The Telegraph – Trade protectionism looms next as central banks exhaust QE A new paper for the US Monetary Policy Forum and published by the Fed warns that the institution’s capital base could be wiped out “several times” once borrowing costs start to rise in earnest. A mere whiff of inflation or more likely stagflation… Continue reading Fearing The Exit Strategy
The New York Times – For Stocks, An Upturn Is Battered By Doubts The investor euphoria that began the year is beginning to seem like a hazy dream. After looking to be ready to rocket past milestone levels just a few weeks ago, the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has been stalled, and is… Continue reading Is Stock Sentiment Shifting?
The Wall Street Journal – Fresh Front in Budget Battle Already looking past the current budget impasse gripping the capital, congressional leaders are quietly considering a deal to avert a government shutdown next month—but at the cost of prolonging across-the-board spending cuts. Attention is beginning to shift from Friday, when the broad cuts known as… Continue reading Budget Negotiations
Zero Hedge – “No Rotation” – Fund Flows Lag Returns, Not Lead There is a simple reason why the real money (as opposed to fast money tweakers) has been far less excited about the domestic equity fund inflows than the financial media and their sponsoring commission-takers would suggest. The reason is – as Goldman shows… Continue reading Flows Follow Performance
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Risk of instability hangs over Italy poll From markets in Milan to capitals across Europe, the shared hope is that Italy will emerge on Monday after two days of voting with a strong government able to navigate a way out of recession rather than a… Continue reading Italy Goes To The Voting Booth
Bloomberg.com – U.K. Loses Top Aaa Rating From Moody’s as Growth Weakens Britain lost its top credit rating by Moody’s Investors Service, which cited the continuing weakness in the nation’s growth outlook and the challenges that presents to the government’s fiscal consolidation program. The rating on the U.K. was lowered one level to Aa1 from… Continue reading U.K. Downgrade
The Wall Street Journal – Japan Picks Ex-Finance Official as Central Bank Chief Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to nominate Asian Development Bank head Haruhiko Kuroda, a former Finance Ministry official, as the next governor of the Bank of Japan, two government officials said Monday. The officials said Mr. Abe had decided on Mr.… Continue reading Japan’s New Central Bank Chief
The Wall Street Journal – Debating Future of Fannie and Freddie Four years after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the Treasury Department, there has been little serious movement to revamp the housing-finance giants and the $10 trillion U.S. mortgage market that they support. But a behind-the-scenes effort to jump-start the debate… Continue reading Freddie & Fannie
Comment Yesterday we hosted a conference call titled On New Highs And Interest Rates. If you missed it, please find the audio, webcast, and handout below. [hana-flv-player video=”https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/SubscriberArea/022113.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” /] <Click above to view webcast> Audio [audio:https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/SubscriberArea/503842-670235.mp3|titles=Conference Call] [pageview class=”PDFViewer” url=”https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/wp-content/plugins/PDFViewer/plugin.php?id=116″]
ETF Trends – Investors Yank Over $3 Billion from Largest Gold ETF Investors have pulled over $3 billion from the largest gold ETF so far this year and outflows are accelerating on the precious metal’s decline below $1,600 an ounce and the Federal Reserve’s outlook on quantitative easing. Since the end of 2012, SPDR Gold… Continue reading Gold: Panic At $1600?
Comment Jim Bianco was on CNBC discussing the Federal Reserve. To view the interview, click on the image above. To view any of our recent interviews click here. The Financial Times – The Fed will opt for the lesser of two evils Stock markets responded nervously to Wednesday’s indications that America’s central bankers are getting… Continue reading Discussing The Federal Reserve