Everything Bubble

Last Time Corporate America Did This, The Stock Market Crashed

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Last Time Corporate America Did This, The Stock Market Crashed

So what happens when these huge and reckless buyers with their nearly endless resources start cutting back after a phenomenal peak? Well, we know what happened in 2008.

This Debt Is Explosive, And it Sits on the Shelf Everywhere, Waiting to go off

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on This Debt Is Explosive, And it Sits on the Shelf Everywhere, Waiting to go off

I was interviewed by Jorge Nascimento Rodrigues for “Janela na web” (a Portuguese site) and the printed edition of Expresso. After what I said, he might never interview me again :-]

Public Pension Plans: Boom and Bubble Forever Or Bust

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Public Pension Plans: Boom and Bubble Forever Or Bust

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’

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Fed’s Bullard: ‘The Bubble Was Developing Under Our Noses’

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.

QE, Bailouts, And Families Struggling to Buy Food

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on QE, Bailouts, And Families Struggling to Buy Food

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 Hazardous Hunt For Carry – Why The EM Rebound Isn’t Real

by David Stockman •  • Comments Off on The Hazardous Hunt For Carry – Why The EM Rebound Isn’t Real

The monetary plumbers keep banging money market rates to zero, thereby ignoring what the money market rate really is in a financialized, debt-ridden system: the price of hot money, the single most important price in all of capitalism.

The Brutal, Beneath-the-Surface, Slo-Mo Crash of Stocks

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on The Brutal, Beneath-the-Surface, Slo-Mo Crash of Stocks

Even while the googly-eyed mainstream media celebrate the Dow’s record high, beneath the gloss, thousands of stocks are getting gutted. And the carnage is spreading.

Explosive Hidden Leverage Threatens To Blow Up the Markets

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Explosive Hidden Leverage Threatens To Blow Up the Markets

We don’t know what hedge fund manager Steven Cohen will do with the money he borrowed from Goldman Sachs. We don’t even know how much it is, though it’s a lot; the personal loan is backed by his $1 billion art collection. But we know how he’ll use it: cheap leverage.

Banks And Hedge Funds Make Curious Deal On New Structured Toxic-Waste Securities

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Banks And Hedge Funds Make Curious Deal On New Structured Toxic-Waste Securities

New regulations force banks to get rid of CLOs. They’re similar to subprime-mortgage-backed CDOs that blew up in 2008. But CLOs are backed by junk corporate loans, including malodorous “leveraged loans.” And they’re booming again. So the banks made a deal.