Analysis Topic: Interest Rates and the Bond Market
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Eurozone Debt Crisis "Day of Reckoning' / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes:
How many times have we been told the Eurozone debt crisis is resolved, only to have it turn up again like a bad penny?
Last year's string of good news/ bad news on the Eurozone debt crisis had the markets going up and down like a yo-yo until the routine grew so tiresome that most people stopped paying attention.
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Thursday, May 03, 2012
U.S. Treasury Bonds are on the Move / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
By: Mike_Paulenoff
In the aftermath of the very disappointing ADP Jobs Report, the S&P 500 and its ETF, the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY), returned to revisit Tuesday morning's pre-spike low, which so far has contained the selling pressure. Meanwhile, the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT), which tends to move opposite the equity indices (as equity prices decline, bond prices benefit from a flight to safety response), is climbing and appears poised to take off into a new up-leg, depending on investor reaction to Friday's jobs data.
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Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Are Junk Bonds About to Become a Victim of Their Own Popularity? / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
By: Money_Morning
Don Miller writes:
In our current low-interest-rate environment, many investors are widening their search for more income by buying junk.
Junk bonds, that is. More formally known as high-yield bonds - junk bonds have been on a tear lately.
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Tuesday, May 01, 2012
The Market Calls BS on Spain’s Efforts to Cover Its Toxic Banking Debt / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2012
By: Graham_Summers
In a previous article I began delving into the toxic sewer that is the Spanish banking system. At the root of the problem is the previously unregulated Spanish cajas or regional/ local banks which own as much as 56% of all Spanish mortgages.
To give you an idea of how bad things are with the cajas, consider that in February 2011 the Spanish Government implemented legislation demanding all Spanish banks have equity equal to 8% of their “risk-weighted assets.” Those banks that failed to meet this requirement had to either merge with larger banks or face partial nationalization.
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Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Demand for Loans Rose, But Bankers Remain Cautious / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2012
By: Asha_Bangalore
The Fed’s Senior Loan Officer Survey of the second quarter shows an increase in the demand for loans from large, medium and small firms (see Chart 1 and 2).
Monday, April 30, 2012
Secrets of the Spanish Banking System That 99% of Analysts Fail to Grasp / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Graham_Summers
Spain is a catastrophe on such a level that few analysts even grasp it.
Indeed, to fully understand just why Spain is such a catastrophe, we need to understand Spain in the context of both the EU and the global financial system.
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Monday, April 30, 2012
Force Taxpayers to Buy Spanish Bonds is Ludicrous Proposal From Harvard Academic Economics Professor / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2012
By: Mike_Shedlock
As the economic crisis lingers on, the number of ludicrous proposals to deal with the crisis rises every month.
I have lost count by now of preposterous ideas and who made them (does anyone have the complete list?), but a proposal by Harvard Economics professor Martin Feldstein to force taxpayers to buy Spanish bonds surely makes the list of top-five ludicrous proposals.
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Sunday, April 29, 2012
Myth Buster:TARP Bailout May Realize A Positive Return for Taxpayers? / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: EconMatters
The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is a program initiated by the US government, funded by taxpayers, in October 2008 to bail out the banking and housing sector after the 2008 financial crisis. Due to the program's complexity and "repayment" schemes, there has been different estimates of what TARP would ultimately cost.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Central Banks at the End of the Pier Show / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2012
By: Adrian_Ash
— Tell me now, Stephen said, poking the boy's shoulder with the book, what is a pier.
— A pier, sir, Armstrong said. A thing out in the waves. A kind of bridge. Kingstown pier, sir [...]
— Kingstown pier, Stephen said. Yes, a disappointed bridge.
James Joyce, Ulysses (Paris, 1922)
Friday, April 27, 2012
Financial Tsunami Alert: Send in the Bond Squad / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis 2012
By: Ty_Andros
An underwater earthquake has occurred in Spain and is quite possibly occurring now in Italy. Killer waves are now headed directly at the central banks and financial systems throughout the developed world and at Europe in Particular. How long until they hit and do the financial equivalent of Japan's recent tsunami? Socialist bureaucrats and progressives on both sides of the Atlantic are locked in death struggles with Mother Nature. THEY WILL LOSE.
Socialist public servants and banksters in Brussels and Washington are DESPERATELY trying to repeal the law of nature: You MUST produce more than you consume or PERISH. Economic systems which are predicated upon the consumption of wealth rather than the production of it are now on their deathbeds. The obscenity of counting consumption as production, as does Keynesian economics, is exposed for its fundamental flaw -- it counts wealth consumption and destruction as wealth production. How absurd.
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Friday, April 27, 2012
QE3 is Back On If U.S. Job Reports Are Weak / Interest-Rates / Quantitative Easing
By: Bloomberg
Bill Gross of PIMCO spoke to Bloomberg TV's Trish Regan this afternoon and said that he is doubtful of another round of quantitative easing in June, but "if we see some weak employment reports over the next two months, then QE3 is back on." He also said that there's a risk of a double-dip recession "if liquidity disappears."
Gross went on to say that "euro land is a dysfunctional family...more dysfunctional than Democrats and Republicans in Washington, DC."
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Thursday, April 26, 2012
Portugal Bailout, One Year Later: Were You Prepared in Advance? / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: EWI
Make no mistake: The stakes for financial and economic survival in Europe are high. Seemingly everyone -- from investment bloggers to financial television hosts -- has something to say about the European debt crisis.
But with so many divergent opinions to choose from, which ones should you trust?
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Thursday, April 26, 2012
OMC Meeting: Nature of Economic Data Will Dictate Next Policy Step / Interest-Rates / US Interest Rates
By: Asha_Bangalore
Forward guidance for monetary policy of a low federal funds rate through late 2014 was retained, with a 9-1 vote in favor of this stance. President Lacker of the Richmond Fed dissented as he “does not anticipate that economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate through late 2014.”
The outcome of the April 24-24 FOMC meeting needs to be examined under three separate segments – the policy statement, highlights of press conference, and forecast.
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Wednesday, April 25, 2012
What if Rip van Winkle was a Bond Vigilante? / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
By: Mario_Innecco
The U.S. fiscal situation never ceases to amaze us here at forsoundmoney. With that in mind we have looked at some very interesting data and comparisons.
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Tuesday, April 24, 2012
European Central Bank: "Great White Fear" Takes A Bite Out of Recovery / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: EWI
It's been over two years since the European Central Bank began its open-heart surgery of the eurozone's anemic economy. So far, the procedure has included an unprecedented $3 trillion-plus in bailouts, monetary transfusions, AND toxic debt transplants.
Yet, according to a recent slew of discomforting news reports, the economies across the pond would still flatline in seconds without constant life support. Here, an April 18, 2012, Wall Street Journal writes:
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