Update on the “Lock-in Effect” in the Housing Market: Below-3% & 4% Mortgages Fade Very Slowly by Wolf Richter • Mar 27, 2026 • 14 Comments Share of ARMs originations fell further and is at historic lows: FHFA’s National Mortgage Database.
US Winemakers and Beer Brewers Face an Existential Crisis: Plunging Alcohol Consumption by Wolf Richter • Mar 26, 2026 • 93 Comments Beer brewers have long suffered as Americans switched to wine. But since Covid, even winemakers got hit, and 2025 was really bad.
The US Labor Market Confounds with its Countercurrents. It May Be the New Normal Labor Market by Wolf Richter • Mar 26, 2026 • 53 Comments The Fed has also struggled in dealing with this labor market.
Fed’s Operating Losses Declined to $19 Billion in 2025, “Unrealized Losses” Declined to $844 Billion by Wolf Richter • Mar 25, 2026 • 36 Comments QE hangover a little less atrocious after years of QT and lower interest rates.
There Goes the Spring Selling Season: Mortgage Rates Jump, Mortgage Applications to Purchase a Home Drop by Wolf Richter • Mar 25, 2026 • 62 Comments Mortgage purchase applications are down by 35% from the same period in 2019 in a housing market that remains frozen.
$5+ Diesel Could Unleash Inflationary Mindset the Fed Better Not “Look Through.” Inflation Was already Hot before Iran War by Wolf Richter • Mar 24, 2026 • 118 Comments When this inflationary mindset takes off, inflation becomes like a runaway train.
Construction of Data Centers, Power Plants, Factories, and Office Buildings: Boom & Bust by Wolf Richter • Mar 23, 2026 • 53 Comments Explosive spending on data-centers exceeded plunging spending on office buildings for the first time ever.
2-Year, 3-Year Treasury Yields Spike, Flip to Rate Hike. Yield Curve Uninverts. Government Sold $606 Billion of Treasury Securities this Week as the Borrowing Must Go On by Wolf Richter • Mar 21, 2026 • 94 Comments Whiff of turmoil in the bond market as inflation fears moved to the front and center.
Treasury Yields Spike, 10-Year to 4.39%, 30-Year to 4.96%, Mortgage Rates to 6.5%, as the Bond Market Gets Antsy by Wolf Richter • Mar 20, 2026 • 54 Comments Bond market frets about inflation, leveraged Treasury bets unwind, housing market frets about spring selling season.
Money-Market Funds & CDs: Americans’ Ballooning Piles of Interest-Earning Low-Risk Investments by Wolf Richter • Mar 20, 2026 • 50 Comments They’re investment choices, like bond funds, bonds, etc., not that illusory “cash on the sidelines.”
