The Wall Street Journal – Poll: Strike a Cliff Deal Now A month after the presidential election highlighted divisions over taxes, spending and political stewardship, Americans now solidly back compromise to solve the biggest budget challenges facing the country, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds. About two-thirds of Americans of all political stripes… Continue reading The Fiscal Cliff
The Financial Times – Get Basel III right and avoid Basel IV As the world struggles to address the urgent need to have stronger capital standards for banks, I am reminded of a Midwestern saying I heard often as a young man: “You never seem to have time to do it right the first time,… Continue reading Bank Capital
Comment The following email was making the rounds yesterday: 1. The population of the US is 312mm people. However, the population defined “eligible to work” is the Civilian, Non-Institutional, > 16 subset and that is 244mm. The participation rate is 63.6 and the unemployment rate is 7.7% 2. So Total Unemployed = Working Population x… Continue reading How Much Is The Federal Reserve Spending Per Month On Each Unemployed Person?
The Wall Street Journal – EU Deal on Bank Supervisor European Union finance ministers reached a landmark deal early Thursday that would bring many of the continent’s banks under a single supervisor, in what governments hope will be a major step toward resolving their three-year-old debt crisis. Ministers said the European Central Bank would start… Continue reading Bank Supervision In The EU
The Wall Street Journal – Europe to Back Greek Aid Release Euro-zone finance ministers are set on Thursday to back the release of another batch of aid to Greece, although its bond-buyback operation fell short of expectations and left the country likely to need more financial assistance and further measures to reduce its debt. Euro-zone… Continue reading Greece Gets More Aid Despite Failing To Meet Required Debt Goal
Minyanville – Random Thoughts on Apple and RIM, Plus 10 Trading Commandments Respect the price action, but never defer to it. Discipline trumps conviction. Opportunities are made up easier than losses. Emotion is the enemy when trading. Zig when others zag. Adapt your style to the market. Maximize your reward relative to your risk. Perception… Continue reading The 10 Trading Commandments
Charts of the Week Topics Covered This Week Include: The Federal Reserve Meets Today Trading Volume Down In 2012 The Public Is Still Wary Of The Stock Market The Debt Ceiling Credit Spread Update The Myth Of Cash On The Sidelines Remains A Myth Consumers Confidence…Cliff or Stocks? Real Estate In The U.S. Total Credit… Continue reading Charts of the Week
Comment In our latest webcast, we examined the long-term relationship between stocks and bonds which has been subject to large secular swings since the end of World War II. As the third panel blue line in the chart below illustrates, stock and 10-year Treasury returns moved in tandem from the mid 1960s until the late… Continue reading Is An Inflationary Mindset Creeping Back Into The Markets?
CNBC – Wall Street Worries Washington Will Wreck Economy – CNBC Survey Wall Street’s concerns about Washington are escalating, with the December CNBC Fed Survey finding growing investor angst about a recession, the fiscal cliff and the Fed’s monetary policy. The 48 economists, fund managers and strategists who responded to the survey rank the “fiscal… Continue reading Fiscal Cliff Perceptions Changing
Albany Tribune – Crashing The Bond Market – OpEd Here’s how former FDIC chief Sheila Bair summed it up in an interview with Reuters 2 weeks ago. Her comments were made in reference to, what she called, “The Mother of all bond bubbles”. BAIR: “Fundamentals do not support current current Treasurys prices…This is what we… Continue reading Bond Bubble
The Financial Times – Japan should scare the eurozone Europe risks replicating Japan’s lost decades Almost exactly 20 years ago I packed my stuff in London and moved to Japan. The Tokyo stock market had crashed some two years previously; the property market was in free fall; lenders that had relied on buildings as collateral… Continue reading Europe Is Walking The Same Path As Japan