Wolf Richter

Political Union In Europe: Governance Of, By, And For The Elite

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By Don Quijones, a freelance writer and translator based in Barcelona, Spain. His blog, Raging Bull-Shit, is a modest attempt to challenge some of the wishful thinking and scrub away the lathers of soft soap peddled by our political and business leaders and their loyal mainstream media. At the tail end of the week, a…

Small Investors Exuberant, Margin Debt And Risk Of Crash Soar

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Small investors are having fun in the stock market again, after years of sitting out the most phenomenal rally. They’re leveraging up their portfolios. Margin debt is spiking beautifully. Alas, spiking margin debt has a nasty habit of ending in a crash. In one painful chart.

The Relentless, Systematic Tear-Down Of The Dollar Hegemony

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How long before the dollar surrenders its status as world reserve currency and number-one payment currency to the Chinese yuan and to that other currency everyone loathes?

The Smart Money Quietly Abandons The Housing Market

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National averages paper over gritty details on the ground and are a crummy indicator as to what is happening in specific metro areas. But even with this caveat, a national average suddenly sounded an alarm for the housing market: the smart money is bailing out.

California Housing Bubble: Now Even Teachers Can No Longer Afford To Buy A Home

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Teachers are a symbol of the middle class. In California, they earn on average $69,300 annually, fifth highest in the country. Not exactly a pittance. But it is a ludicrous pittance if they’re trying to buy a home.

Walmart International: Lousy Economies ‘Everywhere We Operate’

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With over 6,400 stores in 26 countries outside the US, Walmart International has smacked into the same problems Walmart has encountered in the US: it’s tough out there.

Without Them, The Housing ‘Recovery’ Remains A Sham

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First-time buyers, a powerful economic energy, create real demand and make the housing market grow. We’ve been praying for their arrival like we’ve been praying for rain in parched California. But the more we pray, the fewer there are.

What A Hard Landing In China Might Look Like (If They’re Lucky) Via A Boeing 767

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China’s enormous, strenuously obfuscated credit bubble has led to flagrant misallocation of capital and spectacular malinvestments eternalized in vast ghost cities. That this will end is clear. How it will, is not. But here is a hold-your-breath version (1-min video).

“Serious Dysfunctionality” On Wall Street: Facebook-WhatsApp And The Deals That “Marked The Top” Of The Last Two Bubbles

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Every bubble has its ultimate, craziest, mostest, farthest-outest deal. Its craziness can no longer be exceeded. Buyers simply vanish. Sellers get desperate. Newfangled theories and metrics sink into a morass of ridicule. And lots of money goes up in smoke.

The Madness of Abenomics In One (Crazy) Chart

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Abenomics, a democratically elected economic religion, was to save Japan. But the plan has already gone to heck. Not in small increments over the years with minor ups and downs, but in relentless month-to-month leaps whose viciousness surprised even the deep cynic in me.