The Economist – A very British binge The housing market is a huge problem in Britain. Blame the government, not the banks The Bank of England needs to toughen up. George Osborne, the chancellor of the exchequer, has cannily lobbed the hot potato that is Help to Buy, a mortgage-subsidy scheme, to Mark Carney, the… Continue reading London Housing Bubble?
Bloomberg – Cocaine Sales to Boost Italian GDP in Boon for Budget Italy will include prostitution and illegal drug sales in the gross domestic product calculation this year, a boost for its chronically stagnant economy and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s effort to meet deficit targets. Drugs, prostitution and smuggling will be part of GDP as… Continue reading One Way To Boost GDP
<Click on chart larger image> Market Beat (WSJ Blog) – Happy Birthday Taper Tantrum. Look How Tame You’ve Become One year ago, Ben Bernanke, then chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, made the point that later in the year the central bank would start to reduce, or “taper” the pace at which it bought U.S.… Continue reading Taper Tantrum Turns One
MarketWatch – Big investors are betting against housing Jeff Gundlach, Larry Fink warn on sector; Bill Miller is still positive Earlier this month, DoubleLine Capital founder Jeffrey Gundlach took to the podium at a highly watched investment conference to suggest shorting the popular SPDR S&P Homebuilders exchange traded fund. He pointed to a concern, cited… Continue reading Bearish On Housing
The Wall Street Journal – World Trade Flows Fall in First Quarter Falling Trade Shows Sustained Recovery in Global Economy Remains Elusive World trade flows fell in the first three months of 2014, another indication that a sustained and broad-based pickup in global economic growth remains out of reach more than five years after the… Continue reading World Trade Slumps
Bloomberg Businessweek – Charting 98 Years of Growth in the B-School Industrial Complex Congratulations to Black Hills State University, of Spearfish, S.D., SolBridge International School of Business, in Daejeon, South Korea, and the BI Norwegian Business School, with campuses across Norway. Those schools and 14 others received accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools… Continue reading The Growth of Business School
Comment Below is a screen grab of Bloomberg’s most popular stories this morning (May 23). So what is on Wall Street’s mind the day before Memorial Day weekend?
Comment Jim was on Bloomberg TV Asia yesterday discussing the Fed minutes, interest rates and stocks. To view the interview, click on the image above. To view any of our recent interviews click here. The Wall Street Journal – Jon Hilsenrath: Fed Minutes: Lots of Talk, No Action Federal Reserve officials turned their attention to… Continue reading The Fed Minutes
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Jobless Claims Rise to 326,000 in May 17 Week Initial claims for unemployment benefits rose by 28,000 to a seasonally adjusted 326,000 in the week ended May 17, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted claims would… Continue reading Initial Claims Remains Range-Bound And Of Limited Value
The Wall Street Journal – Jon Hilsenrath: Fed Officials Tussle Over Labor Market Slack Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen has argued consistently in recent months that labor markets are abundant with slack that will hold inflation and wages down. But she hasn’t convinced all her colleagues. Minutes of the Fed’s April 29-30 policy meeting showed… Continue reading The Fed Debates Labor Market Slack
New York Federal Reserve – Who’s Lending in the Fed Funds Market? Our estimates suggest that fed funds lending activity has decreased significantly since the beginning of the financial crisis. As shown in the chart above, at the end of 2012 institutions reported lending over $60 billion in fed funds—compared with over $200 billion in… Continue reading A Brief History Of The Fed Funds & Repo Markets
<Click on chart for larger image> Comment The three panel chart above shows stock market volatility in blue in the top panel, bond market volatility in red in the middle panel and currency volatility in orange and green in the bottom panel. The chart shows 25 years of volatility. The only times all these measures… Continue reading Volatility’s Disappearing Act