inflation

Everything? *Everything* Screams?

By |2021-05-05T19:26:23-04:00May 5th, 2021|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Maybe it’s just me, but if you’re going to scream about everyone screaming about inflation it’s probably not a good idea to use Janet Yellen’s face as this idea’s avatar. Even if most in the public likely don’t know why, this can’t help your credibility with the rest who absolutely do. And by “the rest”, who do I mean? A [...]

Dressed Up Delusions of Bad Math: The False Term Premium Inflation Promise

By |2021-05-05T18:20:01-04:00May 5th, 2021|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Deconstructing long-term interests may seem like a purely academic exercise. This is certainly how Economists treat it, coming at them using their statistical models. The goal is always to properly interpret these most basic of economic, financial, and monetary fundamentals so as to understand where everything that matters stands. Getting this wrong is the difference between night and day; between [...]

TIPS for Secretary Yellen

By |2021-05-04T19:39:18-04:00May 4th, 2021|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

As Ben Bernanke has another one of his myths begin the process of falling apart, his successor Janet Yellen chimes in today with yet another reminder why that must be. Though Yellen now sits in an even bigger chair, so to speak, having failed upward to Treasury, this one’s the sort of thing upon which a Federal Reserve Chairman would [...]

Is Warren Buffett Beautiful?

By |2021-05-03T17:58:19-04:00May 3rd, 2021|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets, Stocks|

He certainly is at least when compared to the usual beauty contest contenders like Bill Gross or Jeff Gundlach who typically flock to these occasions. Here we are in reflation again, so interest rates must have nowhere to go but up. Therefore, it follows, bonds are in for a world of hurt all because inflation is being let loose by [...]

Bill Yellen

By |2021-04-30T19:53:28-04:00April 30th, 2021|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Treasury Secretaries, like Federal Reserve Chairmen, they don’t talk much about or pay much attention to the market’s need for collateral. They may pay some, but not specifically collateral if only under the vaguely defined category of “market consideration” when setting auction supply. Collateral shortages have come and gone, however dreadful, never eliciting a direct response insofar as supply has [...]

Finding Tame American Inflation In Chinese Industrial Sentiment

By |2021-04-30T16:36:39-04:00April 30th, 2021|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Trillions in “stimulus”, American consumers buying goods at a frenetic pace (in lieu of services), gasoline prices punishing, the start of favorable base effects, yet all those things couldn’t push the inflation rate much further beyond the Federal Reserve’s 2% explicit target. And remember, in order to meet the newly designed economic goals on the inflation side – average inflation [...]

Well, That Clears Up Nothing

By |2021-04-29T20:14:58-04:00April 29th, 2021|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Disappointing some, US real GDP managed to come in 6.2% higher in Q1 2021 when compared to Q4 2020. This was slightly less than the “consensus” which had figured around 6.6% growth and then the more optimistic calculations including the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow tool that had only yesterday pointed to 8% (with some outlier whispers dialing up double-digit gains). Even [...]

Another Hundred Trillion For The Library

By |2021-04-28T20:06:17-04:00April 28th, 2021|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Words have meaning for a reason, to convey precise ideas easily and readily understood by the reader or listener. If you use the term “stimulus”, as its root already suggests you’d expect something to be stimulated by whatever is being classified using this specific grouping of letters/sounds. Context rounds out the meaning.For the last twenty years, you’d have been wrong [...]

Predictive Value In/Of Low Yields

By |2021-04-27T19:15:09-04:00April 27th, 2021|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

The US federal government is the brokest entity the dark side of humankind could have ever conceived. And while that’s certainly the case, it is simultaneously true that our out-of-control politicians have no trouble whatsoever selling this deepening debt to a deflationary marketplace only too willing to snap up whatever is offered as if it was somehow scarce. Count me [...]

It’s A Rate Train Coming Your Way

By |2021-04-26T18:13:28-04:00April 26th, 2021|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

On December 26, 2018, the US Treasury sold off $41 billion in 5-year notes. “Only” $85.8 billion in bids were submitted, weakening the widely watched bid-to-cover ratio to a chatty 2.09. The prior sale of 5s had yielded a bid-to-cover of 2.495, nearly $100 billion in bids for $40 billion on offer, so something was clearly up. Had it been [...]

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