Bloomberg.com – Neil M. Barofsky: Bungled Bank Bailout Leaves Behind Righteous Anger In the year since I stepped down as the special inspector general of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the sadly predictable consequences of the government’s disparate treatment of Wall Street and Main Street have only become worse. As the banks amass size and… Continue reading Bailout Fatigue
Barron’s – Coming: The End of Fiat Money Stephanie Pomboy, founder of MacroMavens, sees the world hurtling toward a day in which money will again be backed by gold or other hard assets. Until then, she also sees plenty of trouble. “Hear Me Now, Believe Me Later,” was the title of two separate and prescient… Continue reading The End Of Fiat Money
The Wall Street Journal – On Wall Street, They Call Him an Optimist The famed guru from the market glory days says investors are right to be angry but that stocks will make a comeback Today, Mr. Wien says that stock trading has replaced investing, with the average holding period for stocks going from eight… Continue reading Byron Wien Speaks
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – China Central Bank Adviser Forecasts Growth Slowdown to 7.4% A Chinese central bank adviser predicted the nation’s expansion may cool to 7.4 percent this quarter, adding to concern that the world’s second-biggest economy has yet to bottom out. Song Guoqing, an academic member of the People’s Bank… Continue reading More Slowing For China?
Comment Yesterday we hosted a conference call titled On The Economy, Markets And The Federal Reserve. Please find the handout and an .mp3 of the conference call below. [pageview class=”PDFViewer” url=”https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/wp-content/plugins/PDFViewer/plugin.php?id=85″] Audio: [audio:https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/SubscriberArea/503842-614365.mp3|titles=July 19 Conference Call]
The Financial Times – Record sums being injected into ETPs Investors are pumping record sums into exchange traded products investing in assets such as bonds, vehicles that track a basket of assets, as they try to avoid equity volatility caused by the eurozone crisis and fears over the global economy. Inflows into ETPs, which mainly… Continue reading Mutual Fund Flows vs. ETF Flows
The Economist – Buttonwood: Capital gains American profits have been high but the trend may not last NEVER mind the divide between Main Street and Wall Street. The big gap at the moment is between workers and corporations. Although unemployment remains stubbornly high and wage rises are hard to come by, corporate profits are taking… Continue reading The Latest On Earnings
BusinessWeek – Krugmenistan vs. Estonia In May 2009, months after the passage of a $787 billion stimulus package in the U.S., Estonia’s government took the opposite tack: the hard line. It did not dip into the country’s reserves or borrow money. Ministers say they never even considered devaluing what was then Estonia’s currency, the kroon,… Continue reading Austerity Works!
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – World braced for new food crisis The world is facing a new food crisis as the worst US drought in more than 50 years pushes agricultural commodity prices to record highs. Corn and soyabean prices surged to record highs on Thursday, surpassing the peaks of… Continue reading The Drought
The New York Times – Bank of England Says New York Fed Gave No Warning on Rate-Rigging American authorities did not warn British officials about the rate-rigging scandal at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, according to documents released by the Bank of England on Friday. The e-mails from the British central bank… Continue reading The BoE Never Got Geithner’s LIBOR Memo
The Wall Street Journal – Lenders of First Resort The Fed is considering a dubious Bank of England plan to force-feed more bank lending Central banks are supposed to be the lender of last resort, but under political pressure the world’s monetary authorities are increasingly becoming lenders of first resort. Witness the Bank of England’s… Continue reading The Federal Reserve’s Newest Idea