The Wall Street Journal – Plans for Political Union Unravel in Europe Europe’s quest to ensure the euro’s long-term survival by forging a deeper political union out of crisis is fizzling out. A European Union summit, starting Thursday, was originally intended to pave the way for tighter coordination of economic policies, but now is expected… Continue reading Europe
Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: Economists Should Get Out of the Science Lab Maybe it’s a deep-seated inferiority complex. Or a desire to be accepted, even respected by the great minds that have transformed mankind with their inventions. Otherwise, how else to explain why some economists keep insisting that economics is a science? The announcement last… Continue reading More On Economics As A Science
The Wall Street Journal – Some Investors Wary of Euro’s Rally Uncertainty, and the fear of repeating past mistakes, are holding back some investors from piling into the euro’s recent rally. The currency is up by over 8% against the dollar since July. On Thursday, it reached a 23-month high. But some argue the rally… Continue reading Lack Of Volume In Recent Euro Surge
The Wall Street Journal – Wider ‘Tick Sizes’ Gather Momentum Could getting nickeled and dimed be a good thing for investors? Regulators and one of Wall Street’s top stock-trading firms think it might be, and are getting behind a pilot program to trade certain shares in increments of nickels, dimes and even quarters, instead of… Continue reading Talking Tick Size
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Charts of the Week Topics Covered This Week Include: An Updated Look At Mutual Fund Flows Stocks And QE Are Stocks Overvalued? Updated Look At Earnings And Revenue Expectations Faith In The U.S. Dollar China’s U.S. Treasury Holdings Uncertainty Doesn’t Work, Except When It Helps Our Cause The Federal Reserve’s Balance Sheet Employment In Pictures… Continue reading Charts of the Week
The Federal Reserve – (October 18, 2013) Governor Jeremy C. Stein: Lean, Clean, and In-Between Should policymakers rely on ex ante measures to lean against potential financial imbalances as they build up, and thereby lower the probability of a bad event ever happening, or should they do most of their work ex post, focusing on… Continue reading Does Jeremy Stein’s Opinion Matter?
<Click on chart for larger image> Forbes – Stock Prices Have Risen Every Week The Fed Bought Bonds Since 2009 Here is the most important factual find about the stock market I’ve learned for some many years: More than 100% of equity market gains since January 2009 have taken place during the weeks the Fed… Continue reading QE And The Stock Market
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Foreigners Sold U.S. Assets as China Reduces Treasuries Foreign investors were net sellers of U.S. long-term portfolio assets in August as China reduced its holdings of Treasuries to a six-month low. The net long-term portfolio investment outflow was $8.9 billion after a revised $31 billion inflow in… Continue reading China Sells U.S. Treasuries
The Financial Times – Martin Wolf: The reality of America’s fiscal future First, the sequestration process is arbitrary. It needs to be changed. Second, as Ezra Klein of The Washington Post notes, the federal government is “an insurance conglomerate protected by a large, standing army”. The CBO forecasts that spending on social security will rise… Continue reading The Fiscal Problem In The U.S.
The Wall Street Journal – Jon Hilsenrath: Jobs Report Keeps Fed on Hold for Now This worsens a conundrum for Fed officials. They have linked their two signature programs — bond-buying and a commitment to keep interest rates low — to the behavior of the unemployment rate. But the unemployment rate is behaving in peculiar… Continue reading Why Wall Street Liked The Lousy Jobs Report
Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: Good News in Jobs Report Is What Didn’t Happen Any way you slice it, the U.S. labor market is flatlining. That’s about the only conclusion one could draw from the increase of 148,000 in September nonfarm payrolls and supporting data. Even less inspiring is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s revision to… Continue reading More On Yesterday’s Jobs Report