Fed Policy Is a Drag on the Economy, John Taylor, Wall Street Journal The Fed Is More Out of It Than You Thought It Was, Mike Konczal, Bloomberg Risk of Ultralow Yields, Richard Barley, Wall Street Journal Federal court vacates key part of EPA’s biofuels requirements, Nick Snow, Oil and Gas Journal Fed Seems Set to Keep The Money Spigot Open, Jon Hilsenrath, Wall Street Journal Fed's Long-Running Show Goes On and On, Specer Jakab, Wall Street Journal … [Read more...]
VIDEO: Jim Grant ‘The Fed’s Actions Are Counterproductive’
Jim Grant interviewed on Yahoo! Finance - Daily Ticker 1-31-2013 … [Read more...]
King Krugman: If Paul Were King
King Paul the I of New York lays out his dream that government revenues should be 40% of GDP. For a historical perspective, take a gander at the chart below. You'll see in blue the historic percentage of GDP received as revenue by the federal government (Source: WhiteHouse.gov) and in red you'll see King Krugman's new baseline. … [Read more...]
What We’re Reading 1-25-13
Fed’s Bond Buying Pushes Assets to Record $3 Trillion, Joshua Zumbrun, Bloomberg Want Better Roads? Kill the Gas Tax, Rohit T. Aggarwala, Bloomberg How Fed Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Zero, Caroline Baum, Bloomberg Rising House Prices, Not Stocks, Make People Feel Wealthy, Michael S. Derby, Wall Street Journal Obama May Help Democrats’ Future in Shift to FDR, Amity Shlaes, Bloomberg … [Read more...]
S&P Ripe for a Correction
After rocketing upward by 4.8% already in the new year, the S&P 500 is entering extreme overbought territory. On the chart below you can see the ratio of the S&P 500 price index to its 50 day moving average. The ratio is nearing 1.05, traditionally a turning point. What’s driving equity prices higher? It’s not earnings. Trailing P/E ratios of the S&P are increasing quickly. Is the market expecting faster growth in the future? Forward P/E ratios are increasing too, so that’s not the root cause. More likely, the cause is that the massive amounts of high powered money … [Read more...]
Election Year Buzz Turns into Hangover
Surprise, surprise, consumer sentiment in America reached its post-recession high in November, just as politicians were sending Americans to bed each night with dreams of jobs and prosperity on the horizon. Meanwhile, Americans supporting incumbents in 2012 told themselves everything was OK to justify voting for their candidates. That false positive sentiment bled through to surveys as expressed deluded hope. Now that those heady days are over, sentiment is based deeper in the reality that taxes have gone up on 77% of Americans, job growth remains anemic, gas prices remain elevated, and … [Read more...]
Ready, Fire, Aim!
When asked about the effectiveness of quantitative easing at a University of Michigan forum recently, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a curious and terrifying answer. It was curious for how forthright it was. It was terrifying because if the Fed already knows the answer, then their actions seem all the more unjustified. When asked about the program’s effectiveness Bernanke said “So far, we think we are getting some effect, it is kind of early. We are going to continue to assess how effective [the program is] because it is possible that as you move through time and the situation … [Read more...]
What We’re Reading 1-18-13
Gold, Greenbacks and Inflation: A History and a Warning, Paul Moreno, Wall Street Journal German economy slows sharply, Michael Steen, Financial Times ObamaCare's Health-Insurance Sticker Shock, Matthews and Litow, Wall Street Journal Deficits, Debt and the Fate of the Dollar, George Melloan, Wall Street Journal Why a Debt-Ceiling Fight Is Good for the Country, Ramesh Ponnuru, Bloomberg If We Can't Kill Farm Subsidies, What Can We Kill?, Robert Samuelson, Real Clear Politics Beware the ‘central bank put’, Mohamed El-Erian, Financial Times Good news about real estate: Home … [Read more...]
Stocks Soar: Don’t Miss the Boat
It seems Mr. Bernanke’s bludgeoning of individual investors is finally starting to pay dividends. Four years of pinning short-term interest rates at zero with a promise to hold them at zero for another two years and a commitment to buy massive quantities of long-term Treasuries and mortgage backed securities ad infinitum has put stocks back in favor with individual investors, for all of the wrong reasons of course. Nonetheless individuals are buying stocks at the fastest pace in years. The Investment Company Institute reported net equity mutual fund inflows of almost $15 billion for the … [Read more...]
Insanity: The $1 Trillion Platinum Coin
If you haven’t heard of the latest ploy to monetize America’s debt, read onward. In the last few weeks an obscure idea has come on with a vengeance. Supported by left-wing politicians, economists, bloggers and even some people formerly considered rational, the idea of the $1 trillion coin as an answer to America’s debt problems is spreading like wildfire. If you’re not already wary at the mere mention of a coin valued at $1 trillion, it’s a sign of the sorry state of the country. Birth of a Bad Idea According to WIRED magazine, the idea was first broached in 2010 in what the … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 92
- 93
- 94
- 95
- 96
- …
- 116
- Next Page »