Federal Reserve

Housing Bubble 2.0 Veers Elegantly

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Housing Bubble 2.0 Veers Elegantly

They’re not even trying to blame the weather this time. “Housing affordability is really taking a bite out of the market,” is how Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors explained the March home sales fiasco. “We haven’t seen this issue since 2007.” In Southern California, the median price soared to a…

What the Heck is Going on With US Treasuries In Belgium?

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on What the Heck is Going on With US Treasuries In Belgium?

The tiny country of Belgium with a GDP of $484 billion, a country that became famous to the chagrin of some people because it did just fine for a couple of years without a national government – well, it’s growing an enormous mountain of US Treasuries.

What Happens When ‘All Assets Have Become Too Expensive?’

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on What Happens When ‘All Assets Have Become Too Expensive?’

A report from the asset management and investment banking division of Groupe BPCE, the second largest bank in France, predicts what daredevil voices at the maligned margin of financial analysis have worried about for a while: another global financial panic.

Biggest Credit Bubble in History Flashes Warning: ‘Seek Cover’

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Biggest Credit Bubble in History Flashes Warning: ‘Seek Cover’

Hidden in the IMF’s Global Financial Stability Report is a doozie of a chart. “Seek cover, implosion in sight,” it screams. It depicts the bubble in covenant-lite and second-lien loans, the same that helped blow up the banks in 2008. Only this time, they’re even worse.

America’s Structural Unemployment Crisis in Two Charts

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on America’s Structural Unemployment Crisis in Two Charts

It didn’t even start with the financial crisis. It started before the 2001 recession. But the strategy exploded in 2009, and it’s still getting worse.

Dollar Hegemony Under Attack By Export-Superpowers Germany and China

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Dollar Hegemony Under Attack By Export-Superpowers Germany and China

The word dollar didn’t even come up when the Bundesbank signed the agreement with the People’s Bank of China. President Xi Jinping and Chancellor Angela Merkel looked on. It was serious business. Everyone knew what this was about. No one had to say it.

Paul “Contrafactual” Krugman: The Laureate of Keynesian Babble

by David Stockman •  • Comments Off on Paul “Contrafactual” Krugman: The Laureate of Keynesian Babble

The Fed prints $4 trillion and the national debt jumps $9 trillion in six years. We’re now in month 57 of the expansion, beyond the average 53 months – already on borrowed time. Now comes Professor Krugman proposing to “do something.”

The Risk of Stock-Market Vertigo

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on The Risk of Stock-Market Vertigo

What can possibly go wrong with stocks these days? Five years of the Fed’s QE and zero-interest-rate policy, and look what happened: risks no longer exist. They’ve been priced out of the equation. But now the illusion is ending.