Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: Give Me Life, Liberty and a Tank of Cheap Gas When President Barack Obama took his deficit-reduction show on the road last week, he found audiences had more on their minds than spending cuts and tax increases. “What are you doing about gas prices?” someone at a town- hall-style meeting at… Continue reading When All Else Fails, Blame The Evil Speculators
The Wall Street Journal – Fight for Lehman’s Remains Heats Up A three-way battle over the remnants of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is coming to a head, as the defunct investment bank’s estate fights with big-name hedge funds and Lehman’s former archrival Goldman Sachs Group Inc. over how to divvy up $61 billion in assets.… Continue reading The Battle For Lehman’s Assets
The Wall Street Journal – Commodity Bets Draw Debate Some Mutual Funds Fight a U.S. Agency’s Attempt to Close ‘Regulatory Gap’ Officials at the federal agency are concerned that a proliferation of non-U.S. subsidiaries set up by mutual funds beyond the reach of current regulations could expose investors to volatile swings in commodities prices and… Continue reading Commodity Mutual Funds
Bloomberg.com – How Gold Compares to Past Bubbles The following interactive graphic shows how hold compares to past bubbles. In short, it’s simialar, but we’ve yet to see anything like the usual end-of-days meteoric rise. How does Gold Compare to Past Bubbles?
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Matthew Lynn: Greece Haircut for Bondholders Already Overdue The sooner Greece imposes a haircut, to use the financial market’s term for losses incurred in a default, the better it will be for everyone. Delay leads to bigger haircuts, and economic research suggests the bigger the haircut, the… Continue reading Greece
Comment In the last 30 years, there have been a number of changes in the calculation of CPI: 1981 Began outlet and item sample rotation Began systematic replacement of outlets and their item samples between major revisions Implemented new Point-of-Purchase Survey (POPS) Selected retail outlets with probability proportional to consumer spending therein Eliminated reliance on… Continue reading Inflation Then And Now
The Wall Street Journal – As Fed Convenes, Wages Take a Front Seat But what may be highlighted Wednesday is where the broader population thinks inflation is headed. Over the years, economists have put increasing emphasis on inflation expectations as an indicator, and even a driver, of future inflation. In the Fed’s statement after the… Continue reading Inflation Expectations
Comment The stories below, like many others before it, point to the fact that many think/worry about the end of QE2 on June 30. Right now it is shaping up as one of the most important days of the year. It may be a non-event, but it is not being ignored. The Wall Street Jorunal… Continue reading June 30 Marks The End of QE2, The Most Important Date Of The Year?
<Click on chart for larger image> Reuters – Japan GPIF to withdraw $78 bln from assets-Nikkei Japan’s public pension fund is planning to withdraw about 6.4 trillion yen ($78 billion) from its assets in this financial year to cover a shortfall in pension payouts, the Nikkei business daily reported on Sunday. The Government Pension Investment… Continue reading Japanese Pension To Sell JGBs?
Barron’s – Debt Downgrade Likelier Than Not S&P isn’t the only rating agency to lower its view on America’s debt. Egan-Jones did so in March—a potentially ominous sign &P stood for surprise and provocation last week, after Standard & Poor’s revised the outlook on its triple-A rating of U.S. debt to negative from stable. The… Continue reading The U.S. And Its AAA Rating
The Wall Street Journal – Jon Hilsenrath: Markets Get Ready to Navigate Fed’s Departure For Policy Makers, Next Great Debate Is How to Tighten As the Federal Reserve waits for the right moment to begin tightening credit, it is working at hashing out a plan for how to do it. … One early step the… Continue reading Are You Ready For QE2.5?