Dr.dk (Denmark) – Mortgages frames negative rate for the first time Nordea Kredit must now bring money back to individual customers instead of charging them, writes JP Financial. The interest rate has balanced around 0% in a level between minus 0.03 percent plus 0.03 percent. Most have paid a modest positive interest rate, but there… Continue reading Negative Mortgages, The Bank Pays You!
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg Business – How Americans Are Spending Their Windfall From Cheap Gas Let’s go to Vegas, Baby Charles and Cheryl Saul are reaping a timely windfall: an extra $500 a month thanks to cheap gasoline. The couple, both 56 and from Emmaus, Pennsylvania, drive a lot so filling the… Continue reading What Americans Are Buying With Their Windfall From Cheap Gas
The Wall Street Journal – As Regulators Focus on Culture, Wall Street Struggles to Define It “Culture” is the buzzword of the moment at banks—and a puzzle that regulators and Wall Street firms are wrestling to solve. As they emerge from years of bruising fines, layoffs and losses, big banks are trying more than ever… Continue reading Regulation And Wall Street Culture
CNN Money – Here are the drivers of future economic growth The American economy is reinventing itself. Biotech boom: Health care certainly seems to be one driver. The industry, a big winner in the stock market over the past year, has benefited from the shifting demographics of the U.S. population. Cheap oil = more manufacturing… Continue reading Meredith Whitney Predicts The Future
<Click on graphic for larger image> AQA – Gauging Demand’s Impact on Crude Oil’s Swoon A model comprised of demand – based variables indicates a near 50/50 contribution of demand and supply to the $60+ decline since July 2014. [pageview class=”PDFViewer” url=”https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/wp-content/plugins/PDFViewer/plugin.php?id=241″] Comment The study above was done by our colleagues at Arbor Quantitative Analytics… Continue reading Is Oil’s Decline Being Driven By Supply Or Demand?
<Click on graphic for larger image> Time Magazine – Cover: The Cost of Cheap Gas Exploring the ramifications of cheap oil for the U.S., the world—and you At first look, the collapse in oil prices over the past year, from $107 per barrel in June to below $50 a barrel today, seems like the proverbial… Continue reading Falling Gas Prices Are Positive For The Economy, Don’t You Get It?!?
The Wall Street Journal – U.S. Economic Growth Slows to 2.6% in Final Months of 2014 U.S. economic growth retreated to a modest pace in the final months of 2014, underscoring obstacles facing the recovery as troubles mount abroad. Gross domestic product—the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy—expanded at a 2.6%… Continue reading Market Capitalization As A Percentage Of GDP
Financial Sense – James Bianco: U.S. Stock Market No Longer a Leading Economic Indicator Fed Not Likely to Raise Interest Rates Until 2016 Jim welcomes back James Bianco, president of Bianco Research. They cover an array of issues, starting with the divergence between global stock markets and the US stock market over the last few… Continue reading Is The Stock Market A Leading Indicator?
Janus – Bill Gross: Games People Play But the Fed, uniquely in my opinion, will move up the Monopoly board’s interest rates in late 2015, hoping to avoid landing on the figurative Park Place and Boardwalk in the process. It won’t however, move quickly – capitalism has been damaged by the change in rules since… Continue reading Bill Gross Speaks
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg – Russia Unexpectedly Cuts Key Rate as Economy Eclipses Ruble Russia’s central bank unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate by two percentage points, letting the ruble slide as the economy sinks toward recession. The one-week auction rate was cut to 15 percent from 17 percent, the central bank… Continue reading Russia Cuts Rate, Panicking Over Growth?
<Click on graphic for larger image> Business Week – Cover: America the Relatively Beautiful The global elites who congregate each year in Davos, Switzerland, are hardly representative of humanity, but you can still learn a lot at the annual conclave about who’s up and who’s down in the world. One of the biggest take-aways of… Continue reading Another BusinessWeek Contrarian Cover?