<Click on chart for larger image> Real Time Economics – Fed Reverse Repos Again See Demand Surge As Treasury Navigates Tax Time A shortage of Treasury securities is driving very strong demand for a tool the Federal Reserve is testing in hopes that it may one day give the central bank better control over short-term… Continue reading The Fed’s Reverse Repo Facility
Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – Jon Hilsenrath: Time to Start Worrying about the U.S. Productivity Slowdown It’s time to start thinking about the complex monetary implications of a U.S. productivity slowdown. Output-per-hour worked – a standard measure of worker productivity – has grown at an average annual pace of 0.8% during the past three… Continue reading Is The Fed Worried About Productivity?
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Housing Market’s Foiled Spring It is getting harder to maintain a belief that the recent softness in the housing market is mostly due to the tough winter. But the chill on home sales may not be as bad as it seems. Wednesday brought another… Continue reading Can We Still Blame The Weather For Housing’s Slowdown?
Bloomberg.com – Matthew Klein: When a Dividend Signals Weakness You might think that all this corporate borrowing is exactly what rich countries need to finish recovering from the great recession. (Today’s new home sales are a sobering reminder of how weak the U.S. economy remains.) Unfortunately, most of the new debt isn’t being used to… Continue reading Investing In Dividend Paying Stocks
MarketWatch – 100% of economists think yields will rise within six months Economists are unwavering in their assessment of where yields are headed in the next half year. Jim Bianco, of Bianco Research, points out in a market comment Tuesday that a survey of 67 economists this month shows every single one of them expects… Continue reading More On 100% Bearish On Treasuries
The Wall Street Journal – Numericable Bond Raises Almost $11 Billion French cable operator Numericable Group SA NUM.FR +8.49% on Wednesday raised almost €8 billion ($11 billion) in the biggest junk-bond sale on record. The company sold a series of bonds ranging in maturity from five to 10 years, paying investors yields ranging from 4.875%… Continue reading Booming Junk Bond Issuance
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg – Shale Boom Sends U.S. Crude Supply to Highest Since 1930s The U.S. is stockpiling the most crude in more than eight decades, thanks to the shale boom. Inventories rose 3.52 million barrels last week to 397.7 million barrels, the highest level since 1931, according to the Energy… Continue reading Crude Oil
Real Time Economics – The Hows and Why of Economic Optimism The recovery from the financial crisis is now one of the longest in U.S. history, and economists don’t see it running out of steam anytime soon. But why are they so confident? The Wall Street Journal conducts a monthly gauge of economist sentiment, asking… Continue reading Economic Sentiment Indicators
Bloomberg.com – Mohamed El-Erian: Europe Still Has a Mountain of Debt There was a time not so long ago when the vast majority of experts agreed that a country could not emerge decisively from a financial crisis unless it solved problems of both “stocks” and “flows” — that is, secured a flow of money to… Continue reading Dealing With Problems In Europe
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – Banks’ Profit Measure Hits Decade-Long Low A key measure of lending profitability for U.S. banks is slumping, and unlikely to see relief anytime soon, say analysts. In the first quarter, the net interest margin — which tracks how much banks earn from borrowing and lending relative to their invested assets —… Continue reading Bank Profitability
Zero Hedge (Blog) – The Fed’s Farcical Forecast Fiasco The chart below, which summarizes 5 years of Fed “forward guidance” on that most critical of variables – the Fed Funds rate – proves two things: i) there is nothing worse in this world than being a Fed Funds, or Eurodollar, trader, considering 5 years of… Continue reading Forecasting The Future Is A Tough Business
CNBC – Losing the Lead: The American Middle Class Is No Longer the World’s Richest The American middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that distinction. While the wealthiest Americans are outpacing many of their global peers, a New York Times analysis shows that across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens… Continue reading The Decline Of The Middle Class