The pace of new home sales fell again in August according to the National Association of Realtors. On a seasonally-adjusted annual basis, the rate of resales registered 5.33 million compared to 5.38 million in July and 5.29 million in August 2015. The growth rate on sales has clearly slowed, and the NAR itself finds that curious in light of supposed [...]
With both the Bank of Japan and Federal Reserve today undertaking policy considerations at the same time, it is useful to highlight the similarities of conditions if not exactly in time. As I wrote this morning, what the Fed is attempting now is very nearly the same as what the Bank of Japan did ten years ago. In the middle [...]
There is absolutely no need whatsoever to pay any attention to what Janet Yellen says. There is even less call for parsing the increasingly ridiculous FOMC statement, particularly with regard to inflation where it will continue to suggest “professional forecasters” are the only way (left) to measure monetary policy effectiveness. Instead, four times a year the FOMC meeting coincides with [...]
What good is a target or even an emphatic commitment to it if you have already proven you can’t achieve it? So far the only “market” that really counts isn’t buying the new promises, either. We’ll see if that is just a knee-jerk reaction or if it re-ignites the contrary “dollar” trend that had so plagued Abenomics going back to [...]
On July 14, 2006, the Bank of Japan raised its benchmark overnight rate off zero for the first time since introducing the world to ZIRP in 1999. In doing so, the BoJ noted that the Japanese economy in its view continued to “expand moderately” and that risks inside the economy were “balanced.” The central bank also sought to reassure, further [...]
At the end of July with a majority of the 500 companies included in the S&P 500 index having reported their earnings, the tabulated EPS (as reported) was figured around $24.09. That was already down sharply from just a month earlier when compared to analysts’ expectations from just before Q2 earnings season started. In late June, the EPS outlook suggested [...]
Over the years, the “wealth effect” has been taken as a core component of monetary policy. Central bankers will not admit it, of course, but particularly stock prices are a central element of their strategy. It almost has to be that way given that the modern version of econometrics applies rational expectations theory as a literal condition. Since expectations form [...]
As if we needed more evidence, the Chinese liquidity system is stuck. As much as authorities in China might complain about the global credit-based reserve currency system, as PBOC Governor Zhou Xiaochuan put it in March 2009, and quietly seek out its replacement, they not only allowed it to happen they quite eagerly participated in it so long as it [...]
The economy of 2015 started out “unexpectedly” weak before succumbing to “global turmoil.” It was the events of last summer that began to sow serious doubts about not just the economic narrative seeking to dismiss weakness (“transitory”) but rather central banking and QE itself. The repeat in January/February further eroded mainstream credibility, particularly since only a few weeks before the [...]
The July update to the Treasury International Capital flows (TIC) was mostly the same as we have observed throughout this year. The private segment continues to buy on net while the official sector continues to sell on net. I think it fairly reasonable to conclude that the latter is purposefully designed so that the former can take place. In other [...]
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