<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg Businessweek – France’s Economy Is a Mess, Yet Investors Buy Its Bonds French President François Hollande called the financial-services industry his “greatest adversary” when he campaigned for the presidency last year. He’s now finding that the market is his only friend. One year into a five-year term, Hollande… Continue reading The Mess That Is France (But Not Germany)
The Economist – Measuring inflation: Counting the cost of living The Fed and the White House wrestle with price indices Confusion over the right inflation index has spread from monetary to fiscal policy. In April Barack Obama’s budget proposed using the chained CPI to index Social Security and federal military and civil-service retirement benefits, tax… Continue reading How To Measure Inflation
Bloomberg.com – What’s Wrong With the U.S. Job Market? High unemployment isn’t due solely to fiscal policy failures. Offshoring and automation loom large. Companies can get accounting services from India for about $23,000 a year that would cost $70,000 in Northern Virginia, says Deborah Kops, managing principal of Sourcing Change, a sourcing consultancy. “We’re in… Continue reading Jobs
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Dollar Buying Continues Apace After ¥100 Break The dollar continued its march higher against most other major currencies after its break of ¥100 unleashed a wave of dollar buying that has sent the yen to a 4½-year low and sent the Swiss franc down… Continue reading Japan
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Investors Rediscovering Margin Debt Small investors are borrowing against their portfolios at a rapid clip, reaching levels of debt not seen since the financial crisis. The trend—driven by a combination of rising stock values and rock-bottom interest rates—is sparking a growing debate among market… Continue reading Margin Debt
Bloomberg.com – Foreigners Buying Half of London New Homes Prop Up Building Half of London’s new-home buyers come from abroad as the city’s reputation as a safe haven attracts rising investment and sustains development. Foreigners spent more than 3 billion pounds ($4.7 billion) on new homes in the U.K. capital last year, a 25 percent… Continue reading Who Buys London Homes?
Bloomberg.com – Alan Abelson, Barron’s Magazine Writer, Editor, Dies at 87 Alan Abelson, a columnist who cast a skeptical eye on U.S. financial markets and skewered targets from Alan Greenspan to Warren Buffett during more than four decades at Barron’s magazine, has died. He was 87. He died yesterday of a heart attack at a… Continue reading RIP Alan Abelson
Hitler finds out about negative interest rates from Negative Rates on Vimeo.
A customer recently wrote us the following: The other point I hear from stock bears is that the S&P 500 is only a function of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet. Many show great charts showing almost perfect correlation between the two. But if stocks were only driven by the Fed forcing them higher, S&P valuations… Continue reading Can We Measure The Federal Reserve’s Impact On The Market?
The Wall Street Journal – Deficit-Cutting: A Matter of When If you read only headlines or watch TV talk shows, it sounds like there are only two options: (a) reduce deficits sharply now, take the pain and look forward to a better tomorrow or (b) borrow readily now to boost growth now and do nothing… Continue reading The Austerity Debate
Gallup.com – U.S. Stock Ownership Stays at Record Low Despite strong gains in the stock market over the past year, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s reaching record highs in the past month, stock ownership among U.S. adults is at its lowest level in Gallup trends since 1998, essentially unchanged from a year ago. Just… Continue reading The Average Investor Still Doesn’t Trust The Stock Market
The Wall Street Journal – Asia Wrestles With a Flood of Cash Central banks in Asia, Australia and New Zealand are ratcheting up moves to deal with an influx of capital that is keeping currencies strong and complicating efforts to manage growth. New Zealand’s central bank said Wednesday it intervened in foreign-exchange markets to blunt… Continue reading Asia’s Capital Influx