Wolf Richter

I’ve Hammered On Japan’s Fiscal Nightmare, Abenomics, TEPCO, And Debacles… But There’s More To Japan

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Dear Readers, friends, traders, gladiators, hard-working guys dreaming of retirement…. My personal relationship with Japan goes back to 1996, so here’s something different, something that isn’t cynical and harsh and dark, but appreciative and I hope enjoyable.

German High Court Blows Up Euro, Says ‘Oh Wait,’ Abdicates

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The ECB’s money-printing and bond-buying promise, lovingly dubbed Outright Monetary Transactions, became the bailing wire and duct tape that has kept the Eurozone together to this day. Turns out, it’s illegal under the EU treaties and unconstitutional in Germany.

Cracks In The Tech Bubble (That Doesn’t Exist)

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It’s “a technology everyone is going to have,” said a Bay Area real estate broker as he explained why realtors use drones to shoot aerial videos of high-end properties. And it’s illegal. But no one is going to be able to stop it, he implied.

Fed Flails About To Squash “Misleading” (Very Inconvenient) Unemployment Measure

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The Fed uses the easing unemployment rate as proof that its heroic policies are successful and that Bernanke could ride off into the sunset with a nimbus above his head. Other official measures are less gung-ho. And the most important one has become the Fed’s nightmare.

Giant Sucking Sound? Emerging-Markets Fiasco To Topple European Banks

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It’s not like Europe is out of the woods, after years of recession, lurching from bank bailout to country bailout, and sweeping remaining fetid matters under the rug. But its banks are now sinking deeper into an even greater morass: the emerging-markets fiasco.

Stocks Plunge: ‘And This Too Shall Pass,’ Or Something

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The last stock-market bears have gone into hibernation, browbeaten and humiliated and ridiculed by years of brilliant rallies. Clinging to their analyses and the now silly notion that stocks should trade based on economic realities, they lost clients and money and their jobs.

Crazy Abenomics Orgy In Japan Is Ending Already – Pounding Hangover Next

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Kudos to the Bank of Japan. Its heroic campaign to water down the yen has borne fruit. The people may not have noticed it because it’s not indicated on their bank and brokerage statements, but 20% of their magnificent wealth has gone up in smoke in 2013.

What To Expect From Fed Chair Yellen In One Cartoon

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Monday is Janet Yellen’s first day on the job as Chair of the Federal Reserve, and so, all wishful thinking aside, it’s crucial that we obtain, one way or the other, a clear picture of what her glorious tenure will look like.

No Wonder German Workers Drag Down Retail Sales – And Much Of The Economy

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Not that 2013 was such a great year in Germany, economically speaking, with growth stalling at barely above the zero line. But it was a superb year for extracting taxes from hard-working people. And it shoved Germany deeper into two decades of retail quagmire.

The Exquisitely Reengineered Frankenstein Housing Monster

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It’s back, a new and improved contraption, a synthetic structured security that on its polished surface looks like that triple-A rated mortgage-backed toxic waste that helped blow up the banks and your 401(k) in 2008. But this time, it’s different. It’s even worse.