Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: How I Missed the `Housing Recovery’ of 2010 When I saw the headline last week, “Housing Recovery Stalls,” my first reaction was to kick myself for having missed yet another milestone in the U.S. economy’s long rehabilitation process. Then I came to my senses. What housing recovery? If there is, or… Continue reading Housing
Reuters – Euro has 1-in-5 chance of lasting decade – think-tank The euro currency area has only a one-in-five chance of surviving in its current form over the next 10 years because of competitive imbalances between its members, a leading think tank said on Friday. The Centre for Economics and Business Research said Spain and… Continue reading Will The Euro Survive?
The Wall Street Journal – Peter J. Wallison: Moving Beyond Fannie and Freddie The experiences of other countries show there’s no need for a government role in housing finance The new Congress, with a Republican House and a much narrower Democratic majority in the Senate, offers an opportunity for real reform of the housing-finance system.… Continue reading What To Do With Fannie/Freddie?
The New York Times – Public Workers Face Outrage as Budget Crises Grow Across the nation, a rising irritation with public employee unions is palpable, as a wounded economy has blown gaping holes in state, city and town budgets, and revealed that some public pension funds dangle perilously close to bankruptcy. In California, New York,… Continue reading Public Employees And Budget Deficits
Barron’s – Michael Santoli: A Major Top Is Unlikely Soon There’s widespread optimism that the rally of the past few months will continue. While such a consensus is often a warning sign, it seems that the positive outlook is merited It’s not just the investor-sentiment polls, uncomfortably heavy on optimists in recent weeks, that continue… Continue reading Are Stocks Topping? Yes, No, Maybe
The Wall Street Journal – Big Firms Poised to Spend Again At the end of the third quarter, cash held by 419 nonfinancial companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 list was up 49% from three years ago—before the start of the recession—while total debt was up a more modest 14%, according to an analysis… Continue reading Corporations
Reuters – Hedge funds offered weak returns in 2010 Hedge funds often claim to offer strong returns that are not correlated with broader markets, but in 2010 many failed on both of those counts. That failure came in large part because hedge funds cannot make as many bets with borrowed money, analysts said. Hedge funds… Continue reading Hedge Funds
Bloomberg.com – S&P Index 86% Gain From March ’09 Means Wait ‘Til Next Year for New Normal An improving global economy and record earnings are helping U.S. stocks defy predictions for a “new normal” of below-average returns. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 13 percent in 2010, bringing the advance since March 2009 to… Continue reading The State Of The New Normal
Bloomberg.com – Asian Currencies Complete Biggest Annual Gain Since 2006 on Capital Flows Asian currencies completed their biggest gain since 2006 as the region’s world-leading economic growth and widening interest-rate premiums attracted capital from overseas. The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index, which tracks the 10 most-active currencies excluding the yen, climbed 5.2 percent in 2010 as… Continue reading Asian Currencies And Capital Flows
The New York Times – The New Speed of Money, Reshaping Markets In many of the world’s markets, nearly all stock trading is now conducted by computers talking to other computers at high speeds. As the machines have taken over, trading has been migrating from raucous, populated trading floors like those of the New York… Continue reading Electronic Trading
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The Economist – Charts of 2010: A year in nine pictures THE global property bust that pulled the world into recession in 2008 began to lift in 2010. House prices turned up in Britain and stabilised in America (chart 1) but slid further in Spain. The process of deleveraging kept rich-world inflation subdued (chart 2)… Continue reading A Look Back At 2010