The Wall Street Journal – Europe Weighs the Costs Of Casting Greece Aside Officials Debate the Financial and Strategic Consequences of a Greek Exit How much does Greece matter to Europe? It’s a question being asked by European officials as the brinkmanship over the country’s bailout program intensifies. The answer is important because it will… Continue reading More GRexit Talk
<Click on graphic for larger image> The Economist – Currencies: Money-changers at bay Monetary policies and falling inflation are behind currency turmoil What is behind this sudden burst of currency volatility, which follows a quiet period in foreign-exchange markets (see chart 1)? In large part, it is caused by a divergence in monetary policy among… Continue reading Forex Volatility
<Click on graphic for larger image> The Economist – Buttonwood: Not kicking the habit The world is still addicted to debt EIGHT years have passed since subprime mortgages started to go disastrously wrong, but the after-effects of the debt crisis are still around. So, as a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute* makes clear,… Continue reading A Surge In Borrowing
Real Time Economics – Benefits of Aggressive Fed Policy Still to Peak, Fed Paper Says The Federal Reserve’s unconventional policies of buying bonds and providing verbal assurances about the future path of interest rates are still working their way through the economy, and will continue to support growth for some time, according to a new… Continue reading How Policy Works
Bloomberg.com – Texas Swagger Fades as Oil Town Finds Itself in OPEC Squeeze EOG Resources Inc. and others mimicked the techniques of gas producers, drilling long horizontal bores through layers of shale rock more than a mile below the Earth’s surface, then blasting water, chemicals and sand into the cavity to jar loose oil that… Continue reading How Fun Is The Oil Patch Today?
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Computer-Driven, Automatic Trading Strategies Score Big So-Called Quant Traders Take Advantage of Volatility Many of these so-called quants——including Leda Braga ’s BlueTrend fund, Cantab Capital Partners LLP and R.G. Niederhoffer Capital Management Inc.—performed well because they positioned themselves ahead of market moves that befuddled… Continue reading Computerized Trading
The Wall Street Journal – Plosser says Fed ‘Will Struggle’ With Policy Statement at March Meeting Charles Plosser, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia since 2006, went out swinging in a wide-ranging conversation with The Wall Street Journal before his March 1 retirement. Mr. Plosser, a frequent dissenter at Fed policy meetings, criticized… Continue reading Will The March FOMC Meeting Be The Most Important Of The Year?
The Financial Times – Rise in financial alchemy is worryingly familiar Low yields mean risky inventions are bound to spring up Those searching for evidence of Wall Street’s never-ending wackiness need look no further than the man who is convinced investors are wary of corporate bonds because the debt is just too risky. As detailed… Continue reading Zaitech!
Bloomberg.com – Brazil’s ‘Negative Billionaire’ Batista Faces Asset Seizures Batista, whose fortune peaked at $35 billion in 2012 before his commodity and logistics empire collapsed, is $1.2 billion in the hole, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, giving him the rare distinction of being a “negative billionaire.” “All he has left now is debt,” said… Continue reading The World’s Poorest Man, Eike Batista
None Today
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 historic low yields, struggling risk markets, the poor start to earnings season and the effect energy’s… Continue reading Subpar Earnings, Busted Bubbles, Low Yields And Falling Stock Prices
The Wall Street Journal – (January 27, 2014) U.S. Consumer Confidence Surges to Highest Level Since 2007 The Conference Board, a private research group, said its index of consumer confidence jumped to 102.9 in January from a revised 93.1 in December, first reported as 92.6. The index is at its highest since August 2007, the… Continue reading What Drives Consumer Confidence?