Analysis Topic: Interest Rates and the Bond Market
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
What's Up At the Fed? / Interest-Rates / Quantitative Easing
By: Dr_Jeff_Lewis
The last week was a full Federal Reserve soap opera, full of events and action that should appear suspicious to most anyone.
First, the Federal Reserve complies with a request to release information about its emergency lending and monetary policy actions during the financial crisis, at which point it is found the Fed was willing to hand cash to just about anyone. Next, Bernanke comes out on 60 Minutes, a very popular and watched program, to discuss quantitative easing three. Has the chairman gone mad?
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Japan Collection Call on U.S. Debtors / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: David_Galland
Hello, is this Japan I'm speaking to?
Yes. (tentative). May I ask who's calling?
It's the ACME collection agency. We're calling today because of your outstanding obligations.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Debunking Bernanke’s QE Not Money Printing Myth / Interest-Rates / Quantitative Easing
By: Axel_Merk
In his interview with “60 Minutes”, Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested it is a myth that quantitative easing implies printing money. With all due respect, Mr. Bernanke, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck!
Bernanke argues his policies do not amount to printing money, as neither currency in circulation, nor money supply has increased. This analogy is a bit like giving a loaded gun to a kid, then telling your friends that it’s not a deadly weapon because the shots that have been fired haven’t killed anyone. Granted, we are exaggerating here because, after all, it’s only money we are talking about. Yet, printing money may destroy one’s purchasing power and thus one’s life’s savings.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, December 06, 2010
The Federal Reserve's Secret Set of Books Hiding $9 Trillion Off Balance Sheet Transactions / Interest-Rates / Central Banks
By: Richard_Daughty
I have been grudgingly getting to work every day and on-time since, unfortunately, it looks like my incompetence, stupidity and sheer lazy worthlessness is going to produce another losing quarter, and the rumor is that the Board of Directors is looking for heads to roll.
Monday, December 06, 2010
Large Brokerage Firms Continue Pumping Collapsing Municipal Bonds Onto the Public / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
By: Fred_Sheehan
Undaunted by falling municipal bond prices, rising yields, and withdrawal of funds, research reports by large brokerage firms still mollify the majority of clients and fund managers with numbers and assertions: "General obligation bonds do not default." "The general obligation default rate is 0.01%." "Most states are required by law to balance their budgets." To these and other airtight arguments in the muni marketing kit, the proper articulation of doubt may be expressed as: "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah." Or, one might read "Possible Misunderstandings by Municipalities and Their Bonds."
Sunday, December 05, 2010
Fed's Global Pawnshop Hands Out $9 Trillion in Short-term Loans to 18 Financial Institutions / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Global_Research
mybudget360.com writes: Federal Reserve made $9 trillion in short-term loans to only 18 financial institutions. Since 2000 the US dollar has fallen by 33 percent. The hidden cost of the bailouts.
The Federal Reserve released a stunning report showing the details of bailouts that occurred during the peak of the credit crisis. They won’t call it “bailouts” but giving money when others won’t is exactly that. What the report shows is that the Fed operated as a global pawnshop taking in practically anything the banks had for collateral.&
Saturday, December 04, 2010
Massive Debt Monetization, The Failure of the Global Financial System / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Bob_Chapman
The price of commodities, particularly food and petroleum products, will be higher in the coming year, which will strain budgets more than ever for those who still have jobs. Unemployment will not get appreciably better and government debt will rise. Government is talking about raising the Social Security retirement age by three years, freezing payments and offering government guaranteed annuities in exchange for those of you that do have retirement plans. Two-thirds of those in and about to retire have only Social Security for 50% of their income. The money collected since 1935 is all gone, having been spent by past politicians. In fact, if you put all present and future commitments together you have a debt of $105 trillion.
Saturday, December 04, 2010
Whither Portugal, How Did they Go Bankrupt and Why Ireland is Like Texas / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: John_Mauldin
Ten Little Indians
Whither Portugal?
How Did You Go Bankrupt?
Why Ireland Is Like Texas
Why is it that the Irish must take upon themselves the debts of their banks, which in reality are debts owed to German and French banks? Why should the Germans bail out the Greeks and the Spanish? Is the spread of "contagion" starting to taint the debt of Italy and even Belgium, the home of the EU? This week we look over the pond (of the Atlantic) and wonder how all these things will end. As I noted last week, we are getting a string of not so bad news out of the US, so now there are really just two things in the short term to worry about (at least in terms of a positive US GDP): will Congress extend the Bush tax cuts and will Europe sort itself out?
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, December 03, 2010
Credit Crisis in Europe, Teetering on the Edge of Collapse / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2010
By: EWI
Crisis in Europe: Market moves around the world can impact your portfolio. So whether you know it or not, you probably have a stake in Europe's financial future. You must read this explosive new free report from our friends at Robert Prechter's Elliott Wave International. They've been anticipating and tracking the growing debt crisis in Europe, and they're giving away some of their most eye-opening forecasts and analysis for the region -- for free. Learn more and download your free 6-page report now >&g
Friday, December 03, 2010
ECB Held Hostage By Europe's Sovereign Debt Crisis / Interest-Rates / Euro-Zone
By: Money_Morning
Jason Simpkins writes:
European Central Bank (ECB) President Jean-Claude Trichet earlier this year resisted pressure to intervene when Greece's budget deficit spurred investor concerns about the viability of the Eurozone and its single currency, the euro. But a bond market sell-off forced Trichet's hand and the ECB began purchasing government debt.
Friday, December 03, 2010
Economic Ruination in Three Words or Less / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: Richard_Daughty
If you want some bad news, then Doug Noland, in his Credit Bubble Bulletin at PrudentBear.com, has some for you. He reports that that "Global yields are on the rise."
I was going to make a complimentary comment about how cleverly Mr. Noland conveyed such bad news in only five words; "Global yields are on the rise."
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Sovereign Debt Crisis Solution / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: Bryan_Rich
Last Thursday in a government declaration, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke about the debt problems in Ireland and other European countries. She said,
“Europe needs a new culture of stability,” and added, “A better monitoring system of the national budget would be needed for all European Union member countries.”
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Bond Markets Scream for Haircuts Today, Euro-zone Barbershops to Open in 2013 / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
Swaps are soaring in Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Greece, and now Belgium. The market has correctly figured out there will be haircuts on senior bank debts. The problem is the ECB wants a free lunch but no haircuts until 2013, hoping of course the need for haircuts goes away in a few years.
Central bankers cannot and will not win this battle of nerves. The market is bigger than the Central bank.
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
The Dual-Mandated Failures of the Federal Reserve / Interest-Rates / Central Banks
By: Richard_Daughty
I thought I knew everything about the foul Federal Reserve in that I knew they cause inflation in prices by deliberately creating too much money, which is the One Big Thing (OBT) that you do not want because of the social upheaval of people starving to death and rioting in the streets.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
QE2, Beware the Perils of its Success / Interest-Rates / Quantitative Easing
By: Vitaliy_Katsenelson
There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen. … the bad economist pursues a small present good that will be followed by a great evil to come, while the good economist pursues a great good to come, at the risk of a small present evil. -
Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Ireland Debt Crisis Bailout For the Banks, Subjugation of the Irish People / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: Philipp_Bagus
Europe is in turmoil once again. The sovereign-debt crisis threatens to spread from Ireland to Portugal and Spain. It all began with the financial crisis. Before the financial crisis, several governments of the eurozone, most notably those of Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain (PIIGS), had been able to finance their deficits at artificially low interest rates. Some had accumulated unsustainable levels of public debts.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Can the Fed Become Insolvent? Should We Care? / Interest-Rates / Central Banks
By: Robert_Murphy
In light of Bernanke's plans to purchase $600 billion of longer-term government debt, many academic economists are beginning to worry: Could the Federal Reserve itself become insolvent? In this article I'll explain these fears and I'll argue that the Fed, with its printing press, cannot really go bankrupt the way other corporations can.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Debt Crisis New Phase Striking Now! Despite Bailouts! / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: Martin_D_Weiss
Sadly, though, even while most Americans were enjoying the holiday or hitting the malls, much of Europe was sinking deeper into a new, more severe phase of its sovereign debt crisis.
This crisis is unfolding despite Herculean rescues by the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, November 29, 2010
Financial Contagion Could Spread to "Core" Eurozone Countries and the U.S. / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: Washingtons_Blog
It's not just the "peripheral" European countries which are in trouble.
As Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reported yesterday:
Read full article... Read full article...The escalating debt crisis on the eurozone periphery is starting to contaminate the creditworthiness of Germany and the core states of monetary union.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Global Sovereign Debt Default Bankruptcy Bailout and Contagion Risk Analysis / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
By: Nadeem_Walayat
This analysis seeks to update the global sovereign risk of bankruptcy following the developments of the past 9 months that have seen governments and economic policies change, economic austerity plans implemented or failure to implement, as well as the bailout of two Eurozone member countries with first Greece in May and now Ireland's Euro 85 billion bailout.