Consumers Got Whacked by Inflation, High Interest Rates, Layoff News, Asset Prices Falling from Lofty Peaks… And They’re Still Not Slowing Down by Wolf Richter • Mar 31, 2023 • 132 Comments The banking turmoil is seen as next test for consumers. Would be a hoot if they just go ahead and blow that off too.
Services Inflation Rages at Worst Rate since 1984, Keeps “Core PCE” (Fed’s Yardstick) in High Range. Energy & Goods Cool by Wolf Richter • Mar 31, 2023 • 158 Comments Nearly two-thirds of consumer spending goes to services. That’s where the inflation action is.
Population Drops Even More in California, San Francisco Bay Area, Coastal Southern California. San Francisco -8% from Peak! But 19 Inland Counties Grow by Wolf Richter • Mar 30, 2023 • 148 Comments Where is demand for homes supposed to come from when the population keeps declining?
How 3% Mortgages Altered the Housing Market for Years to Come: A Lot Smaller but More in Balance than it Seems, Hence Dropping Prices Despite Low Inventories by Wolf Richter • Mar 29, 2023 • 267 Comments Lot of demand and supply gone in equal, with no net impact on inventory, but huge impact on sales, commissions, profits, and jobs.
Don’t Let the Headlines Fool You about a Tiny Month-to-Month Uptick in Pending Home Sales: Still -21% from a Year Ago, -25% from 2 & 3 Years Ago. Have a Look at the Chart by Wolf Richter • Mar 29, 2023 • 114 Comments Spring selling season volume lowest since Housing Bust 1.
The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America, March Update: Biggest Monthly Price Drops Now in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, Dallas, Denver by Wolf Richter • Mar 28, 2023 • 257 Comments Double-digit drops from peak in San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas.
Battle for Deposits: Tired of Getting Screwed by Banks, People Yank their Cash Out, Forcing Banks to Pay Higher Interest Rates. Treasury Yields Are a Mess Though by Wolf Richter • Mar 27, 2023 • 197 Comments That’s how it should have been all along. But the Fed’s interest rate repression killed competition for deposits.
FDIC Sells Much of Silicon Valley Bank to First-Citizens Bank. Total Cost of SVB Collapse to Deposit Insurance Fund: $20 Bn by Wolf Richter • Mar 27, 2023 • 144 Comments Even collapsed banks have lots of assets that the FDIC sells to cover the costs to the Fund. Signature Bank collapse costs the Fund only $2.5 billion
My Company Ended Up with Some Exposure to Silicon Valley Bank: I Warned about Monogamy’s Downside Years Ago by John McNellis • Mar 26, 2023 • 55 Comments In 2011, I published an essay on the need for multiple banking relationships that hits the SVB coffin nail on the head.
Free Money Turned Brains to Mush, Now Some Banks Fail by Wolf Richter • Mar 25, 2023 • 177 Comments The Fed’s rate hikes and QT didn’t break anything except consensual hallucination.
The Fed Should Be Fired as Bank Regulator. Powell’s Discussion of Silicon Valley Bank & Regulatory Failure Shows Why by Wolf Richter • Mar 24, 2023 • 189 Comments The Fed is structurally too conflicted to regulate banks. The FDIC is not, but it needs tiger teeth to bite CEOs’ heads off.
Update on the Fed’s Liquidity Support for Banks by Wolf Richter • Mar 23, 2023 • 127 Comments Was it the Swiss National Bank that Borrowed $60 Billion via “Foreign Official” Repos for the Credit Suisse takeunder?
Layoffs in California Stall Employment Growth: San Francisco and Silicon Valley Hardest Hit by Wolf Richter • Mar 23, 2023 • 67 Comments But only 8% of Alphabet’s and 13% of Meta’s layoffs are in California: The tally based on California’s WARN reports.
Powell Explains the Fed’s New Regime: Rate Hikes & QT to Fight Inflation while Offering Liquidity to Banks to Keep them from Toppling by Wolf Richter • Mar 22, 2023 • 244 Comments An enormously important new regime gets engraved into central-bank handbooks. The ECB and Bank of England are also on board.
Fed Hikes by 25 Basis Points, to 5.0% at Top of Range, Pencils in One More Rate Hike, No Rate Cut in 2023, QT Continues: New Regime of Tightening while Providing Liquidity for Banks by Wolf Richter • Mar 22, 2023 • 267 Comments Stepping on the brake with one foot while putting an arm around the baby to keep her from hitting the dashboard.
Home Prices Drop Year-over-Year for First Time since Housing Bust 1. Sales Bounce from Deep-Dismal to just Dismal by Wolf Richter • Mar 21, 2023 • 334 Comments The spring selling season is here, folks.
Total Wipeout of $17 billion in Credit Suisse AT1 CoCo Bonds Shocked Because No One Reads Clauses Anymore? by Wolf Richter • Mar 20, 2023 • 193 Comments We’re not even getting peanuts? EU regulators came out and said, no, no, no, that’s just in Switzerland, not in the EU.
THE WOLF STREET REPORT: Free Money Turned Brains to Mush. Now Some Banks Fail by Wolf Richter • Mar 19, 2023 • 208 Comments The Fed ended Free Money, and the only thing it broke is the consensual hallucination that spawned during the Free Money era. And look what we got.
After Huge Plunge, Treasury Yields Are Due for a Big Bounce on Monday. Here’s Why by Wolf Richter • Mar 18, 2023 • 269 Comments What we saw on Friday was large-scale fear of taking big uninsured deposits into a potentially gruesome FDIC weekend.
The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in Canada: March Update on the Housing Bust by Wolf Richter • Mar 17, 2023 • 209 Comments Year-over-year, home prices plunged by the most on record as the seasonal uptick in prices was far smaller than a year ago.
