Charts of the Week Topics Covered This Week Include: U.S. 10-Year TIPS Breakeven Inflation Rate Dips Inflation Expectations Why Did The Fed Taper? A Look At The Oil Markets Crude By Rail QE And The Markets S&P 500 Correlation Hedge Funds Losing Their Luster Home Prices Mutual Fund Flows A Look At ETF Assets Credit… Continue reading Charts of the Week
<Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> Investing.com – Pondering The Slide In U.S. Inflation Expectations The Treasury market’s inflation forecast via U.S. 10-Year Notes continues to fall and the US stock market has turned wobbly too. That’s a troubling combination… if it continues.… Continue reading Inflation Expectations
The Wall Street Journal – Can Americans Afford to Start Borrowing Again? The U.S. was one of only two major economies to have significantly pared back on total debt in the economy since the advent of the financial crisis (the other was Germany). Total U.S. debt–which is to say government plus household, non-financial corporate as… Continue reading U.S. Deleveraging
<Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – U.S. Home Price Growth Slows Again in July, Says S&P/Case-Shiller The yearly growth in home prices across the U.S. slowed more than expected in the middle of summer, according to a home price report released Tuesday. The home-price… Continue reading Home Prices
MarketWatch.com – Don’t let rate fears scare you out of bonds “Unfortunately, the financial news media has blown this story way out of proportion with inflammatory headlines designed to capture attention,” Dennis wrote in an article earlier this year. Headline language like “the coming bloodbath for bondholders” and “the imminent bursting of the 30-year bond… Continue reading Investing In Bonds
Fortune – The single, best way to tell whether stocks are worth it It’s called the Equity Risk Premium, or ERP, and it’s been lauded as the Holy Grail of corporate finance. The Equity Risk Premium is the extra return that investors demand for taking the additional risk of choosing stocks over far safer Treasury… Continue reading Investing In Stocks
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg – Job Woes Linger in 29 States as U.S. Recovers Unevenly Even as the U.S. economy reached a milestone in May with employment exceeding the prerecession peak, 29 of 50 states have yet to match that accomplishment, according to Labor Department data compiled by Bloomberg. New Mexico, for… Continue reading The Employment Picture State By State
Bloomberg.com – Fed Scrutiny of Leveraged Loans Grows Along With Bubble Concern The Federal Reserve is stepping up its oversight of high-risk leveraged loans, shifting to a deal-by-deal review after its previous industry-wide guidelines were largely ignored by banks. The Fed is now looking at loans each month, according to people who asked not to… Continue reading Leveraged Loans, Bubbles And The Federal Reserve
The Financial Times – Asset-backed securities: Back from disgrace The ECB is pinning its hopes on a discredited symbol of pre-crisis financial engineering to kick-start growth When Ian Bell visited the European Commission in the dark days after the global financial crisis to lobby for “high-quality” asset-backed securities, the veteran financial analyst was given short… Continue reading The Return Of Asset-Backed Securities
The Financial Times – Why inequality is such a drag on economies Big divides in wealth and power have hollowed out republics before and could do so again When should growing inequality concern us? This is a moral and political question. It is also an economic one. It is increasingly recognised that, beyond a certain… Continue reading Economic Inequality
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Energy, Rail Firms Fight Some Crude-Train Rules Oil companies and railroads have united to fight some proposed federal rules on oil-train safety after a year of pointing fingers at each other over explosive accidents. Industry groups representing railroads and energy companies on Tuesday told… Continue reading Crude By Rail
The Financial Times – Mario Draghi pushes for ECB to accept Greek and Cypriot ‘junk’ loan bundles Mario Draghi is to push the European Central Bank to buy bundles of Greek and Cypriot bank loans with “junk” ratings, in a move that is set to exacerbate tensions between Germany and the bank. Mr Draghi, ECB… Continue reading Draghi Wants To Buy Junk Loan Bundles