What the ‘Rising Dollar’ Accomplished (Apart From That ‘Unexpected’ Global Downturn)
Many if not most people were looking at Janet Yellen’s Jackson Hole speech hoping for some hint or clue as to her “hawkishness” or “dovishness.” As I’ve written before, that’s the wrong to look at the Federal Reserve and its policy. They want to raise rates simply because it’s been one hundred and nineteen months since they started lowering them. [...]
Durable Goods In July; Rinse, Repeat
The Census Bureau reported today updated estimates for Durable Goods in July 2017. Quite frankly, nothing has changed so minimal commentary is all that is required. The aircraft anomaly from last month faded, leaving total new orders of $229.2 billion (seasonally-adjusted). That is less than in May before the Boeing surge, and less even than estimated order volume in March [...]
Getting Harder Not Easier To Find Macro Improvement in 2017 (Housing)
The most recent housing data continues to suggest weakness. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports that sales of existing homes were down slightly last month from June. It continues a lower trend dating back to March. Overall, the level of resales is largely flat going back to the summer of 2015. At a 5.44 million seasonally-adjusted annual rate for [...]
More Noise Than Signal
A number of people have forwarded this Bloomberg article - Wall Street Banks Warn Downturn Is Coming - to me over the last couple of days. That fact alone is probably a good argument to ignore it but I can't help but read articles like this if for no other reason than to know what the crowd is thinking. The [...]
That’s Odd, I’ve Seen That Curve History Somewhere Before
Orthodox monetary theory tells us that central banks matter, a lot. Monetary policy is supposed to be the difference in everything from economy to currency. If one central is doing one thing and another central bank something different, it is presumed the only necessary information to infer what markets and therefore economies might do in response. The Federal Reserve is [...]
If 2014 Was Ultimately a Letdown, What Might 2017 Be?
Today’s topic du jour isn’t even a word but an abbreviated name. Whereas yesterday markets were somewhat spooked by a relatively obscure British firm, Provident, today they are again by still another. This time it’s WPP Plc, an advertising aggregation firm that owns a sizable portfolio of ad agencies located all around the world. Given that position, the company’s fortunes, [...]
It’s All Backward
Confirming that they inhabit the same planet but live in a very different world, Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank, who is front and center for global monetary politics this week spoke in Germany ahead of his Jackson Hole main event. What he said was astounding in the same sort of way a drunken man spouts nonsense [...]
Context For The Inflation ‘Debate’
You can understand to some small degree economists’ collective confusion about inflation. They believe in wage dynamics, where a recession through mass layoffs creates slack and thus depresses wages. The recovery in a period of robust growth re-employs those unfortunate workers, and after enough time when that slack is reduced or even eliminated wages accelerate again (increased competition for labor). [...]
Eurodollar Futures, The Verdict (Eurodollar University)
The American banking system had been primarily a domestic one throughout its early development. Despite, or because of, the rapid growth in the later 19th century, banking was orientated almost entirely inward to finance the needs of that growth. But as a growing national as well as industrial power, the US adopted several measures early in the 20th century to [...]
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