The Wall Street Journal – Cheap Natural Gas Gives New Hope to the Rust Belt “The U.S. is now going to be the low-cost industrialized country for energy,” the energy economist Philip Verleger says. “This creates a base for stronger economic growth in the United States than the rest of the industrialized world.” Natural gas… Continue reading Natural Gas And The U.S. Economy
The Telegraph (UK) – Debt crisis: Europe ratchets up grip on Madrid The EU-IMF Troika in charge of Spain’s €60bn (£48bn) bank rescue is to demand much tougher action by the country’s authorities to clean up toxic debts, risking a clash that could deter Madrid from requesting a full sovereign bail-out. Yesterday the Bank of… Continue reading Europe
Bloomberg.com – Bernanke Seen Attacking Jobless Rate With QE Until His Term Ends Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke says he’ll stoke the economy until the job market recovers “substantially.” That promise may force him to keep buying bonds until the final months of his term ending in January 2014, according economists in a Bloomberg… Continue reading Bernanke Will Go Down Fighting
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Comment Jim Bianco will be the guest host on Bloomberg TV’s Street Smart show from 2pm – 3pm CT today. <Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger… Continue reading An Election Update
Bloomberg.com – A Few Fed Numbers Worth a Thousand Words The instrument that central banks most directly control — the interest rate at which commercial banks lend to each other overnight — affects virtually no transactions that most people care about. But expectations about the path of that rate shape long-term interest rates, which then… Continue reading Quantifying When The Federal Reserve May Hike
FT Alphaville (FT Blog) – Is ‘uncertainty’ really that big a deal? In attempts to explain why companies (particularly in the US) are so reluctant to invest and hire of late, the word “uncertainty” will usually make an appearance. “Policy uncertainty” is generally seen as the enemy of business confidence, and the combination of post-crisis… Continue reading Measuring Uncertainty’s Effect On The Economy
Reuters – Bernanke probably won’t stand for third term at Fed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has told close friends he probably will not stand for a third term at the central bank even if President Barack Obama wins the November 6 election, the New York Times reported. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has already… Continue reading Bernanke’s Exit Strategy
EuroIntelligence – German court of auditors wants Bundesbank to count gold at Fort Knox This is the most hilarious story in our area we have come across in a long time. Suddeutsche’s front page lead is that the German court of auditors has asked the Bundesbank to weigh all the gold after German MPs acted… Continue reading Show Me The Gold
Reuters – Hot bond market spurs debate about bubble US bond issuance in 2012 topped the USD1trn mark last week, pushing the year’s total closer to the all-time record in 2007 – set just before the global financial crisis kicked in. And the state of the red-hot market, driven by the Federal Reserve’s low-rates policy,… Continue reading Bubble Investing
The Financial Times – The social media stock pickers As the internet developed from the basic chat rooms of the late 1990s, Mr Peterson knew he wanted to do something with this idea of using social media to gain a market edge. After an 11-year career as a psychiatrist, he raised $1m from friends and… Continue reading Using Twitter As An Investing Tool
The Wall Street Journal – Low Rates Pummel Banks Superlow U.S. interest rates are squeezing bank profits, complicating the industry’s nascent recovery from the financial crisis. An important gauge of lending profitability, known as net interest margin, has dropped to its lowest level in three years. The measure tracks how much banks earn when they… Continue reading Bank Profits In A Low Yield World