Federal Reserve

Real Economy Bites Housing Bubble 2

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Real Economy Bites Housing Bubble 2

When the home-sales curve kinked south last fall, soothsayers had some handy reasons. And it would be temporary. Month after month, they came up with new reasons. Now they’ve used up all the good ones, but sales are still tanking.

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.

Housing Bubble 2 Already Collapsing for the 99%

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Housing Bubble 2 Already Collapsing for the 99%

This is precisely what shouldn’t have happened but was destined to happen: as prices are soaring, only luxury home sales are growing … 1% of the market! Something has to give.

This Happened Twice Before, And Each Time Stocks Crashed

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on This Happened Twice Before, And Each Time Stocks Crashed

In 2000 and 2007. The consequences were spectacular. Now, it happened a third time in fifteen years. And it’s forming an increasingly terrifying chart.

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.

When $1.2 Trillion In Foreign Bank Funds In The US Dissipate

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on When $1.2 Trillion In Foreign Bank Funds In The US Dissipate

It fits the pattern of gratuitous bank enrichment perfectly. This time, the big beneficiaries of the Fed are foreign banks. An unintended consequence, with big impact on the “recovery.”

Who Is Getting Crushed in This Bull Market?

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Who Is Getting Crushed in This Bull Market?

By now, this wondrous bull market constantly gets benchmarked against the dotcom bubble. It’s different this time, we’re told, even on NPR. But the wholesale destruction of financial assets has already started, one pocket at a time.

This Chart Is A True Picture of The Bank Credit Bubble In America, Now Bigger Than The Last One (Which Blew Up)

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on This Chart Is A True Picture of The Bank Credit Bubble In America, Now Bigger Than The Last One (Which Blew Up)

For a while, rumor had it that banks weren’t lending, and that this was the reason the recovery has been so crummy. There was no demand for loans, and banks were too tight with their lending standards. Or so the story went.

Biggest Credit Bubble in History Runs Out Of Time

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Biggest Credit Bubble in History Runs Out Of Time

Yield investors, driven to insanity by the Fed’s interest-rate repression, hold their noses and close their eyes to scrape up even the crappiest paper just to get a little extra yield. “On the way in, there’s insatiable demand.” Alas, “it’s going to be a disaster on the way out.”

Richest 200 Moguls Made $13.9 Billion Today

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Richest 200 Moguls Made $13.9 Billion Today

Bernanke doesn’t regret any of the Fed’s actions, he said, except not explaining them to the people. They “really don’t understand why we did what we did,” he said. But there are a few people who do understand.