The Wall Street Journal – Shopping Spree for Wall Street Mergers and acquisitions took a sharp tumble after the financial crisis, as economic uncertainty and paranoia on corporate boards kept deal-making on the sidelines. This year, though, has been different. The $40 billion-worth of deals struck Thursday brings the total value of M&A transactions announced… Continue reading Is Deal-Mania Back?
Business Insider – The Federal Reserve Will Need A ‘Fairy Tale Ending’ To Unwind Its Balance Sheet A market is not a market once it has been cornered. There is growing concern about where rates are headed. That is normal. There is growing concern with the seemingly bizarre trading of the longer end of the… Continue reading Can The Federal Reserve Pull Off An Exit Strategy?
Zero Hedge – Santelli: “In This Day And Age, Being A Trader Is Downright Impossible” With central banks sponsoring their own (and each other’s) bond markets, and every financial entity owning its own and each other’s bonds, Santelli pops his lid over the Pollyanna business leaders (like Bob Lutz – proclaiming GM’s European business is… Continue reading It’s Hard Being A Trader
The Economist – Finance and the American poor: Margin calls Life on the edges of America’s financial mainstream The survey also found that one in every five American households is “underbanked”, meaning that they have a bank account but also rely on alternative services—typically, high-cost products such as payday loans, cheque-cashing services, non-bank money orders… Continue reading Underbanked In The US
Bloomberg Businessweek – U.S. Homeowners Are Repeating Their Mistakes If there’s one thing Americans should have learned from the recession, it’s the importance of diversifying risk. Middle-class households had too much of their net worth tied up in their homes and were too exposed to stocks through 401(k)s and other investments. Despite the hit many… Continue reading Is Housing Back?
The Economist – Tax Havens: The missing $20 trillion How to stop companies and people dodging tax, in Delaware as well as Grand Cayman The archetypal tax haven may be a palm-fringed island, but as our special report this week makes clear, there is nothing small about offshore finance. If you define a tax haven… Continue reading Tax Havens
Reuters – Currency Wars Come to Moscow as G-20 Meets It won’t quite be hand-to-hand combat, but ‘currency wars’ will come to Moscow on Friday as finance officials from the Group of 20 nations spar over Japan’s expansive policies that have driven down the value of the yen. The G-20 forum, which put together a… Continue reading Your Daily Update On The Non-Existent Currency Wars
Business Insider – The $209 Trillion Global Financial Market Presented In Two Charts
None Today
Historical Market Performance Under Various Deflation/Inflation Scenarios In this study, we look at how the markets perform under various deflation/inflation scenarios. This study stretches as far back as 1801 and covers stocks, “real” stocks, long term interest rates, “real” long term interest rates, short term interest rates, and the CRB. We also compare returns before… Continue reading Historical Market Performance Under Various Deflation/Inflation Scenarios
<Click on chart for larger image> MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – Does ‘Great Rotation’ Even Matter? By some metrics, stock funds and ETFs notched the biggest monthly inflow on record in January. But as the market flirts with record highs, some observers don’t think this rush of cash into equities will have much of an impact… Continue reading Mutual Fund Flows & Performance