The Wall Street Journal – Speculators Haven’t Piled Into Treasurys Ahead of Operation Twist You’d think, on the eve of Operation Twist, when the Fed will be buying a bunch of Treasurys, that speculators would have piled into Treasurys waiting to sell them back to Ben Bernanke. Instead, they’ve emptied their shelves of them. The… Continue reading Speculating On The Federal Reserve
Bloomberg.com – The Twist and Shout Should Be the Fed’s Next Maneuver Markets today are expecting the Federal Reserve to announce Operation Twist, a financial maneuver aimed at rescuing the U.S. recovery. Like the Chubby Checker song, the twist will involve some gyrations. The idea is to flip the maturities of the Fed’s $1.65 trillion… Continue reading The Federal Reserve Meets Today, Members Of The GOP Plead For No More Intervention
<Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Mortgage Twist Presents Fed With a Puzzle Lower interest rates don’t automatically mean cheaper mortgages. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will conclude its latest policy meeting and may announce further measures aimed at lowering long-term borrowing costs. One… Continue reading Operation Twist And Mortgage Rates
The Financial Times – Greece’s tragedy is made at home High quality global journalism requires investment.Until now, Athens and its eurozone partners have been like bickering passengers on the same sinking boat. Grudging co-operation has been sustained by fear that if Greece runs out of money, it will drag the rest of Europe down with… Continue reading Austerity In Greece
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Home Forecast Calls for Pain Economists, builders and mortgage analysts are predicting the weakened U.S. economy will depress housing prices for years, restraining consumer spending, pushing more homeowners into foreclosure and clouding prospects for a sustained recovery. Home prices are expected to drop 2.5%… Continue reading Still A Dim Forecast For The Housing Market
The Financial Times – Eurozone crisis has making of horror sequel “A dangerous new phase.” Thus the International Monetary Fund all too accurately sums up the global economy before the fund’s annual meetings this week. Rising government credit risks, including Tuesday’s Italy downgrade, shaky asset markets, weakening growth: the makers of the horror movie of… Continue reading The European Crisis
<Click on chart for larger image> CNN.com – The bond market is upside down Greece may default. The rest of Europe looks shaky. And so does the United States. The Federal Reserve is likely to issue another round of asset purchases (just don’t call it QE3!) to push rates lower in an attempt to stimulate… Continue reading U.S. Treasuries
IB Times – Fear Index at the highest level since 1987 As the present ongoing debt crisis melts the value of paper promises and fiat currency almost as fast as central banks can inflate the money supply by turning bad sovereign debts into currency, gold gives us a loud message. It tells us how central… Continue reading The “Real” Fear Index Spikes
None Today
On Friday the Federal Reserve released its quarterly Flow of Funds data, current through June 2011. One of the more popular headlines from this data concerns the record amount of “cash on the sidelines“. Through Q2 2011, nonfarm nonfinancial corporate businesses held $2.05 trillion in liquid assets on their balance sheets. As the argument goes,… Continue reading The Myth Of Cash On The Sidelines
Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: Bernanke to Preempt Accusations of Do-Nothing Fed Members of the Federal Open Market Committee meet this week to consider a range of unconventional tools for additional monetary stimulus. One such tool, “forward guidance,” was unveiled at the Aug. 8-9 meeting: The Fed pledged to hold the benchmark rate near zero at… Continue reading Operation Twist
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – S&P Cuts Italy’s Sovereign-Debt Rating Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services on Monday cut Italy’s sovereign-debt rating a notch, saying the Mediterranean nation’s weak economic growth and fragile government coalition will make it harder to head off the growing crisis sweeping the euro zone. The… Continue reading S&P Cuts Italy’s Rating