On Rates
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – How Bad Could It Get Once the Fed Starts Raising Rates? The market shouldn’t be concerned about how patient the Fed is. The market should be concerned about how aggressive the Fed is going to get. The market has been fixated on a single word for months now: patient. That word’s… Continue reading Forget The Timing Of First Rate Hike, Focus On Pace Of Hikes
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – How Stocks Can Rise Despite Overbought Technical Signals Stocks might be overbought, but momentum remains on their side. Equities have come back strongly this month following January’s lackluster performance. The S&P 500 has advanced 6%, putting it on track for its best month since October 2011. The S&P 500 now stands… Continue reading Stock Bullishness Reaches An Extreme
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – Copper Signal May Be Flashing Green Copper has been down for so long that some are saying the only way is up. A key signal in the market is starting to flash green, with bets that copper prices will continue to fall recently hitting a record high on the London Metal… Continue reading Dr. Copper, The Metal With A PhD In Economics
The Wall Street Journal – ECB Faces Struggle in Sourcing Enough Bonds for QE Scant supply of top-rated government bonds poses challenge for asset-purchase program, say analysts Analysts and investors are skeptical about its chances, though, given that many investors will be unwilling or unable to sell top-rated government bonds, particularly those belonging to Germany.… Continue reading A Supply Issue For ECB QE
Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – U.S. Productivity Now Grows Faster Than Jobs. What Changed? Some economists call it the “great decoupling.” For decades, U.S. productivity and total employment rose in lockstep. From 1953 to 1999, average annual growth in productivity was 2.1%, exactly the same as growth in jobs. As the U.S. grew richer… Continue reading Productivity vs. Job Growth