During Bernanke’s press conference last week, he was asked the following question: Q: Greg Ip of The Economist. First, assume that you were not constrained by the zero nominal bound right now. What would the federal funds rate be, even if it were a negative number? And do you believe that you are at an… Continue reading Is The Neutral Funds Rate Still Negative?
Comment Jim Bianco was on Bloomberg Asia yesterday discussing the Federal Reserve, earnings and the outlook for the markets. To view the interview click on the image above. To view any of our recent interviews click here.
Business Insider – JEFFREY SACHS: Krugman, Summers And German Officials Are All ‘Oversimplifying’ As Europe continues to struggle in the third year of its debt crisis, Jeffrey Sachs, professor at Columbia University says Europe’s problems stem from its banking sector.In an interview with Bloomberg TV Sachs said current responses to Europe’s crisis have been too… Continue reading Growth vs. Austerity
Seeking Alpha – Sell In May And Go Away? Not This Year One catchy investing maxim that’s popular this time of year is “sell in May and go away,” the notion that investors should cash in their investments and take the summer off. Historically, this hasn’t been a bad strategy…Last year, investors who employed the… Continue reading Sell In May And Go Away…Except In Election Years
<Click on chart for larger image> MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – Next on the Bailout Hit List: Portugal (Again) To the extend people are paying attention to Europe, most are focused on Spain as the sick-man du jour of Europe. But there is a time-line on Portuguese debt that could create some new problems for the… Continue reading Portugal
The Wall Street Journal – U.S. Considers Notes That Float As borrowers around the U.S. rush to lock in near-record-low interest rates on everything from mortgages to corporate bonds, the Treasury Department soon might embark on a program that seemingly does just the opposite. After a series of meetings early this week, Treasury officials will… Continue reading More On Floating Rate Debt For The U.S.?
MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – How to Play Analyst Calls? When analysts say buy, investors probably should buy. And what about when analysts say sell? Well, investors should buy then, too. That’s the conclusion of Citi’s global equity strategists, who looked at the consensus recommendations from sell-side analysts world-wide. Citi found that over the past decade… Continue reading Analysts’ Ratings
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player Huffington Post – Paul Krugman: Ben Bernanke Has ‘Been Assimilated By The Borg’ aul Krugman doubled down on criticism of Ben Bernanke on Sunday, telling ABC’s “This Week” that the Fed Chairman has “been assimilated by the Borg.” “I think what’s happened to Bernanke, as they say, he’s been assimilated… Continue reading Bernanke Has Been Assimilated By The Borg
The Wall Street Journal – Warren Stephens: How Big Banks Threaten Our Economy We should promote competition and innovation in the financial industry, not protect an oligopoly The solution isn’t to demand that the big banks plan for disaster—it’s to take steps to prevent disaster. We need bank reform that addresses the root of the… Continue reading Banks Are Too Big
The New York Times – Experts Believe Iran Conflict Is Less Likely After a winter of alarm over the possibility that a military conflict over the Iranian nuclear program might be imminent, American officials and outside analysts now believe that the chances of war in the near future have significantly decreased. They cite a series… Continue reading Will Iran Be Bombed?
The Financial Times – Lawrence Summers: Growth not austerity is best remedy for Europe Once again Europe’s efforts to contain its crisis have fallen short. It was perhaps reasonable to hope that the European Central Bank’s longer-term refinancing operation to provide nearly $1tn in cheap three-year funding to European banks would halt the crisis for a… Continue reading Larry Summers … Yes, You Can Drink Your Way Sober!