Wolf Richter

Public Pension Plans: Boom and Bubble Forever Or Bust

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State and city pension plans have been in a heap of trouble for years. What they need in order to be there in the future is a booming economy year after year and endlessly inflating asset bubbles. Otherwise, forget it. And even then, there’s a $1.1 trillion hole.

Fed’s Bullard: ‘The Bubble Was Developing Under Our Noses’

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Wiping out in one fell swoop six years of carefully orchestrated propaganda, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard admitted the Fed had dropped the ball during the prior bubble that blew up the financial system, and that it’s dropping the ball again during the current bubble.

Last Time this happened, The Financial Crisis Broke Out

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There comes a time when risk just disappears, when nothing can go wrong, when there are no dark clouds on the horizon. The Fed has a measure for it: the Financial Stress Index.

Selling Your European Stocks Before Everyone Sees This Chart?

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The European economy has been on a phenomenal roll since 2012, according to the soaring Stoxx 600 stock index. Recessions, unemployment fiascos, toppling banks, collapsing auto sales… they didn’t exist. But what the heck is wrong with this picture?

Even The Record Stock-Market Bullishness Is Fake

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Record bullishness about the S&P 500! But beneath the largest stocks, volatility has taken over ruthlessly, the market is in turmoil, people are dumping stocks wholesale, dreams and hopes are drowning in red ink, and Wall Street doesn’t want you to see it.

Real Economy Bites Housing Bubble 2

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When the home-sales curve kinked south last fall, soothsayers had some handy reasons. And it would be temporary. Month after month, they came up with new reasons. Now they’ve used up all the good ones, but sales are still tanking.

Dang, The Wine Bubble Implodes (It’s China’s Fault)

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Many in the industry believe that in China, 90% of the high-profile wines, like certain Bordeaux, are fake. Devastating thought if you keep wine in a refrigerated vault as an asset class. And prices have collapsed. But it’s not all doom and gloom, not with California wines.

QE, Bailouts, And Families Struggling to Buy Food

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It was a very basic question: Have there been times when you did not have enough money to buy the food you or your family needed? In wealthy countries, the percentages should be small, and given all the money-printing, it should be zero, you’d think.

The Big Hoax Of The Wall Street Hype Machine

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How the most important “data” Wall Street hands out via its army of analysts to rationalize lofty stock valuations is consistently (chart!) the biggest hoax out there.