If you remember back to September 2019’s repo rumble, in its immediate aftermath - as well as for some time thereafter - a common explanation put forward for the disruption had been related to a sudden increase in tax liabilities. It was said that an unusually high level of especially corporate receipts had left the Treasury flush with extra cash. [...]
The good news, such that it might be, is that the BLS - using data from the Census Bureau - believes that the American population is slowing down. According to the latest Civilian Non-institutional population estimates for January 2021, published alongside the current payroll report, the count was adjusted downward by around 400,000 consistent with the same kind and level [...]
Everyone in Europe has long forgotten about what was going on there before COVID. First, an economy that had been stuck two years within a deflationary downturn central bankers like Italy’s new recycled top guy Mario Draghi clumsily mistook for an inflationary takeoff. Both the inflation puzzle and ultimately a pre-pandemic recession have taken a back seat to everything corona.Whereas [...]
44.2 China Announces 'No Sharp Turns' for Bad EconomyChina's economy reported positive numbers, yet they are anything but positive. Despite being the only large economy to grow in 2020, and in spite of analysts forecasting further acceleration in 2021, the "No Sharp Turns" policy implies concern of internal fragility. [Emil’s Summary] Ad Astra is Latin for “to the stars”, which is [...]
Mario Draghi is back to save Italy by now running it. Like Janet Yellen resurfacing at the US Treasury, these people are thought of in the most positive terms simply because the public remains blissfully unaware of basic data. Not without good reason; the public had for decades come to count on central bankers (for all anyone knew) to keep [...]
Tomorrow represents the 6-month mark for the Treasury market. On August 4, 2020, nominal benchmark 10-year yields declined to their absolute closing lows. Over the half-year since, rates have generally been on the rise which should be a long enough period by which to categorize our interpretations of what it all means.Most mainstream commentary places any upward trend (of any [...]
Was it all mere window dressing? A con pulled by cunning Communists who needed to secure the collateral security of an intended transition toward the opposite direction? What a difference a few years makes, then, given how when Xi Jinping began his term in 2012 the word most in the West used to describe his agenda was “reform.” Every strongman [...]
I think because the big, public failures of GFC1 haven’t repeated the public has been given a false sense of stability. While the idea of subprime mortgages being responsible for all that went on during 2008 has remained generally accepted, there was for a time an awakened recognition that big financial firms were doing complicated things in the monetary shadows [...]
There are those people who will remain convinced forever forward that the Federal Reserve is run by capable technocrats absolutely skilled at maintaining for the free peoples of the United States their financial freedom. At a general level, they are thought to do so by signaling to market and economic participants just how these should respond to monetary policy inputs. [...]
44.1 Linking the Long and Great Depressions to TodaySocial upheaval, mass unemployment and economic desperation - this isn't the first time. We look at how the modern unemployment rate came about during the crises of The Long Depression. Also, real GDP-per-capita growth comparisons between The Long and Great Depressions to today. [Emil’s Summary] Ad Astra is Latin for "to the stars", [...]
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