We live in a non-linear world that is almost always described in linear terms. Though Einstein supposedly said compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe, it rarely is appreciated for what the statement really means. And so the idea of record highs or even just positive numbers have been equated with positive outcomes, even though record highs [...]
Mainstream commentary will continue to harp on the unemployment rate as if it were some kind of lucky charm for protection against an increasingly unrecognizable and frightening (to the orthodoxy) world around it. That appeal dominates even where it has so little if any bearing, as in negative swap spreads that were in truth an easy and simple warning about [...]
There is a great danger to negative interest rates, one that is denied by economists and central bankers because they deny the essence of wholesale finance. Stuck in the 1950’s, their solutions were arguable even then but hold little if nothing of value now. Markets are being reacquainted once more with the possibility (finally). As discussed last week, the Bank [...]
For the first time in thirty-five months, overall lending in Europe was higher year-over-year. Not since January 2012 had that been the case, as shrinking in lending was a de facto monetary limit on where the ECB wants the European economy to go. And while one month is not necessarily the start of a durable trend, indications had been for [...]
Very much in-line with the stubborn and creative effort to convince you that the economy has healed, policymakers have taken to the notion of “resiliency” as they seek to exit the QE business once again. Janet Yellen seems to work that adjective into every speech she gives, as if the power of her voice were enough to simply make it [...]
My colleague Margie Fernandez flagged a research report from Oppenheimer on the ongoing Basel implementation. It has been calculated, through various methodologies, that the implementation of both Basel III and Dodd-Frank may be “upwards of 15% of operating profits of small banks.” Now it should be noted that these figures were derived from a meeting with Frank Keating, former governor [...]
The European recovery narrative continues without abate despite the lack of validation by something so basic as employment. In tandem with unemployment, inflation has failed to materialize as promised, more than suggesting far more nuance to the recovery failure than simply a return of positive numbers (including PMI’s). While the disinflation has to be a welcome respite among far too [...]
Yesterday the Fed conducted the first test of its newly-minted Fixed-Rate Reverse Repo program. The auction drew $11.809 billion in bids (all accepted, thus the “fixed rate” rather than “fixed allotment”) at 0.01%. Since this is a reverse repo, the Fed is “borrowing” cash from the system, collateralized by the UST’s in its SOMA holdings. Most commentary continues to focus [...]
Since monetary policy depends on credit to realize any kind of “wealth effect”, debt issuance and levels are thus secondary indications of non-organic consumer or household funds availability. Rising mortgage levels are not only consistent with rising home prices, but also the tendency of mortgages in that situation to allow home owners to capture and then use excess home equity [...]
The majority of investors that are attracted to gold are those that view the metal as real money. Money is a supposed to be a limited, scarce object that is not subject to the whims of human interference. But, to the dismay of true money believers, gold long ago lost the war of the modern evolution of the nexus between [...]
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