The Economist – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Return of the toxic twins Mel Watt wants easier credit for homebuyers. What could go wrong? While in Congress, Mr Watt pressed Fannie and Freddie to funnel more credit to relatively poor families, a well-meaning policy that did not end well for those families. He has now… Continue reading Fannie/Freddie
Comment Jim Bianco was on CNBC yesterday discussing inflation and crowded bond bear trade. To view the interview click on the image above. To view any of our recent interviews, click here. These are the notes for the interview: In an interview two weeks ago we said, “if anyone wants a free Mercedes, short the… Continue reading The Crowded Bond Bear Trade
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Jobless Claims in U.S. Reach Lowest Level in Seven Years The fewest Americans in seven years filed applications for unemployment benefits last week as the labor market continued to improve. Jobless claims dropped by 24,000 to 297,000 in the week ended May 10, less than any economist… Continue reading Some Realities About Claims
Marketwatch – Bear market won’t come until the yield curve says so: Kleintop Jittery investors who are looking to the indexes for signs of an approaching bear market might do better by focusing their attention elsewhere: on the yield curve. So says Jeffrey Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial, who asserts in a note… Continue reading The Yield Curve As A Recessionary Indicator
<Click on chart for larger image> Comment The three panel chart above shows stock market volatility in the top (blue) panel, bond market volatility in the middle (red) panel and currency volatility in the bottom (orange and green) panel. The chart shows 25 years of volatility. The two grey rectangles show the only times all… Continue reading Volatility
Contra Corner (Blog) – David Stockman: The “Un-Flation” Watch: Rents Up 4.5% Y/Y, But OER Far Below The Fed is busy printing money and pegging the money market rate at zero because there’s allegedly not enough inflation. It even claims to be “missing its 2% target from below“—-a formulation that doubtless has several prior generations… Continue reading The Fictitious Housing Components Of Inflation
CNBC – How QE may be doing more harm than good Foremost among those economists is Prof Steve Keen: a long-time proponent of the alternative view, endogenous money. Having co-presented with Prof. Keen, I’ve been taken with the way that his endogenous money beliefs stand up to ‘the common sense test.’ The proverbial ‘man on… Continue reading Is QE Actually Helping Anymore?
Bloomberg.com – Why It’s So Hard to Get a Job Investors, business executives and policy makers hope to find answers to all sorts of questions in monthly economic statistics. But for the general public, one query reigns supreme: How hard is it to get (and keep) a job? Traditional measures look at the ratio of… Continue reading The Job Market
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – Stock Exchanges Bust Wild Trades in AOL, Let Others Stand U.S. equity exchanges ruled to bust trades in AOL Inc. after shares got a jarring up-and-down ride late on Tuesday. But the exchanges let stand other wild trades in five widely held stocks, including shares of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. After… Continue reading Trading Irregularities Explained
The Financial Times – Inside Europe’s Plan Z Every working day since the crisis struck, George Provopoulos, the silver-haired governor of Greece’s central bank, summoned a small “emergency team” of aides to his offices at 6pm to review the health of the nation’s banks. What he was told on June 15 2012 was enough to… Continue reading Behind The Scenes Look At 2012’s Greek Crisis
CNBC – David Tepper on the market: ‘I think it’s nervous time’ David Tepper, who made the most money of any hedge fund manager in 2013 at $3.5 billion, believes investors better approach the market with more caution now. “I’m not saying go short, I’m just saying don’t be too fricking long right now,” the… Continue reading David Tepper Is Nervous