MarketBeat – Would Going Over Cliff Have Been Better for U.S. Rating? Don’t be surprised if the biggest ratings firms believe it would have been better to go over the fiscal cliff than have Tuesday’s 11th-hour budget deal approved by the U.S. Congress. By the standards that the three largest ratings firms outlined in the… Continue reading U.S Credit Rating And The Fiscal Cliff
<Click on chart for larger image> PIMCO – Money for Nothin’ Writing Checks for Free But the story doesn’t end here. What I have just described is a rather routine textbook explanation of how central and fractional reserve banking works its productive yet potentially destructive magic. What Governor Bernanke may have been referring to with… Continue reading Bill Gross Speaks
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg Businessweek – Housing a Sweet Spot for U.S. as Recovery Builds “We see 2013 as the year the housing story progresses from ‘no way’ to consensus, and the GDP and job growth tailwinds being sustainable through 2015,” Widner, based in Baltimore, wrote in a Dec. 19 note. Homebuilders… Continue reading Housing In 2013 …The Year Of The Recovery?
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Investors Sour on Pro Stock Pickers Investors are jumping out of mutual funds managed by professional stock pickers and shifting massive amounts of money into lower-cost funds that echo the broader market. Through November, investors pulled $119.3 billion from so-called actively managed U.S. stock… Continue reading Investors Still Hate Mutual Funds
The Financial Times – US debt ceiling – brinkmanship resumes Ceiling could mean nastier fight than cliff The fiscal cliff is so 2012. In 2013 the debt ceiling’s the thing. While corks were popping for a cliff compromise early on New Year’s day, the US already had other problems. It had reached its statutory debt… Continue reading The Debt Ceiling
The Financial Times – Financials beat retreat on covered bonds Financial institutions around the world raised less using covered bonds in 2012 than at any time in the past 10 years as action by central banks to allay eurozone woes, sluggish growth and new regulations curtailed overall bond issuance.According to figures from Dealogic, global covered… Continue reading Covered Bonds
Bloomberg.com – Almost All of Wall Street Got 2012 Market Calls Wrong From John Paulson’s call for a collapse in Europe to Morgan Stanley (MS)’s warning that U.S. stocks would decline, Wall Street got little right in its prognosis for the year just ended. Paulson, who manages $19 billion in hedge funds, said the euro… Continue reading A Look At 2012 Market Calls
The Economist – Nothing to be proud of Barack Obama wrings an 11th-hour deal on taxes from John Boehner and the Republicans, but accomplishes little else THE deal to avert the fiscal cliff had not yet been sealed when Barack Obama allowed himself to gloat a little. “Last month, Republicans in Congress said they would… Continue reading Politics And The Fiscal Cliff Deal
The Washington Post – Tuesday’s tax increase is the biggest in decades The broad increase in taxes likely to occur Tuesday is highly unusual by historical standards. Based on data from the Treasury Department and Moody’s Analytics, here’s a chart showing, for tax increases since 1940, the magnitude of the tax hike in the year… Continue reading The Fiscal Cliff Deal In Pictures
Bloomberg Businessweek – The Fiscal Cliff Deal and the Damage Done It pains deficit hawks to hear this, but ever since the 2008 financial crisis, government red ink has been an elixir for the U.S. economy. After the crisis, households strove to pay down debt and businesses hoarded profits while skimping on investment. If the… Continue reading Damaged U.S. Fiscal Policy
The Wall Street Journal – Fresh Budget Fights Brewing Moody’s Investors Service, one of the firms that rate government debt, said Wednesday that the agreement didn’t do enough to reduce the deficit. If Congress doesn’t do more in the coming months, Moody’s warned, the company could follow Standard & Poor’s in downgrading U.S. debt. “Further… Continue reading More On A Potential U.S. Downgrade