<Click on chart for larger image> The New York Times – Junk Bonds Are Back on The market for high-yield securities, as junk bonds are more politely known in the business, is booming as never before. And Mr. Casey, one of today’s junk-bond kings, is in the midst of a run unlike anything Mr. Milken… Continue reading Junk Bond Issuance
CNBC – Fed Needs to Pump Trillions More Into Economy: Analyst The Federal Reserve needs to pump at least $6 trillion to $7 trillion more into the U.S. economy to have any meaningful impact on sluggish growth, former Bush economic adviser Marc Sumerlin told CNBC. Sumerlin, co-founder of The Lindsey Group, a Washington DC-based economic… Continue reading $7 Trillion In QE???
The Financial Times – Lex: Weak Dollar What’s so surprising about recent movements in the dollar? Sure, it has fallen 20 cents to $1.39 versus the euro since June. But it has been at this level a dozen times in the past two years and is 13 per cent stronger than it was in mid-2008.… Continue reading The Dollar
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Investors price in US inflation fears Investors are betting that an aggressive push by the Federal Reserve to revive the US economy could drive up inflation, with Treasury bond markets pricing in the effects of a return to emergency monetary easing next month. Inflation expectations… Continue reading Are Inflation Fears Returning?
Bloomberg.com – Greenspan Says U.S. Creating `Scary’ Deficit By Borrowing Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. fiscal deficit is “scary” and the federal government needs to cut spending on entitlements. “We’re involved in a dangerous game,” Greenspan said yesterday at a foreign-exchange conference in New York sponsored by Bloomberg LP, the parent… Continue reading Greenspan Speaks And S&P Agrees
<Click on chart for larger image> The Economist – Political polls: Still worth reading? It is getting ever harder to work out what the American public thinks The immediate problem is the rapid growth in the number of people who have only a mobile phone, and are thus excluded from surveys conducted by landline. About… Continue reading Politics – Are The Democrats Going To Lose The Senate?
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas – Richard Fisher:To Ease or Not to Ease? What Next for the Fed? While all of us are impatient with the unemployment situation, it is worthwhile bearing Rajan’s wry observations in mind. There is a great deal of legitimate debate still to take place within the FOMC on the subject… Continue reading Does Richard Fisher Think Current Policy Is A “Nightmare”?
The Economist – Investment banking: The big squeeze Why the industry’s best days may be behind it The best firms, such as Goldman, used to make returns on equity above 30%. Even the laggards could clock 20% without breaking a sweat. Now the best that most can hope for is the teens, and even that… Continue reading Wall Street
The Wall Street Journal – The ‘Limited Inflationists’ Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his QE Street Band. We hope this experiment in re-inflating the economy works better this time, but mark us down as skeptical. There is no such thing as free money, and a second round of QE carries enormous risks for what looks… Continue reading More On QE
<Click on cover for larger image> The Economist – The world economy: The quest for growth It may depend on structural reforms as much as prudent macroeconomic policy LOOK at the world economy as a whole, and you could be forgiven for thinking that the recovery is in pretty decent shape. This week the IMF… Continue reading Economic Growth
60 Minutes – How Speed Traders Are Changing Wall Street Steve Kroft Gets A Rare Look Inside the Secretive World of “High-Frequency Trading” New Jersey stock trader Manoj Narang says his firm has never had a losing week because his super computers are fast enough to capitalize on split-second opportunities in the market. Narang and… Continue reading HFT on 60 Minutes This Weekend
The Economist – Oil prices: Crude awakening A stable commodity may be about to get more volatile But oil could be heading beyond OPEC’s comfort zone. According to Goldman Sachs, world demand in the first eight months of the year was 2.7m bpd higher than in the same period in 2009. On October 6th WTI… Continue reading Crude Oil