The Wall Street Journal – Home Sales See Growing Pains Arthur Patterson received an unusual request from a real-estate agent in February: Would he consider selling his two-bedroom townhouse in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood to a buyer ready to place an offer—even though the home wasn’t on the market? The timing made sense for Mr. Patterson,… Continue reading Rising U.S. Home Prices
Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: Is the Fed’s Medicine Really Poison? It’s not every day that a central banker admits that his medicine for curing the last crisis may be laying the groundwork for the next. But that’s exactly what Narayana Kocherlakota, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said last week at the annual… Continue reading Is The Federal Reserve Poisoning The Economy?
China Real-Time Report (WSJ Blog) – How to Predict the Next Big Bailout After Cyprus, who’s next to fall? Real estate agents in China have their own crude method for identifying the next domino. And it doesn’t involve number crunching banks’ balance sheets. Real estate agents who help Chinese investors buy homes abroad say they… Continue reading The Next Bailout
The Wall Street Journal – Limit Austerity, EU Official Says A top European Union official signaled his support Monday for relaxing Europe’s austerity drive, in what could be a significant break for countries struggling to hit tough budget targets amid persistent economic weakness. In a speech, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said the policy… Continue reading Does Austerity Actually Exist Anywhere?
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Record Freeze in U.S. Extending Wheat Crop Damage The coldest start ever to the wheat-growing season in Kansas and freezing weather across the southern Great Plains are compounding damage to U.S. crops already hurt by the worst drought since the 1930s. “I’m going to assume 75 percent… Continue reading Problems With The Wheat Crop – The Market Does Not Care
The Washington Post – Why aren’t younger Americans driving anymore? What’s happening? High gasoline prices are one obvious factor. The price at the pump has been lurching upward since 2005 and appears to be forcing people off the road. But that’s probably not the whole story. The correlation isn’t perfect, for one. And vehicle miles… Continue reading Why We No Longer Drive
Hussman Funds – The Endgame is Forced Liquidation The stock market isn’t the only thing that has set records this spring. Barron’s semiannual Big Money poll of professional investors also is setting a record — for bullishness, that is. In our latest survey, 74% of money managers identify themselves as bullish or very bullish about… Continue reading Barron’s Cover – Contrarians Take Note
DealB%k (NYT Blog) – Fed Still Owes Congress a Blueprint on Its Emergency Lending After the Federal Reserve lent more than $1 trillion to big banks during the 2008 financial crisis, Congress required the central bank to devise specific ways of protecting taxpayers when doling out emergency loans to financial institutions. But nearly three years… Continue reading The Federal Reserve – The Secrets Of the Temple
South China Morning Post – Kunming mother sues US central bank over shrinking cash She claims Federal Reserve has allowed her deposit of US$250 to lose a third of its value A woman in Kunming, Yunnan province, is trying to sue the United States central bank after discovering that the real value of the US$250… Continue reading Suing The Federal Reserve
Reuters – S&P says more than one-third chance of Japan downgrade, cites risks to Abenomics Rating agency Standard & Poor’s said on Tuesday it saw more than a one-third chance that it would downgrade Japan’s sovereign ratings because of uncertainty about whether the government’s push to revive growth and end deflation will succeed. “The continuing… Continue reading Japan – It’s All Abe’s Fault
<Click on chart for larger image> The Telegraph (UK) – This economic funk won’t go away until the eurozone crisis is fixed Please make me chaste, but not yet. This famous prayer by St Augustine has been the defining characteristic of the policy response in advanced countries to the economic crisis ever since it began… Continue reading Nothing Gets Better Until Europe Is Fixed
Bloomberg.com – China’s Recovery Falters as Manufacturing Growth Cools China’s manufacturing is expanding at a slower pace this month on weakness in global and domestic demand, fueling concern that the world’s second-biggest economy is faltering. The preliminary reading of 50.5 for a Purchasing Managers’ Index (EC11CHPM) released by HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics compared… Continue reading China’s Growth Cooling