Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – How Tighter Mortgage Standards Are Holding Back the Recovery The housing recovery faces headwinds because it’s too hard to get a mortgage today, which in turn is restraining economic growth, and the government is partly to blame, according to a paper from a top economist and a former White… Continue reading Obtaining A Mortgage
The Financial Times – Do not kid yourself that the eurozone is recovering Europe’s political leaders have seized on the first uptick in European economic indicators as evidence that their policies are working. Who would have thought that? Eurozone gross domestic product expanded 0.3 per cent in the second quarter of this year. It will… Continue reading The Eurozone Recovery
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – Jason Zweig: How Many ‘Greater Fools’ Does It Take to Make a Bubble? Where do market “bubbles” come from? A team of neuroscientists and economists has produced the first scientific evidence for what prudent investors have long believed: Paying attention to what others are doing is the easiest way for traders… Continue reading The Makeup Of A Bubble
None Today
[hana-flv-player video=”https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/SubscriberArea/092613.flv” width=”600″ height=”495″ description=”” player=”3″ autoload=”false” autoplay=”false” loop=”false” autorewind=”true” splashimage=”https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/wp-content/themes/twentyten/images/splash.jpg” /] Comment Yesterday Jim Bianco hosted an internal conference call among Arbor Research associates. To view the conference call click on the image above. In the webcast, Jim discussed several topics pertinent to today’s markets.
The Wall Street Journal – Justin Lahart: No Excess of Success for the Federal Reserve While the Confusing Taper Talk Has Jarred Investors, It Has Had One Beneficial, Even if Unintended, Consequence In a speech Thursday, Fed governor Jeremy Stein said he would have been “comfortable” if the central bank had decided to begin reducing… Continue reading How Does The Fed Get Out?
Fortune – The Fed considers a contorted exit strategy from stimulus To get out of quantitive easing, the Fed is considering Wall Street engineering that may wind up boosting the shadow banking system. Ben Bernanke may have to pump up the shadow banking system in order to stop manipulating the bond market. At least that’s… Continue reading More On The Fed’s Repo Facility
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Japan Inflation Accelerates to Fastest Since 2008 on Energy Japan’s inflation accelerated to the fastest pace since 2008 in August on higher energy costs, underscoring pressure on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to drive wage increases as he seeks to end 15 years of deflation. Consumer prices excluding… Continue reading Japanese Inflation
The Federal Reserve Bank Of Minneapolis – Narayana Kocherlakota: A Time of Testing First, I will show you data that depict the painfully slow pace of recovery in the U.S. labor market. Second, I will show you data that demonstrate that there is considerable monetary policy capacity with which to address this problem. Third, I… Continue reading The Case For More QE
Reuters – Special Report: Pimco shook hands with the Fed – and made a killing Through the second half of 2011, debate raged in financial markets over whether the U.S. Federal Reserve would embark on a third round of massive bond purchases, known as “quantitative easing,” to shore up an anemic economy. Pacific Investment Management… Continue reading Pimco And The Fed
Zero Hedge – The Federal Reserve Policymaker Bias Cheat-Sheet – In the current environment, a “hawkish” bias implies a preference for less stimulative monetary policy, seeing the costs of the Fed’s ongoing quantitative easing program as rising relative to its benefits. – In more general terms, a “hawkish” bias implies a preference for less accommodative… Continue reading Handicapping Fed Officials
The Wall Street Journal – Bond Funds Enjoy Bounce on Taper Delay Some marquee bond-fund managers who took a beating in the second quarter were vindicated when bets that the Federal Reserve would be cautious in paring its stimulus program recently paid off. Pacific Investment Management Co.’s $251.1 billion Total Return Fund, the world’s largest… Continue reading A Very Good September For Bond Funds