<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Appreciation in Home Prices to Be Fleeting Falling home prices have been the norm for some time. Now, a momentary respite is at hand. Home prices on a monthly basis rose in both April and May, according to the Case-Shiller Index, a widely followed… Continue reading Home Prices
<Click on chart for larger image> MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – Stock Trading Set for Lightest Day in Nearly Two Months After Storm The combination of Hurricane Irene and thin pre-holiday staffing has put the U.S. stock market on track for its lightest trading session in nearly two months. Monday morning brought a daunting commute for… Continue reading A Low Volume Stock Market Rally
The Financial Times – Gillian Tett: Sovereign spreads challenging cherished notions A few years ago, I pointed out in a column that the cost of insuring the US government against a default in the credit derivatives market, had risen above that of McDonalds, the US fast food company, for the first time. Back then, in… Continue reading Sovereign CDS vs. Corporate CDS
Bloomberg.com – Companies Stop Selling Bonds as Borrowing Costs Jump by 40% Company bond sales have ground to a halt in Europe, with August poised to end without a single offering as the sovereign debt crisis drives borrowing costs up by 40 percent. “When spreads are moving so quickly, it’s very difficult to see clearly… Continue reading European Credit Issuance
The Wall Street Journal – Another Deficit Standoff This Year? Maybe Not That deficit-cutting deal struck in August created a congressional supercommittee and ordered it to come up with a second round of deficit cuts by late November. If you want to be an optimist—and are willing to risk sounding naïve—there actually are reasons to… Continue reading The Congressional Supercommittee & The Deficit
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – EU Seeks Action on Greek Deal The European Commission said Tuesday negotiations have made progress this week in finding a resolution to Finland’s requirement for collateral from Greece in exchange for contributing to a second bailout for the Mediterranean country, but comments from other… Continue reading Europe
Pimco – New-Fangled Love Songs What to do when a love affair goes bad? How should you invest when Euroland is at each other’s throat, when a thinly disguised battle between labor and capital freezes policy action in the United States, when a mercantilistic partnership between developed and developing nations produces more questions than answers,… Continue reading Bill Gross Speaks
On Friday afternoon Jim Bianco was on Bloomberg TV discussing Bernanke’s Jackson Hole speech and the economy. To view the interview click on the picture above. To view any of our recent interviews click here. Comment Let us expand on our comments from Friday: Bernanke gave his long awaited Jackson Hole speech and said nothing. … Continue reading What Bernanke Told Us At Jackson Hole
The Economist – The West’s economy: How to avoid a double dip Rich countries need to squeeze their economies less hard and get serious about growth ANYONE who managed to switch off during the summer holiday has faced a rude shock on his return. The world economy is in much worse shape than it was… Continue reading Double Dip Recession Or Year 5 Of The Recession That Started In 2007?
The Economist – The economy’s prospects: Waiting for the earth to open The usual accelerators of recession are absent—but so are the brakes HOURS after an earthquake struck America’s east coast on August 23rd, office workers were still milling around the streets of Washington, DC and New York (above), nervously waiting for aftershocks. A similar… Continue reading The U.S. Economy
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – JOHN STEELE GORDON: A Short Primer on the National Debt With a return to 1990s growth rates, the debt-to-GDP ratio could drop to 56.7%, about where it was in 2000, in just one decade Only with the severe recession that officially began in mid-2007… Continue reading U.S. Debt-to-GDP