Bloomberg.com – Jonathan Weil: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Still Too Big to Nail The White House says it’s finally ready to consider new ideas for what to do about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Still absent from the government’s agenda is any serious effort to hold anyone accountable for their ruin or investigate why they… Continue reading Fannie & Freddie
Pimco.com – Bill Gross: Privates Eye Our New Normal, to repeat ad nauseam, is predicated upon deleveraging, reregulation and deglobalization, all of which promote slower economic growth and lower inflation in developed economies while substantially bypassing emerging market countries that have more favorable initial conditions…That return journey will be all the more difficult to accomplish,… Continue reading Bill Gross Talks Demographics
The New York Times – In Study, 2 Economists Say Intervention Helped Avert a 2nd Depression Now, two leading economists wielding complex quantitative models say that assertion can be empirically proved. In a new paper, the economists argue that without the Wall Street bailout, the bank stress tests, the emergency lending and asset purchases by… Continue reading Proof That The Bailouts Were Warranted?
The Financial Times – Bernanke must end era of ultra-low rates The case against rate rises seems obvious. Although worries about Japan-style deflation in the US are overblown, deflationary pressures are more worrisome than inflation. Moreover, under normal circumstances, monetary policy can boost growth in a range of ways…This is all fine in theory. But… Continue reading End Ultra-Low Rates Now
The Financial Times – Fundamental indices Index fund pioneer Jack Bogle attained the status of financial folk hero for his message to the masses about investing being a zero-sum game. On average, through a mix of higher costs and poor performance, he reckons owners of actively managed American stock funds did not get what they… Continue reading Index Investing
FT Alphaville – How to profit from the Euribor-Eonia basis FT Alphaville noted on Wednesday how the basis between the Euribor rate (set by a panel of 42 European participating banks) and Euro Libor (as set by 16 banks in London) has been diverging on the back of the European sovereign crisis. Of course, there… Continue reading Euribor & Eonia
The Big Picture – Morgan Stanley: More Irresponsible Mortgage Lending, Please Yet another economist who dines at the restaurant of the free lunch: David Greenlaw of the US Economics Team at Morgan introduces what he calls a “Slam Dunk Stimulus” of sorts: “If it were possible to inject a significant amount of stimulus into the… Continue reading The Latest Pain-Free Way To Improve The Economy
Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: Obama Cracks Down on Fraud, Opens Door to Abuse Finally something the president and Congress can agree on. Last week, President Barack Obama signed the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act (IPERA), a bipartisan measure passed unanimously by both houses of Congress. Improper payments are those made “in the wrong amount,… Continue reading The Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act
Bloomberg.com – Tom Keene: Whisky Bet Pits Rosenberg Against Faber on 10-Year U.S. Yield Economist David Rosenberg and investor Marc Faber have wagered a bottle of scotch whisky on whether U.S. 10-year Treasury yields can go lower than 2 percent. Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc., predicted yields on the 10-year note… Continue reading Gunpowder and Whiskey
The Wall Street Journal – George Carlin Never Would’ve Cut It at the New Goldman Sachs There will never be another s— deal at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The New York company is telling employees that they will no longer be able to get away with profanity in electronic messages. That means all 34,000 traders,… Continue reading Doing “God’s Work” Means No Profanity In Emails
None Today
Charts of the Week Topics Covered This Week Include: Bank Funding – The Next Issue For European Banks Gulf of Mexico Rigs Continue To Plummet Global Petroleum Inventories Case Shiller Update OER Opens A Window On A Societal Change Owners’ Equivalent Rent: An Update The Deficit Foreigners Purchase $910 Billion Of U.S. Assets In Past… Continue reading Untitled