“We’ve intentionally blown the biggest government bond bubble in history,” confessed Andy Haldane, Director of Financial Stability at the Bank of England. The bursting of that bubble was a risk he felt “acutely.” He saw “a disorderly reversion” as the “biggest risk to global financial stability.” Seatbelts are being fastened; the clicks can be heard around the world.
France Torpedoes American Movies, Shoots Itself In Foot
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on France Torpedoes American Movies, Shoots Itself In Foot
France vetoed the launch of free-trade negotiations between the EU and the US, though France has racked up a big trade surplus with the US and has much to lose. The problem: cultural protectionism. It wants “an explicit exclusion of the audio-visual sector.” A catch phrase for American movies! And a theme that is in the DNA of the French political class.
Bank Of Japan Machinations Crash Into Reality
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Bank Of Japan Machinations Crash Into Reality
Akie Abe, Shinzo Abe’s Antinuclear Wife
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Akie Abe, Shinzo Abe’s Antinuclear Wife
Germany Grapples (Again) With The Choice Between Its Constitution And The Euro
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Germany Grapples (Again) With The Choice Between Its Constitution And The Euro
During the hearings before the German Constitutional Court, Finance Minister Schäuble, perhaps unwittingly, put his finger on yet another fatal flaw of the Eurozone: a central bank that could bail out speculators and pile the resulting losses on taxpayers of other countries, no questions asked, whenever it felt like it, without controls – “to save the euro,” as it were.
The ECB’s Forked-Tongue Policy To Save The Euro
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on The ECB’s Forked-Tongue Policy To Save The Euro
In theory, Germany’s Constitutional Court could throw a monkey-wrench into the efforts to keep the Eurozone duct-taped together; it could rule against the ECB’s money-printing and bond-buying mechanism, lovingly dubbed OMT, that would create a “brave new Huxley-world of the unlimited debt,” a world where “money is no longer earned but printed.”
The Unthinkable Happens: A Former TBTF Bank Chief Goes to Jail
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on The Unthinkable Happens: A Former TBTF Bank Chief Goes to Jail
Contributed by Don Quijones: Just when you thought the concept of universal justice was dead, a courageous Spanish judge, Elpidio José Silva, did what no other judge in the Western world, bar Iceland, dared to do: He refused to grant bail to a former top banker, sending him to prison before facing trial for his alleged role in Spain’s financial crisis.
The Day The Big Fat Junk-Bond Bubble Blew Up
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on The Day The Big Fat Junk-Bond Bubble Blew Up
Junk bonds had a phenomenal run. With each truckload of money that the Fed delivered to the markets, valuations soared and yields plunged. Desperate investors, mauled by the Fed’s zero-interest-rate policy, took on risks no questions asked. But suddenly the feeding frenzy turned into a brutal rout – a harbinger of things to come in other markets.
Jobs Barely Keep Up With Population Growth
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Jobs Barely Keep Up With Population Growth
So, 175,000 jobs were created in May. The gains for March and April were revised down by 12,000. The unemployment rate ticked up to 7.6%, from 7.5%, or as the BLS said in its politically correct manner “was essentially unchanged.” With disturbing racial disparities that we’ve become inured to. A showcase of the dreary impact of the Fed’s policies on jobs!