The Economist – Economics focus: All pain, no gain? In a single currency it is hard to become more competitive and repay your debts Competitiveness is usually taken to mean keen prices: if the price of cars produced in one country falls, foreign demand for them expands. In a monetary union, with the nominal exchange… Continue reading Can The Euro Work?
The Wall Street Journal – How Fed Crisis Aid Got Tested Some Borrowers Pushed Limits of Funding Programs; No Dormant SIVs, Please Data released by the Fed last week show that Links Finance LLC, a structured investment vehicle managed by Bank of Montreal, and other entities that couldn’t get funding elsewhere were beneficiaries of the… Continue reading How To Get A Loan From The Federal Reserve
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – China Raises Reserve Requirements in Latest Cooling Effort China raised banks’ reserve requirements for the third time in a month Friday, taking another step to the cool its economy after new data showed a sharp increase in exports and a continued pickup in the… Continue reading China Hikes Rates
<Click on graphics for larger images> Bloomberg Businessweek – Cover: The Colossus of Wall Street Bestride the bond and equity markets, counseling the Treasury and the Fed, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is the most influential man you’ve never heard of As chairman and chief executive officer of BlackRock (BLK), Larry Fink controls more money than… Continue reading BlackRock
Bloomberg.com – Pimco Raises U.S. Growth Forecast on `Massive’ Stimulus Pacific Investment Management Co., which manages the world’s biggest bond fund, is raising its forecast for U.S. growth next year as policy makers pump a “massive amount” of stimulus into the economy, Chief Executive Officer Mohamed El-Erian said. Pimco sees the economy growing 3 percent… Continue reading Pimco
The Financial Times – Goldman CDS trading activities under fire Goldman Sachs ’ trading activities in the credit insurance market in 2007 have come under attack from a US senator after e-mails revealed a senior trader urged colleagues to “kill” some investors’ positions. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations, told a… Continue reading More Trouble For Goldman?
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Zero Hedge (Blog) – TIPS Breakevens Indicate Inflation Expectations “Double” From Two Months Ago Today the Fed monetized $1.6 billion in TIPS from across the entire curve, with purchases as recent as bonds due 2012 all the way back to 2040. Curiously, the most remarkable TIPS issue ever, the MY3 of 2015, issued this October… Continue reading Inflation Expectations
MarketBeat.com (WSJ) – Muni Market Selloff Reverberates in Bond Markets While the panic seems to be over in the municipal bond market, the ripples from the mid-November collapse continue to reverberate. One place it’s playing out is in the relationship between munis and the rest of the U.S. bond market. Today’s Fund Fiend column in… Continue reading Is Negative Press Causing Retail Investors To Withdraw From Muni Bond Funds?
The Financial Times – US Treasuries hit by biggest sell-off in two years US Treasuries suffered their biggest two-day sell-off since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, following a torrid month that has seen borrowing costs for western governments soar. Germany, Japan and the US have all seen their benchmark market interest rates rise by more… Continue reading High Volume Accompanies Treasury Selloff
The Wall Street Journal – JOHN F. COGAN AND JOHN B. TAYLOR The Obama Stimulus Impact? Zero Liberals are still arguing that the federal spending stimulus wasn’t large enough. How many multiples of nothing—its result according to new evidence—would they like? The bottom-line is the federal government borrowed funds from the public, transferred these funds… Continue reading Did The Stimulus Actually Stimulate The Economy?
The Wall Street Journal – Jobless Benefits’ Effect on Unemployment A likely rise in the U.S. jobless rate is the unfortunate reality of the government’s move to fund extended unemployment benefits for another 13 months. The effect probably won’t be huge, but it will be significant. And it may well hamper any recovery in investor… Continue reading Jobless Benefits And Unemployment