Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – How Innovation May Make Wall Street Less Efficient The U.S. banking sector has become less efficient in recent decades despite the increased use of new technologies like high-frequency trading and products such as derivatives, according to two papers presented at a Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta conference…The first, by… Continue reading Joseph Stiglitz Takes On HFT
Zero Hedge (Blog) – Over 40% Of The S&P 500 Is In Correction Mode The S&P 500 is down around 4% from its highs (outperforming the high-beta hangovers of Nasdaq and Russell 2000 that were down almost 10% from their highs at today’s lows). But under the surface, the S&P is ugly with the 500… Continue reading Another Look At Stocks’ “Correction”
Conference Call Presentation/Charts of the Week Audio [audio:https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/SubscriberArea/041614.mp3|titles=Conference Call ] Topics Covered This Week Include: Market Drawdown The Stock Market And QE World QE What Got Better? US GDP Forecasts Surprise Index Falling Earnings Are Not Good Error Rate Is Larger Than Normal Guidance Is Terrible Market Valuation Is “Full” Revenues Are Poor China GDP… Continue reading Conference Call Presentation/Charts of the Week
Tim Duy’s Fed Watch – When Will The Fed Change Its Reaction Function? Bottom Line: Fed policy – dovish those it seems – is maddenly disconnected from their actual forecasts. What does that mean for future policy? Given the relatively dovish forecast, I am concerned that the balance of risk lies on the upside, which… Continue reading Why Is The Fed Tapering?
<Click on chart for larger image> Treasury.gov (February 3, 2014)– Treasury Announces Marketable Borrowing Estimates During the January – March 2014 quarter, Treasury expects to issue $284 billion in net marketable debt, assuming an end-of-March cash balance of $130 billion. This borrowing estimate is $19 billion higher than announced in October 2013. The increase in… Continue reading Will The U.S. Treasury Pay Down Debt In Q2?
The Wall Street Journal – China Is Losing Its Taste for Gold Economic Slowdown, Constrained Credit Markets Suppress Demand China’s appetite for gold is waning after a decadelong buying spree, suppressed by the country’s economic slowdown and constrained credit markets. Demand in the world’s biggest gold consumer is likely to stay flat in 2014, according… Continue reading China Slowing
<Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – The strange resilience of junk The bonds have only a small cushion if a strong recovery leads yields to rise Stock market fashions may come and go – at the moment they are mostly going, as biotech and internet… Continue reading Junk Bonds
The Financial Times – Gold: In search of a new standard The London fix has been in place for almost a century but critics say the system needs reform Nearly 95 years on, the fix remains the global gold benchmark, used by miners, central banks, jewellers and the financial industry to trade gold bars, value… Continue reading The Gold Standard
The Prudent Bear – The Bear’s Lair: The promise of deflation One glance at the U.S. economy will thus tell you that a burst of deflation is sorely needed. Infrastructure costs about five times as much as it should. Since the middle 1960s, with one short interlude in the 1980s, money has been cheap and… Continue reading Deflation
<Click on chart for larger image> MarketWatch.com – CBO says declining deficit picture won’t last Shortfall cut by $23 billion; agency sees deficits rising after 2015 The Congressional Budget Office on Monday cut its estimate of the deficit for the current fiscal year, but warned that the era of shrinking shortfalls “will soon come to… Continue reading The CBO Sees A Shrinking Deficit
<Click on chart for larger image> CNN Money – Long-term unemployment: What the U.S. can learn from Sweden The U.S. can learn from other countries who have had to battle the most stubborn problem in the job market today. Take Sweden. After suffering from a financial crisis and high levels of long-term unemployment, the government… Continue reading Long-Term Unemployment & The Case For Wage Subsidies