The Wall Street Journal – Martin Feldstein: The Economy Is Worse Than You Think Expect more bad news until someone enacts a plan to bring deficits under control without raising taxes The policies of the Obama administration have led to the weak condition of the American economy. Growth during the coming year will be subpar… Continue reading Feldstein Speaks
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Chinese official warns on dollar assets China is running a major risk in holding so many dollars because the US may deliberately devalue its currency, a senior Chinese official has warned. The comments by Guan Tao, head of the international payments department in the State… Continue reading China’s Reserves
The Wall Street Journal – Office Owners Seek to Cash In Owners of big-name office buildings in some U.S. cities are racing to put them up for sale to exploit surging prices before it is too late.In recent weeks, owners of the Willis Tower in Chicago, Constitution Center in Washington, the Seagram Building in New… Continue reading Commercial Real Estate
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Marketwatch – Gold traders strangely subdued So what is contrarian analysis saying now, with gold trading for $65 more than where it closed on May 17? The key variable is whether gold traders have used the rally over the last three weeks to quickly jump back onto the bullish bandwagon. That would be a bad… Continue reading What Is The Consensus On Gold?
The Street Light (Blog) – Betting On the PIGs The BIS today released some very interesting new data (pdf) on the exposure of various parties to debt issued by the PIGs (Portugal, Ireland, and Greece). There is a lot of good stuff in this data — particularly what it tells us about who is betting… Continue reading European Default: Direct Exposure vs. Indirect Exposure
The Financial Times – Accurate GDP forecasts prove vital to equities performance Financial market participants spend much of their time responding to economic statistics. Better than expected data releases are regarded as good, and poorer ones bad. It would seem obvious in principle. For equity markets in general, stronger growth would imply stronger company earnings… Continue reading Economic Forecasting
The Financial Times – The global fallout of a eurozone collapse As many commentators have rightly observed, the euro experiment is at a crossroads. Either the eurozone will deepen into a fiscal union, or the weak members will be forced to break off. But the euro experiment has also brought us to a crossroads in… Continue reading Europe’s Monetary Union
MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – Meredith Whitney Still Warning on Munis, Muni Market Still Not Listening Meredith Whitney’s Muni Massacre II: The Re-Frightening, continues to mildly discomfort audiences across the nation, not unlike The Hangover II. Ms. Whitney is back on the stump today, talking to Fortune’s Shawn Tully about how municipal finances are really, really… Continue reading Meredith Whitney
Bloomberg.com – Fed Is Said to Back Three Percentage-Point Capital Surcharge for Big Banks The Federal Reserve supports a proposal at the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision that calls for a maximum capital surcharge of three percentage points on the largest global banks, according to a person familiar with the discussions. International central bankers and… Continue reading Capital Surcharge For Banks Fail To Address The Shadow Banking System
The Wall Street Journal – Pimco Takes Bath on Lehman Bond-investing veteran Bill Gross buoyed his reputation during the 2008 financial crisis through well-timed bets on Treasurys and mortgage debt. Now, new court documents show that he also took a bath in loading up on Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. debt before the investment bank cratered… Continue reading Pimco
The Wall Street Journal – IMF Official Warns Against Greek Debt Restructuring Talk about a Greek debt restructuring, or any other reorganization of the country’s giant debt burden, could unleash dangerous and uncontrolled consequences for Europe, a senior International Monetary Fund official said Tuesday. Speaking at a banking conference, Bob Traa, the senior resident officer… Continue reading Greece