Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – Fed’s Rosengren: May Extend Taper Process To Reinvestment Buying Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said Monday the U.S. central bank might need to implement a second tapering of its bond-buying efforts. The tapering process cited by Mr. Rosengren refers to the Fed’s process of methodically cutting… Continue reading What Happens After The Taper?
<Click on chart for larger image> Reuters – U.S. household net worth hits record high on stocks, property U.S. household net worth nudged up 2 percent to a record high $81.8 trillion in the first quarter as the stock market continued its upward climb and property values rose, data from the Federal Reserve showed on… Continue reading Household Net Worth Hits New Record
The Wall Street Journal – Lost Generation Casts Shadow Over Housing Market President Barack Obama’s executive order Monday expanding student-debt relief is the latest sign policy makers recognize the serious economic burdens young adults face. But the modest change is unlikely to move the needle in ways that matter to investors. The financial crisis exacted… Continue reading Homeownership Demographics
The Wall Street Journal – As Bond Markets Twist, Investors Shout Some Spanish government bond yields dipped below U.S. Treasurys, adding another twist to a year of surprises for the world’s bond markets. Yields on the 10-year Spanish bond fell to 2.579% Monday, according to Tradeweb, lower than the 2.615% yield on the 10-year Treasury… Continue reading Reaching For Yield
The Wall Street Journal – Martin Feldstein: Warning: Inflation Is Running Above 2% Inflation is rising in the United States and could become a serious problem sooner than the Federal Reserve and many others now recognize. There are three basic reasons why the Fed is too optimistic in its current forecast that inflation will remain… Continue reading Inflation Concerns
Bloomberg.com – Mohamed El-Erian: Is the Market Confident or Too Complacent? Over the weekend, a long-time market observer whom I greatly respect posed an interesting question on Twitter about the VIX, an index that tracks investors’ expectations of stock-market volatility and is hence most commonly seen as a sort of “fear gauge.” He wondered, given… Continue reading Measuring Complacency
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – Market Still Has a ‘Breadth’ Problem, One Technician Says More stocks are making new highs in what technicians say is good news for the health of the rally. But one skeptical technician still believes the market has a “breadth” problem. Before this week, some chart watchers noted that while the S&P… Continue reading Questioning The Breadth Of The Rally
CFO Journal (WSJ Blog) – Companies Feast on Short-Term Cash Apple Inc. and at least a dozen other companies have started borrowing short-term cash at the fastest pace in almost two years, telegraphing economic growth. Last month, companies with the highest credit ratings sold an average of $5.88 billion of commercial paper a day, according… Continue reading Commercial Paper
Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – Computing Vice: How Britain Tabulates the Value of Drugs and Prostitution Italy, Ireland and U.K. are beginning to add measures of their illicit economy to their official national measures of gross domestic product, as we explained in Monday’s Outlook. Estimating illegal activity, of course, poises a unique set of… Continue reading Even The Drug Trade Is Hedonically Adjusted
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – E.S. Browning: Wall Street Worries About the Common Man That is because slow wage increases, while painful on an individual level, usually keep corporate profits high and inflation low, creating better opportunities for shareholders. And yet, as if anyone needed further proof that we… Continue reading Wage Growth
Brookings – Slow but Steady: U.S. Job Market Continues to Improve There is another reason the unemployment rate has dropped 3.7 percentage points since reaching a peak in October 2010, however. Many Americans under 55 became discouraged by their prospects of finding a job and have stopped looking for work or have delayed their entry… Continue reading Old Workers Don’t Retire