The Financial Times – Bond markets: A false sense of security Investors seek perceived refuge in bonds but fears are rising that their faith has been ill-placed The demons afflicting market sentiment could be described as the “three FCs”. Tormented by the financial crisis, flash crashes and the impending fiscal cliff, investors have turned to… Continue reading Shocking News … Bond Bearishness!
The New York Times – Investors Rush to Beat Threat of Higher Taxes Business owners and investors are rapidly maneuvering to shield themselves from the prospect of higher taxes next year, a strategy that is sending ripples across Wall Street and broad areas of the economy. Take Steve Wynn, the casino magnate, who has been… Continue reading The Fiscal Cliff Changing Behavior
Der Spiegel – Betting with Trillions: Prison of Debt Paralyzes West Be it the United States or the European Union, most Western countries are so highly indebted today that the markets have a greater say in their policies than the people. Why are democratic countries so pathetic when it comes to managing their money sustainably?… Continue reading Do The Markets Rule The World?
The Wall Street Journal – Do Junk-Bond Investors Have Garbage for Brains? Are the investors – largely individuals and their financial advisers – who have so far this year pumped some $37 billion into high-yield (“junk”) bond funds irrational? There are some signs that the junk-bond market may recently have been on the verge of… Continue reading Junk Bonds
Zero Hedge (blog) – Spanish Bad Loans Hit Fresh Record High Again In what is becoming a monthly parabolic charting tradition, it is again time to update the Spanish bad loan total: in September, Spanish loans that fell into arrears increased by €3.5 billion from August, reaching €182.2 billion in September. This is 10.71% of… Continue reading Spain Gets Worse
The Financial Times – Bond investor takes big punt on Ireland A prominent US bond investor has increased an already aggressive bet on Ireland’s recovery from the financial crisis, raising eyebrows among rival fund managers. Franklin Templeton funds increased their holdings of Irish bonds by more than a third to at least €8.4bn in the… Continue reading Should You Buy Ireland?
Reuters – James Saft: The sad necessity of Fed watching Every investor, sadly, has to be a Fed watcher given that U.S. asset markets are supported, if not levitated, by quantitative easing. Sadly because, and Ben Bernanke himself might agree with this, we could all probably find more productive ways to spend our time. Sad,… Continue reading Do Central Banks Run The World?
Comment This was found on the Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) part of the website run by Japan’s Ministry of Finance. It was written in Japanese and translated by Google. Japan’s Ministry of Finance – If Japan has financial collapse, how do government bonds will [Answer] Government bonds will be redeemed because the government is responsible… Continue reading Please Do Not Worry
The Wall Street Journal – Learning to Love Volatility In a world that constantly throws big, unexpected events our way, we must learn to benefit from disorder, writes Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Several years before the financial crisis descended on us, I put forward the concept of “black swans”: large events that are both unexpected and… Continue reading Nassim Taleb
Thomson Reuters – Chicago judge okays AG suit vs S&P. Bad omen for rating agencies? This has not been a good week for Standard & Poor’s. Stock in S&P’s parent company, McGraw Hill, took a dive Monday after an Australian judge ruled that S&P is liable to investors for its misleading ratings of collateralized debt… Continue reading More Trouble for S&P
The New York Times – Joshua Rosner: Hey Fannie and Freddie, Pay Us Back! Consider the elephant in the room: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac owe American taxpayers nearly $140 billion — and there seems to be no plan on any front to pay it back. Though many Americans aren’t aware of it, the Federal… Continue reading Bailout Nation, Fannie and Freddie
The Japan Times – Abe pledges to make BOJ buy bonds Shinzo Abe said he would consider making the Bank of Japan purchase construction bonds directly from the government to tame chronic deflation if his Liberal Democratic Party wins December’s Lower House election and he becomes prime minister. Abe, who heads the largest opposition party,… Continue reading Is the BoJ Losing Its Independence?