<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Skies Darken for the Euro Dollar, Swiss Franc, Yen Poised to Gain as Haven Currencies All signs point to dollar strength and euro weakness in the coming days as an array of issues from the future of Egypt to euro-zone sovereign debt remain unresolved.… Continue reading The Euro
<Click on chart for larger image> The Associated Press – Gas pump prices highest ever for this time of year U.S. gasoline prices have jumped to the highest levels ever for the middle of February. The national average hit $3.127 per gallon on Friday, about 50 cents above a year ago. The price is about… Continue reading Gas Prices
The Financial Times – Developed world returns set to weaken Future returns from developed world equities and bonds are set to fall below those seen in the past 110 years, according to two heavyweight annual reports. A year ago Barclays Capital predicted that the equity risk premium, the excess return over cash investors need to… Continue reading World Growth
Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: Obama Budget Shows Hunter Thompson Was Right unveiling of the president’s 2012 budget today will show just how serious Barack Obama is about deficit reduction. Freezing domestic discretionary spending for five years, as Obama proposed in his State of the Union address last month, isn’t going to cut it. Non-security discretionary… Continue reading The Budget
The New York Times – GRETCHEN MORGENSON: Imagining Life Without Fannie and Freddie A report to Congress from those departments, published on Friday, provided some long-awaited analysis by the Obama administration about what went wrong in housing finance — and how to fix it. The report, entitled “Reforming America’s Housing Finance Market,” zeros in on… Continue reading Fannie/Freddie
Bloomberg.com – Bernanke’s 2009 Interview Withheld by Crisis Panel he Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, created by Congress to investigate and report on the causes of the market meltdown late last decade, won’t publicly release its full 2009 interview with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, a commission spokesman said. The FCIC is withholding records when… Continue reading Does Bernanke Have A Secret?
Reuters – Bernanke can’t be the sorcerer behind every ill Despite the Fed’s undoubted influence, other powerful forces are surely at work. Bernanke’s Washington neighbors in the White House and in Congress are perpetuating America’s fiscal problems. On the other side of the world, the Chinese government is keeping its currency unsustainably strong. And healthy… Continue reading Is Bernanke The Devil?
The New York Times – Housing Crash Is Hitting Cities Once Thought to Be Stable The rolling real estate crash that ravaged Florida and the Southwest is delivering a new wave of distress to communities once thought to be immune — economically diversified cities where the boom was relatively restrained. In the last year, home… Continue reading Housing
None Today
Bernanke’s appearance in front of the House on Wednesday provided plenty of fodder for thought, much of which we covered in an earlier Newsclips post. Representative Mulvaney’s (R, South Carolina) questioning, shown below, provided an interesting window into the logic of the Federal Reserve’s decision to buy $600 billion of Treasuries now known as QE2.… Continue reading The Logic The Federal Reserve Might Use To Argue In Favor Of QE3
<Click on chart for larger image> Comment In early November the Federal Reserve announced QE2 (which had been expected since Bernanke’s August 27 Jackson Hole speech). The program called for $600 billion of Treasury purchases by June 30, 2011. As the chart above shows, QE2 just passed the halfway point this week.
Crain’s Chicago Business – Apartment developers enjoy upswing as rents rise; condo woes deepen, analysts say The downtown residential market has become one of joy and despair. There’s joy and hope for apartment developers and owners, who are at least partially benefitting from the despair of the condominium guys. During the condo boom last decade,… Continue reading If Higher Rents Are Coming, So Is Higher Core Inflation