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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.

“Uncreative” Destruction: The Troika’s Hostile Takeover of Europe

by Don Quijones •  • Comments Off on “Uncreative” Destruction: The Troika’s Hostile Takeover of Europe

By Don Quijones: The story is now playing out across Europe’s bailed-out nations. The losers are by and large the poor and middle classes, while the beneficiaries are the same as always: the world’s largest multinational corporations and banks.

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.

This Chart Shows When the Smart Money Saw The Abenomics Fail

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on This Chart Shows When the Smart Money Saw The Abenomics Fail

This year has been lumpy for stocks around the world. Gone are the wild rallies followed by mild rallies interrupted by minor downticks, followed by more rallies. That’s so 2013. It’s as if on December 31, someone turned off the spigot. But in Japan, it turned into a rout.

“It’s not a bubble,” Retail Investors Are Told As The Smart Money Bails Out

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on “It’s not a bubble,” Retail Investors Are Told As The Smart Money Bails Out

“Biotech Stocks’ Rout Perplexes Analysts” the WSJ headlined the phenomenon, as analysts continue to hype this stuff to small investors. But hedge funds are dumping stocks, and private equity firms are dumping their LBOs. That’s the Smart Money. They’re getting out.

Russia Loses Leverage with China on ‘Holy-Grail’ Gas Deal

by Oilprice.com •  • Comments Off on Russia Loses Leverage with China on ‘Holy-Grail’ Gas Deal

Russia’s primary energy customer is Europe, which is now planning sanctions. That has accelerated the natural gas deal Russia is trying to hammer out with China. But they’ve been negotiating for years, the biggest sticking point being price!

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.

People In Eastern Ukraine: We Don’t Want To Be Annexed By Russia!

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on People In Eastern Ukraine: We Don’t Want To Be Annexed By Russia!

Armed pro-Russian separatists barricaded in official buildings in eastern Ukraine exhorted Uncle Putin to come to their aid. But sudden breath of fresh air: a poll found that an overwhelming majority of the people in that region want to remain part of Ukraine.

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.