The Wall Street Journal – Yellen Confirmed as Fed Chief Janet Yellen will join the ranks of the most powerful economic policy makers in the world next month, taking the helm of the Federal Reserve at a time when the central bank is assessing its unprecedented steps to buoy the U.S. economy. The 67-year-old Ms.… Continue reading Yellen Is Confirmed
The Financial Post – Will the bull market in U.S. stocks last? The current bull market – stretching back to March 2009 – is right around that average duration. Does that mean that when the rally hits a half-decade it automatically hits the brakes? Not necessarily. For one thing, some rallies have gone on much… Continue reading How Long Can The Bull Market Last?
The Financial Times – Rapid fall in capital flows poses growth risk The contraction could fuel worries about the pace of economic recovery in the advanced world, but also masks a shift in the world economic order towards emerging market economies and away from European banks. In mid-2007, cross border capital inflows into the G20… Continue reading Capital Flows
Mish’s Global Analysis – Fed Admits It’s Clueless How QE Works; Radical Suggestion While these Fed governors are grasping at straws in a tornado bickering over whether to taper or not, let me propose a simple idea: The Fed cannot figure out how QE works because QE doesn’t work. Two decades of Japanese QE is… Continue reading The Federal Reserve Is Clueless
The Financial Times – Core eurozone inflation falls to low stoking fears of deflation The core measure of eurozone inflation has fallen to a record low, stoking fears of deflation in the currency bloc and raising pressure on the European Central Bank to take action at its rate-setting meeting this week. A flash estimate from… Continue reading More On Deflation Fears In Europe
The Wall Street Journal – Slump in Trading Threatens a Wall Street Profit Engine Industry Could Post 11th Trading Decline in 16 Quarters The trading boom that helped reshape global investment banks over the past decade is sputtering, raising fears that one of Wall Street’s biggest profit engines is in peril. Executives have warned that… Continue reading Trading Revenue
Project Syndicate – The Great Malaise Drags On There’s something dismal about writing year-end roundups in the half-decade since the eruption of the 2008 global financial crisis. Yes, we avoided a Great Depression II, but only to emerge into a Great Malaise, with barely increasing incomes for a large proportion of citizens in advanced economies.… Continue reading Joseph Stiglitz Speaks
The Financial Times – Henri de Castries and Eric Chaney: How markets can make the global economy safer They can help converge towards a sustainable order Is the world economy safer now than it was before the financial crisis? On the positive side, financial regulation has been strengthened and governments are gradually reshaping growth models.… Continue reading The Global Economy
Bloomberg.com – Stocks Worry Investors Sick as Losses Spur More Hospital Visits Declining stocks worry people sick, if hospital records are any guide. A one-day drop in equities of around 1.5 percent is followed by about a 0.26 percent increase in hospital admissions on average over the next two days, according to a March 2013… Continue reading Bernanke Is Looking Out For Your Well-Being
The Financial Times – Janet Yellen vs the dollar Dollar bulls think a new multiyear period of strength has begun For now the doubters remain in a minority. Fed Funds futures put only a one-in-four probability of a rate rise by next January (last summer it was seen as a near-certainty). Mr Bernanke has convinced… Continue reading Yellen vs The U.S. Dollar
Reuters.com – Cash crunch signals policy dilemma for China’s reformist central bank China’s central bank looks set to risk another cash crunch at the end of January, barely a month after the last market squeeze, as policymakers press ahead with a crackdown on shadow financing and other risky bank lending. The People’s Bank of China… Continue reading More On The Cash Crunch In China
Reuters.com – Default, and other ugly words: James Saft Default, capital controls and high inflation are all such ugly words but they may, for many of the world’s largest economies, prove to be necessary tactics. Thus far the official response to the crisis has concentrated on rather less painful measures: a bit of austerity, a… Continue reading Dirty Words Of Finance