Federal Reserve
David Stockman: How The Fed Helped Bushwhack TXU
by David Stockman • • Comments Off on David Stockman: How The Fed Helped Bushwhack TXU
A Very Profitable Part Of Banking Goes Totally To Heck
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on A Very Profitable Part Of Banking Goes Totally To Heck
Refinancing mortgages is phenomenally profitable for banks – one of the few growth sectors actually spawned by the Fed’s herculean efforts to force down long-term interest rates through waves of quantitative easing. Banks went on a hiring binge to shuffle all this paper around and extract fees. But now, with rising rates, that business is getting decimated.
When “QE Infinity” Turns Into A Pipedream: Hot Money Evaporates, Rout Follows – See Emerging Markets
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on When “QE Infinity” Turns Into A Pipedream: Hot Money Evaporates, Rout Follows – See Emerging Markets
Printing money and forcing interest rates to near zero, that’s how the Fed and other central banks papered over the Financial Crisis, duct-taped the bursting credit bubble back together, inflated new asset bubbles, and propped up TBTF banks. It accomplished a huge feat: a worldwide tsunami of hot money. Which is now receding.
This is What Mucks Up Housing, Costs Homeowners Dearly
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on This is What Mucks Up Housing, Costs Homeowners Dearly
Home prices have jumped around the country, in some cities over 20% on an annual basis. “Recovery of the housing market,” is what this phenomenon is called. Everyone from President Obama on down has taken credit for it, particularly the Fed, whose handiwork this is. But there is a very ugly fly in this illusory ointment.
Fed: We Can Avoid A Crash At The End Of QE If Everybody Believes That Everybody Believes In A Mirage….
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Fed: We Can Avoid A Crash At The End Of QE If Everybody Believes That Everybody Believes In A Mirage….
What rabble-rousers, economists (those banished from the mainstream media), and bloggers have hammered on for years, a study by the San Francisco Fed finally confesses: Quantitative Easing didn’t do a heck of a lot of good for the real economy. The timing of the study is impeccable: the nearing end of QE – and the market mayhem it might cause.
David Stockman: Hedge Funds, Haven Of Hit-And-Run Capital For The 1 Percent
by David Stockman • • Comments Off on David Stockman: Hedge Funds, Haven Of Hit-And-Run Capital For The 1 Percent
During the 14 years since the LTCM crisis, the Fed’s interest rate repression policies have resulted in an inflation-adjusted return on six-month CDs of exactly 0%, David Stockman writes. It revolutionized the saving and investment habits of the wealthiest households. Unlike hapless savers among the middle class, the rich had an escape route.
Trouble In Junk Bond Lala-Land
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Trouble In Junk Bond Lala-Land
Private Equity firms have seen this coming for months. They’re positioning themselves for it. In April, Leon Black, CEO of Apollo Global Management, explained it this way to an incredulous world: “We’re selling everything that’s not nailed down.” Now they’re setting records – but someone will end up holding the bag.
David Stockman: Hedge Funds, Prime Brokers, And The Whirligig of Wall Street Finance
by David Stockman • • Comments Off on David Stockman: Hedge Funds, Prime Brokers, And The Whirligig of Wall Street Finance
In Last 12 Months: Fed SOMA Up 27%, Housing Prices Up 13.5%, Stock Market Up 22%, Jobs Up 1.7%
by Contributor • • Comments Off on In Last 12 Months: Fed SOMA Up 27%, Housing Prices Up 13.5%, Stock Market Up 22%, Jobs Up 1.7%
By Lee Adler, of The Wall Street Examiner: By now it’s clear to everybody, even the Fed, that QE does absolutely nothing to stimulate economic growth while fomenting bubbles in housing and stock prices. The Fed will disingenuously use steady job growth as an excuse to begin cutting back on QE soon. But its real reason lies elsewhere.