by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Bay Area Home Sales Plunge To 2008 Levels, Prices Soar
It starts here: evictions in San Francisco hit the highest level since 2001, when the dotcom bubble was disintegrating. Everything these days gets benchmarked against the last bubbles: the dotcom bubble that blew up in 2000, the housing bubble that blew up in 2007.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on German Exporters Fire Warning Shot About Russia “Sanction-Spiral,” Banks At Risk
It took a while. But it had to come, the public warning shot – after some ferocious lobbying behind closed doors. No one in Germany is allowed to get in the way of the sacrosanct exporters. The German economy, to the chagrin of neighboring countries, is based on them.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Coffee – The Craziest Chart Of The Year Already
I’m a coffee lover, and this is getting personal: our latte, espresso, or just plain good coffee is going to bite fiercely into our already mauled pocket book. In one crazy chart.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on What Caused The Glorious Jump In Household Wealth (In One Insanely Good Chart) And Who Will Blow It Up Again?
The stock market has soared for five years, risks have ballooned, home prices have jumped. Gains built on the quicksand of endless liquidity and a lackluster economy. “Irrational exuberance” is back in the Fed’s vocabulary. As the Fed’s Fisher said, it may end “in tears.”
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on They Actually Don’t Have A Clue About Employment And Jobs, Not In California
California is at it again. It released its employment and jobs reports today, in parallel with the national reports released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What a doozie. Is the California boom already over?
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Loophole Makes Hilarious Mockery Of US Crude Oil Export Ban
Washington is tangled up in spirited bouts of mudwrestling over exporting US crude oil, prohibited since the Arab oil embargo. Big Oil, environmentalists, consumer groups, lobbyists, lawmakers – they’re all at it. Yet, exports of “petroleum products” are soaring.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Aid for the Ukraine “Will Be Stolen” – Former Ukrainian Minister of Economy
The US offered the Ukraine $1 billion in aid, the EU €11 billion. The IMF is working on its aid package. All to shift losses from lenders, bondholders, hedge funds… to taxpayers. But it won’t rescue the economy. Because it’s a cesspool of corruption and plundering oligarchs.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Obama’s Growth Forecast Bullish, Wall Street Exuberant, Corporate Insiders Freak-Out Bearish
Despite breath-taking hype on Wall Street and President Obama’s budget that assumed economic growth of a glorious 3.1%, corporate executives and directors are quietly dumping their shares in bouts of extreme bearishness, just like they did before the last crash.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on “Targeted” Sanctions, A Triumph For Russian Isolationists
Regarding Russia’s Ukrainian campaign, Speaker of the House Boehner did what President Obama had done: posturing. “It’s time to stand up to Putin,” he said. NATO met. The UN Security Council met. EU Foreign Ministers met. Sanctions, that’s the common denominator.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on NASDAQ 10,000 – Or Something
“Paranormal liquidity stimulus” leads to “paranormal activity” to deliver that “parabolic overshoot” in asset prices. And there is no bubble in sight, not even in the Nasdaq Biotech index, which is up a cool 375%. Money is once again growing on trees.
