The Wall Street Journal – Europe’s Rate Rise Signals End of Cheap-Money Era The European Central Bank on Thursday became the first monetary authority in a major developed economy to raise interest rates since the global financial crisis struck—a sign that the long period of extraordinarily easy credit is beginning to come to a close.… Continue reading Why Did The ECB Raise Rates?
CNBC – Steve Liesman: An Aggressive Fed? More of the Street Betting On It The survey found that about a third of the economists, fund managers and strategists who responded to the survey see the Fed hiking interest rates this year, double the percentage from the March survey. About 27 percent believe the Fed will… Continue reading Does The Federal Reserve Talk To The Wrong People?
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg BusinessWeek – Japan’s Debate: How to Fund the Cleanup The Bank of Japan faces pressure to underwrite new government debt for reconstruction That’s why Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa, the country’s guardian of sound money since 2008, has one of the toughest jobs in central banking right… Continue reading Will The BoJ Monetize Debt To Pay For The Cleanup?
CNBC – Yen Carry Trade is Back On: Strategist Much of investors’ focus this week may have been on the rate decision by the European Central Bank (ECB), but Mansoor Mohi-uddin, Chief Currency Strategist at UBS Investment Bank, says the big event in currency markets already happened back in March, when the G7 nations staged… Continue reading Is The Yen Carry Trade Returning?
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg BusinessWeek – Mohamed El-Erian: European Debt Crisis Morphs Into New Phase Portugal’s decision to follow Greece and Ireland in seeking a European Union-led bailout may mark a watershed in the region’s debt crisis. Instead of a falling domino that threatens to topple countries higher up the credit- quality… Continue reading Portugal Gets A Bailout
<Click on graphic for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – THOMAS J. DONOHUE AND PERRIN BEATTY: Canadian Oil to the U.S. Rescue Canada already supplies more than two million of the 11 million barrels of oil the U.S. uses each day. A new pipeline from Alberta can supply an additional 1.1 million barrels It… Continue reading Is This Another Reason For Higher Crude Prices?
Comment Jim Bianco spoke at the Grant’s Interest Rates Observer conference last week. Below is Jim Grant’s article on this speech. Grant’s Conference
The New York Times – Egypt Protests Go On, Seeking New Beginning The protests against the dean are just one reflection of the demand throughout Egypt for a new order, nearly two months after Hosni Mubarak was toppled. In government ministries, factories and especially universities, daily protests have focused on those viewed as Mr. Mubarak’s… Continue reading The Situation In Egypt Is Not Improving
The Economist – The Federal Reserve: Off message Ignore the hawkish rhetoric. The Fed isn’t about to tighten WHEN the Federal Reserve put its monetary foot to the floor two years ago, it had plenty of company. These days America increasingly looks like the outlier. Emerging markets have been tightening for months—China’s central bank raised… Continue reading More On The Federal Reserve
The Economist – Buttonwood: The foolishness of crowds Investors tend to chase the latest fad To investigate the investment success of crowds, The Economist asked Morningstar, an investment-research firm, to send us fund-flow data and performance statistics for its American mutual-fund range. We then applied some simple tests. Did investors plonk their money into an… Continue reading Flows Follow Performance
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Repos Mired in Collateral Shortage, Cash Glut: Chart of the Day “The current state of the overnight market can be described as a collateral shortage combined with a cash glut,” Scott Skyrm, senior vice president and head of repo and money markets for NewEdge USA LLC in… Continue reading Repo
The Wall Street Journal – David Weidner: St. Warren No Longer Is Warren Buffett losing his Midas touch? No, not that one. He still knows how to make money. Think more of his ability to shape his reputation. No one has quite done it like Mr. Buffett. He created an image of folksy charm and… Continue reading St. Warren No Longer