Wolf Richter

Boss, We Got a Situation in Natural Gas

This winter, polar vortices sent the price of natural gas into dizzying spikes and plunges, head fakes, and whiplash-inducing turnarounds. But now winter is petering out, and we’re left with a peculiar situation.

German Industry Goes To See Uncle Putin

The intricate and convoluted connections between Germany and Russia exude a peculiar aroma.

The Risk of Stock-Market Vertigo

What can possibly go wrong with stocks these days? Five years of the Fed’s QE and zero-interest-rate policy, and look what happened: risks no longer exist. They’ve been priced out of the equation. But now the illusion is ending.

Total Abenomics Fail Slams Japan Where It Hurts Most

Japanese corporations no longer even try to invest in Japan, but they’re falling all over each other grabbing the Bank of Japan’s freshly printed dough to invest it overseas.

Russian Economy Is Getting Hit, So Are Foreign Investors

Stocks down, bonds down, ruble down, interest rates up: the pinpricks of the sanction spiral are painful – for foreign investors.

The “Sanction Spiral” Elegantly Spirals Out of Control

The White House attacks Russian financial markets and oil, publicly and behind-the-scenes, Merkel suffers from “moral cowardice,” Russia develops the “Putin Doctrine” and threatens Estonia, and a crescendo of sanctions and counter-sanctions erupts. What gives?

Goldman Goes Bonkers Over Tesla

Wall Street once again stands out as history’s most glorious, most efficient, sophisticated, prolific “gigafactory,” to use Tesla’s newfangled term, for the production of self-serving BS. Investors beware!

French Megabank: No “Drastic Crisis” in France, It Will Be “Slow And Over Time”

Finally we know why French government debt and French stocks have performed so well, despite the crummy economy, and why France has been spared so far the fate of Cyprus: the fiasco won’t happen suddenly in France, the bank reported. It will be slow and torturous.

Will The Last Bear Please Turn Out The Lights

When BlackRock CEO Larry Fink grumbled about “way too much optimism” in the markets, he wasn’t kidding. An entire mindset is benchmarking today’s record metrics against the splendor of 2000 and 2007: not to warn, but to prove that this time it won’t end in tears.