Bloomberg.com – Lew-for-Geithner Switch Closes Era of Tight Fed-Treasury Ties Timothy F. Geithner’s replacement by Jack Lew as Treasury secretary will end a period of unusually strong ties between the department and the Federal Reserve. For the Fed, the result may be less insulation from critics, yet greater influence in financial market regulation. Geithner worked… Continue reading Is Central Bank Independence At Risk?
<Click on chart for larger image> MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – Investors ‘Unnervingly Calm’ Wall Street’s fear gauge is nearing rock bottom. Investor worries have subsided so quickly in the aftermath of last week’s fiscal-cliff deal that some market watchers fear low VIX readings are a sign of complacency, and that unexpected bad news could rattle… Continue reading The VIX
The Telegraph – Central banks must switch off the printing presses before it’s too late There’s no objective way of measuring the extent to which aggressive money printing by the Fed has contributed to the US turnaround…Whatever the truth, one thing is for sure. It is really quite hard to justify further rounds of money… Continue reading Stop The Printing Presses!
The Wall Street Journal – Bank Made Huge Bet, and Profit, on Libor Deutsche Bank AG made at least €500 million ($654 million) in profit in 2008 from trades pegged to the interest rates under investigation by regulators world-wide, internal bank documents show. The German bank’s trading profits resulted from billions of euros in bets… Continue reading Profiting From The LIBOR Game
The Wall Street Journal – Rules Set for Home Lenders New mortgage rules set to be unveiled Thursday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will spell out how lenders must ensure that borrowers can repay their home loans. The rules, which go into effect next January, were designed to enhance consumer safety without tightening credit… Continue reading Stricter Mortgage Lending Rules
Bloomberg.com – Why U.S. Spending Cuts Won’t Kill Too Many Jobs The U.S. began the year with an awkwardly arranged deal that raised taxes. I hope it doesn’t end the year without a deal to limit spending. The U.K. may have embraced austerity too soon, but the U.S. is far enough along in its recovery… Continue reading The Link Between Spending Cuts & Jobs
The Wall Street Journal – BATS Says ‘System Issue’ Has Led to Pricing Problems Over Past 4 Years Stock-exchange operator BATS Global Markets Inc. said late Wednesday that a “system issue” allowed hundreds of thousands of transactions in a four-year period to be executed at prices that may have violated securities rules. At issue are… Continue reading More Computer Failures At An Exchange
Bloomberg.com – Buffett Says Banks Cleared of Excess Risk Pose No Threat to U.S. Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who oversees stakes in some of the largest U.S. banks, said the nation’s lenders have rebuilt capital to the point where they no longer pose a threat to the economy. “The banks will not get this… Continue reading Buffett Guarantees
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Conference Call Presentation/Charts of the Week Audio [audio:https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/SubscriberArea/503842-658524.mp3|titles=Conference Call] Topics Covered This Week Include: 10-Year Yield Stocks In Last Place Economists Cannot Stand Bonds Weekly Mutual Fund Flows The Public Does Not Like Treasuries The State Of The Economy Economic Growth In 2013 The Debt Ceiling – February 15 Policy Uncertainty Questioning The Federal Reserve’s… Continue reading Conference Call Presentation/Charts of the Week
Comment Jim Bianco was on CNBC yesterday discussing the Federal Reserve and the markets. To view the interview click on the image above. To view any of our recent interviews click here. Federal Reserve Communication An Issue Again In the beginning of the interview, Jim discussed the recent FOMC minutes. Jim and Rick then discussed… Continue reading Questioning The Federal Reserve’s Communication Policy
The Wall Street Journal – Long Treasurys Wipe Out a Year’s Worth of Yield in One Week Long-term Treasurys, considered among the safest assets in the investment world, lost 3.07% of value in the early days of 2013—more than wiping away their annual 3% yield in one week. The dynamic underscores what BlackRock calls “the… Continue reading Continued Hyperventilation About Bond Prices