Credit Card Balances, Burden, Delinquencies & Collections in Q3: Consumers Still in Great Shape with their Cards by Wolf Richter • Nov 15, 2022 • 111 Comments Credit cards mostly a payment method, paid off monthly. Importance for borrowing declined over the years.
Mortgage Bankers Predict Mortgage Rates to Drop to 5.4% by End of 2023. A Year Ago, They Forecast 4% by Now, but Now We’re at 7%. Wishful Thinking by Crushed Mortgage Lenders? by Wolf Richter • Oct 24, 2022 • 172 Comments This raging inflation will keep dishing up a lot more surprises.
Return of the Bond Vigilantes Sent Shockwaves Around the Globe by Wolf Richter • Oct 18, 2022 • 104 Comments Deficits didn’t matter – until raging inflation brought the bond vigilantes back to life.
Bank of England Bought Only Small Amounts of Bonds even Today, Warns Pension Funds They Have “Only Three Days Left” to Unwind Derivatives with BOE Support by Wolf Richter • Oct 11, 2022 • 104 Comments BOE is caught between 10% inflation it needs to crack down on with rate hikes & QT and a crisis over derivatives that leveraged UK pension funds blew their brains out with.
There’s Lots of “Liquidity” in the Treasury Market, but at Higher Yields, in this Raging Inflation by Wolf Richter • Oct 10, 2022 • 185 Comments Higher Yields Solve “Liquidity” Problems.
THE WOLF STREET REPORT: Something Big Has Already Broken: Price Stability by Wolf Richter • Oct 9, 2022 • 331 Comments The Fed will tighten “Until Something Breaks” and then pivot? Wait a minute…
UK Chaos Economics: Fretting over “Financial Stability” & “Contagion” after Gilts Plunged, Bank of England Buys Bonds by Wolf Richter • Sep 28, 2022 • 262 Comments It wasn’t big hedge funds that blew up, but £1.5 trillion in leveraged pension funds. BoE stepped in to bail them out and prevent further contagion.
My “Wealth Disparity Monitor”: QT, Rate Hikes, Dropping Stocks & Bonds Reduce Outrageous US Wealth Disparity by Wolf Richter • Sep 26, 2022 • 293 Comments Wealth of the “Top 0.1%” drops by $12 million per household; the wealth of the “Bottom 50%,” who have nearly nothing, rises.
UK Bond Yields Do Monster Spike, Pound Plunges as Bond Vigilantes Rise from Graves, Go after Government’s Fiscal Recklessness by Wolf Richter • Sep 26, 2022 • 127 Comments Bank of England: won’t “hesitate” to hike rates “as much as needed.” Bond market fears much higher inflation and interest rates, for much longer.
The Bear-Market Rally in Stocks, Bonds, Mortgages Wiped Out: Why This Nails the Parallel to the Dotcom Bust by Wolf Richter • Sep 25, 2022 • 336 Comments But this time, there’s over 8% inflation.