Politico – Santelli compares budget crisis to Sept. 11 CNBC’s Rick Santelli on Sunday compared the budget crises affecting state and federal balance sheets to a Sept. 11-type attack on the nation. “If the country is ever attacked as it was on 9/11, we all respond with a sense of urgency,” Santelli said in a roundtable… Continue reading Rick Santelli Comments On State Finances
Bloomberg.com – China’s New Home Prices Defy Curbs, Rising in 68 of 70 Cities in January China’s January new home prices rose from a year earlier in all but two of the 70 cities monitored by the government, defying property curbs to keep housing affordable. New home prices in the capital Beijing advanced 6.8 percent… Continue reading See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil
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<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Misery index: plumbing the depths of despair Revolution is in the air. In its wake come attempts to recalculate the Misery Index. This measure is a simple addition of the unemployment and headline inflation rates. It first gained attention during the 1970s stagflation. The theory… Continue reading Food Prices
<Click on chart for larger image> Comment Since Illinois raised taxes in January, its credit default swaps have been narrowing significantly. The New York Times – Illinois Pension Bonds to Test Investors’ Faith Illinois hopes to sell $3.7 billion of bonds to make this year’s contribution to its fund. It is essentially paying a single… Continue reading Muni Test In Illinois
Reuters – Special report: China flexed its muscles using U.S. Treasuries Confidential diplomatic cables from the U.S. embassies in Beijing and Hong Kong lay bare China’s growing influence as America’s largest creditor. As the U.S. Federal Reserve grappled with the aftershocks of financial crisis, the Chinese, like many others, suffered huge losses from their investments… Continue reading China Uses Its Treasury Holdings To Its Advantage
<Click on chart for larger image> Shanghai Daily (China) – Hot money merely ‘an ant hill’ THE inflow of speculative capital into China in recent years has been no more than “an ant hill,” according to the foreign exchange regulator’s first-ever public report on the subject. So-called “hot money” – cash flowing into emerging countries… Continue reading China’s Reserves
The Wall Street Journal – China Central Bank Raises Reserve Requirement China’s central bank said Friday it will raise banks’ reserve-requirement ratio by half a percentage point, the second increase this year to withdraw excess liquidity from the economy and curb inflation. The increase, which takes effect Thursday, was widely expected by the market and… Continue reading Chinese Inflation
The New York Times – Mystery Surrounds Elevated Borrowing From European Central Bank Emergency borrowing from the European Central Bank remained exceptionally elevated for a second straight day on Friday, intensifying speculation that one or more euro zone bank might be facing new funding problems — or had simply made a mistake. E.C.B. figures showed… Continue reading More On European Banking Stress
The Wall Street Journal – Bernanke Defends Fed Policies Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke offered his most pointed rebuttal yet on Friday to foreign critics who say the U.S. central bank’s easy-money policies are causing inflation and asset bubbles abroad. The rest of the world has an interest in the U.S. recovery that his policies… Continue reading The Federal Reserve Defends Itself
The Economist – Bottonwood: Betting on Ben Central banks have been supporting share prices The ratio between the two was pretty flat for the first half of the 20th century, and then soared in the 1960s and 1970s, as the baby boomers left college (see chart). It peaked in the early 1980s, just as shares… Continue reading The Bernanke Bull Market
The Wall Street Journal – Split in Economy Keeps Lid on Prices “The pace of consumer price increases in the U.S. is quickening after being dormant for months. But a tug of war between the prices of goods and the prices of services, playing out beneath the surface, could keep inflation from becoming the worry… Continue reading Inflation