Bloomberg.com – Europe Banks Fail to Cut as Draghi Loans Defer Deleverage European banks pledged last year to cut more than $1.2 trillion of assets to help them weather the sovereign-debt crisis. Since then they’ve grown only fatter. Lenders in the euro area increased assets by 7 percent to 34.4 trillion euros ($45 trillion) in… Continue reading No Deleveraging In Europe
Bloomberg Businessweek – Face It: 2013 Is Gonna Be a Bummer Whether it’s Barack Obama or Mitt Romney taking the presidential oath of office in January, someone will have the misfortune of overseeing an economy that looks a lot like the one we have today: low growth, persistently high unemployment, and huge amounts of debt.… Continue reading Looking Forward To 2013
The Wall Street Journal – A Mighty Wind: Sizing Up Fund Manager’s Sway The 43-year-old Mr. Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital Inc. has never said it made a bet on Herbalife shares. But the stock’s deep rut shows how much power the hedge-fund manager wields with words, creating profits for other investors on the same side of… Continue reading Is David Einhorn A Global Force For Good?
Bloomberg.com – Harvard Losing Out to South Dakota in Graduate Pay: Commodities Harvard University’s graduates are earning less than those from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology after a decade-long commodity bull market created shortages of workers as well as minerals. Those leaving the college of 2,300 students this year got paid a… Continue reading Show Me The Money
Hussman Funds – Low-Water Mark As of Friday, our estimates of prospective return/risk for the S&P 500 have dropped to the single lowest point we’ve observed in a century of data. There is no way to view this as something other than a warning, but it’s also a warning that I don’t want to overstate.… Continue reading Doom & Gloom
BSAS.org – Programs & Events Details The deteriorating situation in Europe is reminiscent of 2011. J.P. Morgan’s trading losses are reminiscent of 2008. The slowing economy in the U.S. is reminiscent of both periods. Jim Bianco from Bianco Research will discuss how these and other issues are affecting the financial markets, and what the outlook… Continue reading Jim Bianco To Speak At The Boston Security Analysts’ Society Tomorrow
The New York Times – Earnings in United States Are Beginning to Feel a Pinch The boom in American corporate profits, which has far outpaced the gains in the broader economy since the end of the last recession, is faltering. Giants like FedEx and Intel, two bellwethers of the global economy, are warning of lower… Continue reading Struggling Earnings
Richmond Federal Reserve – Richmond Fed President Lacker Comments on FOMC Dissent The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided on September 13, 2012, to purchase additional agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $40 billion per month. The Committee released a statement after the meeting saying that it expects a highly accommodative stance of monetary… Continue reading A Federal Reserve Dissenter Speaks
The Washington Post – Robert J. Samuelson: Fed’s Ben Bernanke on the brink with bond-buying program There is a desperate air to Bernanke’s latest move. At best, it will reinforce a long-awaited housing revival. At worst, it will founder on obvious problems. How much lower can the Fed drive long-term interest rates? How much money… Continue reading More On The Federal Reserve
AFP – Japan cuts quarterly economic growth figures Japan on Monday revised down its quarterly growth figures, reigniting fears that the world’s third-largest economy was stumbling amid turmoil in Europe and a slowdown in Asia. Analysts said gross domestic product figures were within market expectations, but warned that an export slump and widening trade deficit… Continue reading Japan’s Economy Underperforms Expectations
The Wall Street Journal – U.S. Balks at GM Plan Government Is Reluctant to Sell Auto Stake at a Huge Loss The Treasury Department is resisting a push by General Motors Co. GM +2.53%to sell the government’s entire stake in the auto maker—the latest source of tension between two unlikely partners thrust together at the… Continue reading More Bailout Losses, Yes Losses!