Wolf Richter

Municipal Bankruptcy? Why Not! And so The Floodgates Open

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Individual investors have a unique opportunity now to buy sewer bonds – yup, that’s where they belong – issued by a bankrupt county to pay off holders of defaulted sewer bonds who’ll get a fashionable haircut as part of the deal – a deal made in bond-bubble heaven.

NSA Spying Crushes US Tech Companies in Emerging Markets (“An Industry Phenomenon,” Says Cisco’s Chambers)

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Cisco CEO John Chambers had a euphemism for it during the earnings call: “challenging political dynamics” in China, without ever naming the NSA. Then there was India and others, including Russia where Snowden is holed up, and where sales outright collapsed.

EU Citizenship Goes On Sale, Price War Breaks Out

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The huddled masses yearning to breathe free in the EU drown by the boatload in the Mediterranean. They languish in detention centers in Greece and elsewhere. They’re maligned, hounded, sometimes killed. But it’s getting cheaper and easier for the rich.

“Confessions” Of A Master Of Revolving Door Between Wall Street And The Fed

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We’ve known it all along, but now a former Fed insider confirmed it. QE, despite the Fed’s relentless efforts “to spin it as a tool for helping Main Street,” was “the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time.” But it’s complicated. He’s a revolving-door Wall-Street banker.

The Day The Bubble Became Official, And Everyone Was Happy

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A new era has dawned: there is now a consensus that this is a stock market bubble. We’re back where we were during the last bubble, or the one before it. How do I know it’s not just some intrepid souls on the bleeding edge who are claiming this, but a consensus?

Coming Soon: Corporate Tools To Hollow Out National Sovereignty

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Now “trade agreements” are negotiated behind sealed doors, without public oversight, beyond the reach of Congress. The text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership is secret, but some sections were leaked. It deals with trade only on the margins. Corporate interests dominate. It mocks democracy, establishes kangaroo courts, and taxpayers are on the hook.

Watching The Fed Marinate In Its Own Artfully Concocted Pickle

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After five years of QE, and $3 trillion in new money floating around, we now have asset bubbles everywhere. Risk is no longer priced into anything. In fact, it has disappeared as a factor. And the Fed is publicly fretting about it.

Are You Overweight EU Equities For The Big Recovery Yet?

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Are You Overweight EU Equities For The Big Recovery Yet?

There has been a symphony of calls for American investors to plow their money into European stocks. So, net inflows into European equity funds have set records, driven by euphoria about a presumed recovery. Equities soared. But turns out, reality has bad breath.

High-End Food-Fraud Scandal Deliciously Spirals Out of Control, Whacks Japanese Consumer Confidence

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Today it was Hotel Okura Co., which operates landmark hotels across Japan. It confessed its restaurants had misrepresented 235 menu items. That followed confessions by leading department store chains, other high-end hotel chains, traditional ryokan hotels…. New revelations bubble up daily. And consumer confidence is taking a hit.

On The Surface, There’s Nothing Perturbing In The Challenger Job Cut Report

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on On The Surface, There’s Nothing Perturbing In The Challenger Job Cut Report

In terms of announced mass layoffs, 2013 is shaping up to be the best year since 1997. Overall, employers aren’t shedding lots of jobs. But glitter in some sectors covers up aggressive, permanent job destruction in other sectors – where the sky used to be the limit.