Telegraph (UK) – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Emerging market rout is too big for the Fed to ignore This has the makings of a grave policy error: a repeat of the dramatic events in the autumn of 1998 at best; a full-blown debacle and a slide into a second leg of the Long Slump at worst. Emerging… Continue reading Emerging Markets And The Federal Reserve
<Click on chart for larger image> Money Beat (WSJ Blog) – Morning MoneyBeat: Fed’s Tough Call Not Getting Any Easier A series of conflicting economic indicators have failed to give a clear-cut indication of whether the Fed should start dialing back its stimulus programs. The Citigroup U.S. Economic Surprise Index isn’t helping matters, either. The… Continue reading Middling Economic Data
CNBC – Summers as Fed chief is a ‘black swan’ event, analysts warn Speculation that Larry Summers is the favored candidate to take over Ben Bernanke as Fed chief has resurfaced in recent weeks, prompting a strong backlash from some industry watchers, with one going as far as labeling his potential appointment as a “black… Continue reading Your Daily Installment On Yellen/Summers
The Financial Times – Japan inflation rises to highest in nearly five years Consumer price inflation in Japan rose to an annual rate of 0.7 per cent in July, its highest level in almost five years, as the effects of a weaker yen pushed up the cost of fuel and electricity. The headline figure is… Continue reading Is Abenomics Working?
Project Syndicate – Martin Feldstein: US Interest Rates Will Continue to Rise Six months ago, I wrote that long-term interest rates in the United States would rise, causing bond prices to fall by so much that an investor who owned ten-year Treasury bonds would lose more from the decline in the value of the bond… Continue reading Shockingly, Another Economist Predicting Higher Rates
Bloomberg.com – Jonathan Weil: America’s New Pastime: JPMorgan Investigations Hardly a week goes by without a new report about a government investigation of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and how much money the bank might have to pay because of some alleged violation of the law. The ritual is familiar by now. Details of the… Continue reading Today’s Installment In JP Morgan Criminal Activity
New York Post – Bad news: CNBC hits 20-year ratings nadir Larry Kudlow’s 7 p.m. show fell the most, recording just 20,000 viewers in the key advertiser demographic, a 53 percent decline. Similarly, Jim Cramer’s “Mad Money” was off 38 percent, to 25,000 viewers, in the key demo. “Street Signs,” was the only show to… Continue reading More On CNBC Ratings
Eurostat News Release – Euro area unemployment rate at 12.1% Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria (4.8%), Germany (5.3%) and Luxembourg (5.7%), and the highest in Greece (27.6% in May 2013) and Spain (26.3%). Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate increased in seventeen Member States and fell… Continue reading EU Unemployment
Real Time Economics – David Wessel: Federal Reserve: The Movie Let’s be honest. Making a movie about the Federal Reserve that is both accurate and interesting is a challenge. HBO’s “Too Big To Fail” had the virtue of a dramatic moment and great actors (William Hurt as Hank Paulson, Paul Giamatti as Ben Bernanke). “Mad Money” … Continue reading The Federal Reserve Movie “Money For Nothing”
None Today
Huffington Post – Organized Opposition To Larry Summers Forms, Ramping Up For Confirmation Battle A broad coalition of opponents to Larry Summers is working behind the scenes to make the former Obama economic adviser’s nomination and confirmation to the Federal Reserve chairmanship as difficult as possible, according to several people involved in the operation. The… Continue reading Who Wants Larry? (Barack) Who Wants Janet? (Everyone Else)
Comment In the interview above, Rob Arnott of Research Associates had some interesting comments. On QE: I would liken quantitative easing and deficit spending to open fire hydrants at curbside. They drain resources from the neighborhood, from the broad macroeconomy, and anyone who has buckets close to the fire hydrants will do just fine. For… Continue reading Rob Arnott Speaks