The Wall Street Journal – Companies Act on Rising Interest Rates Interest rates for long-term business borrowing have shot up to the highest levels in two years. That’s pushing corporate executives to not only rethink their borrowing and refinancing strategies, but also to adjust pension contributions and overseas trade. Some may even accelerate plans for… Continue reading Companies React To Rising Rates
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Home-Loan Ebb Is a Blow to Banks Bank executives have been hoping they could dull the pain of a plummeting mortgage-refinance market by shifting focus to loans for home purchases. So far, that isn’t working out. The Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday that mortgage… Continue reading Potential Homeowners React To Rising Rates
The Financial Times – Lies, damned lies and the US unemployment statistics The US unemployment rate has fallen from a peak of 10.0 per cent of the labour force in October 2009 to only 7.3 per cent today, an impressive rate of decline. Yet the employment/population ratio has hardly changed at all over the same… Continue reading Unemployment Figures
The Wall Street Journal – Reporting Anomaly Drives Plunge in Jobless Claims Two States Fail to Process All Applications Because of Computer-System Changes The number of U.S. workers applying for jobless benefits fell sharply last week, but a government official cautioned that the drop was largely a result of faulty reporting by states. First-time benefit… Continue reading Do Initial Claims Matter Anymore?
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – Five Years On, Confidence Still Lacking in Conflicted Ratings System Before we get into some possible solutions, let’s address what shouldn’t be done. As galling as it sounds, it’s impractical to ditch the issuer-pays model. Yes, the fact that payment came from the rated entity created a perverse incentive for agencies… Continue reading Fixing The Ratings Agencies
The Wall Street Journal – Granville Was Market Timer With Flair Mr. Granville’s fortunes oscillated. He missed the bear market of 1973-74 when the Dow declined nearly 50%, but successfully predicted another bear market later in the decade. In 1982, after a string of prescient calls, the Journal of Portfolio Management asserted that Mr. Granville… Continue reading Joseph Granville RIP
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Charts of the Week Topics Covered This Week Include: Comparing The 10-Year Treasury Decline 10 Year Treasury Yields Rise Bond Market Volume S&P 500 Correlation Employment In Pictures Employment In Pictures Employment In Pictures An Updated Look At Mutual Fund Flows Obama’s Approval Rating Hedge Fund Fees Coming Down Crude Oil Gas Prices A Look… Continue reading Charts of the Week
Watch the latest video at video.foxbusiness.com Comment Jim Bianco was on FOX Business yesterday discussing the changes to the DJIA. To view the interview, click on the image above. To view any of our recent interviews, click here. Dow Jones, the keeper of the DJIA, has an unwritten rule that any DJIA stock that gets… Continue reading Discussing The DJIA
Institute For Women’s Policy Research – PUBLIC POLICY ECONOMISTS’ OPEN LETTER IN SUPPORT OF JANET YELLEN AS THE NEXT FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR Dear President Obama: We the undersigned economists, with both academic and practitioner interests in public policy, respectfully urge you to appoint Janet Yellen as the next Chair of the Board of Governors of… Continue reading 313 Reasons Yellen Should Be FOMC Chairman
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – US Treasury keeps eye on bond market liquidity U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve officials are monitoring the liquidity of bond markets after warnings from banks and institutional investors that the system has been weakened dangerously by new regulations. According to people familiar with the matter,… Continue reading Bond Market Liquidity
CNBC.com – Crisis cost up to $14 trillion, Dallas Fed says The financial crisis cost the U.S. economy $6 trillion to $14 trillion—and possibly twice that—along with untold costs from “special treatment” that too-big-to-fail banks received, according to an explosive new analysis from the Dallas Federal Reserve. Nearing the five-year anniversary of the Lehman Brothers’… Continue reading The True Cost Of The Financial Crisis