The Wall Street Journal – Fed Policy Delivers a Tonic for Stocks Treasury yields don’t show it, but most analysts agree the Federal Reserve’s Operation Twist program has been a boon for investors during the year’s final quarter. The program, which has its final sale of short-dated debt for the year on Wednesday, pushed up… Continue reading Operation Twist
The Wall Street Journal – Slowing Inflation Cheers Fed U.S. inflation is slowing after a surge early in the year. This is good news for Americans, as it means the money in their pockets goes further. It also is welcome at the Federal Reserve, which has been counting on an inflation slowdown. It gives the… Continue reading Inflation
The Wall Street Journal – SEC Ups Its Game to Identify Rogue Firms It is the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new “most-wanted” list: a chart covered with handwritten notes, yellow highlighter and the names of about 100 hedge funds. The hedge funds have one thing in common: Their performance seems too good to be true,… Continue reading SEC Regulation
Comment We hosted a conference call on the trends facing the markets heading into 2012. If you missed it, here is the audio and handout and webcast. Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: Here’s Hoping for More Lousy Forecasts in 2012 It’s that time of year again when people in my line of work (“profession” is probably… Continue reading What To Expect In 2012
Zero Hedge (blog) – Gross LTRO Liquidity Injection – €489 Billion; Net: – €210 Billion From SocGen’s Klaus Baader Banks pile into ECB’s new super-long-term liquidity facility The first-ever 3-year liquidity operation by the ECB was an unqualified success. Banks bid for a greater-than-expected €489.2bn, making this the largest-ever single refinancing operation in the ECB’s… Continue reading What Happened To LTRO Liquidity?
BBC News – What really caused the eurozone crisis? World leaders probably spent more time worrying about the eurozone crisis than anything else in 2011 Comment This is an interesting graphical display of the European debt crisis.
Bloomberg.com – Bonds Stop Flowing as Collateral Gets Stuck at ECB: Euro Credit The chains of loaned securities being pledged and re-pledged in the so-called wholesale money markets are growing shorter, as collateral piles up at central banks where it can’t generate additional borrowing. Rehypothecation is the financial alchemy that transmutes $2.45 trillion of assets… Continue reading The Velocity of Collateral
The Financial Times – Call for QE to stave off euro deflation A top European Central Bank policymaker has called for “quantitative easing” to be used to boost the eurozone economy if deflation risks emerge across the 17-country region. The comments by Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, ECB executive board member, are the strongest indication yet that… Continue reading Is The ECB Already Doing QE?
The Wall Street Journal – LUCA DI LEO and JON HILSENRATH: Fed May Signal Low Rates Into 2014 The Federal Reserve could signal it is likely to keep short-term interest rates near zero into 2014 or beyond, to bolster the fragile economic recovery. Fed officials have grown increasingly uncomfortable with their August statement that they… Continue reading The Federal Reserve
Reuters – Fitch again warns U.S. debt burden threatens AAA rating Fitch Ratings on Wednesday warned again that the United States’ rising debt burden was not consistent with maintaining the country’s top AAA credit rating, but said there would likely be no decision on whether to cut the rating before 2013. Last month, Fitch changed… Continue reading Is Another U.S. Downgrade Coming?
Bloomberg.com – Fed’s Once-Secret Data Released to Public Bloomberg News today released spreadsheets showing daily borrowing totals for 407 banks and companies that tapped Federal Reserve emergency programs during the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis. It’s the first time such data have been publicly available in this form. To download a zip file of the… Continue reading Federal Reserve Lending Exposed