The Wall Street Journal – Pension Funds Flee Stocks in Search of Less-Risky Bets After making the same kinds of investment blunders as many individuals, corporate pension funds now are seeking the same remedies: fleeing stocks for the perceived safety of bonds. A growing number of pension managers are concluding their pursuit of maximum returns… Continue reading Pension Funds
Comment Jim Bianco was on Reuters TV yesterday afternoon discussing QE2. Many of the topics in this interview were detailed in our conference call yesterday (Handout, Audio, Webcast). To watch the interview click on the picture above. To see any of our interviews click here.
The Federal Reserve – Chairman Ben S. Bernanke: At the Revisiting Monetary Policy in a Low-Inflation Environment Conference, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Boston, Massachusetts The public’s expectations for inflation also importantly influence inflation dynamics. Indicators of longer-term inflation expectations have generally been stable in the wake of the financial crisis. For example, in the… Continue reading The Federal Reserve, And Only The Federal Reserve, Worries About Deflation
ES1029 Zero Hedge (Blog) – St. Louis Fed Says QE2 Would Be Useless, And May Be Damaging We highlighted the following report from St. Louis Fed’s Daniel Thornton in today’s Frontrunning, but it may bear repeating as it is the first written salvo in the internal Fed trench warfare over QE2. The report is no… Continue reading The St. Louis Federal Reserve Questions QE2
<Click on chart for larger image> SGH Macro Advisors – China, FX, and the US – The Backroom Negotiations (Redux) We have heard numerous rumors today from the market that a “NY think tank” is saying that US and China have done a deal on the Yuan where the Fed holds off on QE2 in… Continue reading The QE2 Rumor Mill Cranks Up
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Gold Fluctuates Near Record on Concern Prices May Have Advanced Too High Gold fluctuated near a record in London on concern that the metal’s advance as an alternative investment to a weakening dollar may have been overdone. Gold reached a record $1,387.35 an ounce yesterday as the… Continue reading Gold’s Record Run
<Click on chart for larger image> FreddieMac.com – 30-Year FRM Under 5 Percent for 23 Consecutive Weeks Freddie Mac today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey, which found that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate fell again to break the survey’s all-time low; the 30-year FRM has been under 5 percent for 23… Continue reading Mortgage Rates And Refis
The Economist – Foreclosuregate: Robostop The fuss over poorly reviewed repossessions exposes deeper problems “Foreclosuregate” flared up when an employee at GMAC Mortgage, part of Ally Financial, admitted to having approved thousands of repossessions without properly reviewing the documents. The company responded by halting sales of seized homes in the 23 states where court approval… Continue reading Foreclosuregate
Bloomberg.com – Subprime Soothsayer Bass Says Japan to Default on Debt as Economy Unravels Japan will be forced to default on its debt, Greece’s economy is “done” and Iceland is worse off than Greece, said J. Kyle Bass, the head of Dallas-based Hayman Advisors LP who made $500 million in 2007 on the U.S. subprime… Continue reading Kyle Bass Warns Of Tough Times
The Economist – American states’ pension funds: A gold-plated burden Hard-pressed American states face a crushing pensions bill Joshua Rauh, of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and Robert Novy-Marx, of the University of Rochester, estimate that the states’ pension shortfall may be as much as $3.4 trillion and that municipalities have a… Continue reading Pension Problems
The Big Picture – The PermaBear to English Translation Guide BLS: A secret society of mathematicians and statistical wonks conspiring to falsify economic data, formerly known as the the sect of Opus Dei; See also Birth Death Adjustment. Bernanke, Ben: Beelzebub Bubble: A catchall phrase used to describe any market not in freefall. Death Cross:… Continue reading The PermaBear to English Translation Guide