Don’t Let the Headlines Fool You about a Tiny Month-to-Month Uptick in Pending Home Sales: Still -21% from a Year Ago, -25% from 2 & 3 Years Ago. Have a Look at the Chart by Wolf Richter • Mar 29, 2023 • 115 Comments Spring selling season volume lowest since Housing Bust 1.
The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America, March Update: Biggest Monthly Price Drops Now in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, Dallas, Denver by Wolf Richter • Mar 28, 2023 • 257 Comments Double-digit drops from peak in San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas.
Battle for Deposits: Tired of Getting Screwed by Banks, People Yank their Cash Out, Forcing Banks to Pay Higher Interest Rates. Treasury Yields Are a Mess Though by Wolf Richter • Mar 27, 2023 • 198 Comments That’s how it should have been all along. But the Fed’s interest rate repression killed competition for deposits.
FDIC Sells Much of Silicon Valley Bank to First-Citizens Bank. Total Cost of SVB Collapse to Deposit Insurance Fund: $20 Bn by Wolf Richter • Mar 27, 2023 • 144 Comments Even collapsed banks have lots of assets that the FDIC sells to cover the costs to the Fund. Signature Bank collapse costs the Fund only $2.5 billion
Free Money Turned Brains to Mush, Now Some Banks Fail by Wolf Richter • Mar 25, 2023 • 177 Comments The Fed’s rate hikes and QT didn’t break anything except consensual hallucination.
The Fed Should Be Fired as Bank Regulator. Powell’s Discussion of Silicon Valley Bank & Regulatory Failure Shows Why by Wolf Richter • Mar 24, 2023 • 191 Comments The Fed is structurally too conflicted to regulate banks. The FDIC is not, but it needs tiger teeth to bite CEOs’ heads off.
Update on the Fed’s Liquidity Support for Banks by Wolf Richter • Mar 23, 2023 • 127 Comments Was it the Swiss National Bank that Borrowed $60 Billion via “Foreign Official” Repos for the Credit Suisse takeunder?
Layoffs in California Stall Employment Growth: San Francisco and Silicon Valley Hardest Hit by Wolf Richter • Mar 23, 2023 • 67 Comments But only 8% of Alphabet’s and 13% of Meta’s layoffs are in California: The tally based on California’s WARN reports.
Powell Explains the Fed’s New Regime: Rate Hikes & QT to Fight Inflation while Offering Liquidity to Banks to Keep them from Toppling by Wolf Richter • Mar 22, 2023 • 244 Comments An enormously important new regime gets engraved into central-bank handbooks. The ECB and Bank of England are also on board.
Fed Hikes by 25 Basis Points, to 5.0% at Top of Range, Pencils in One More Rate Hike, No Rate Cut in 2023, QT Continues: New Regime of Tightening while Providing Liquidity for Banks by Wolf Richter • Mar 22, 2023 • 267 Comments Stepping on the brake with one foot while putting an arm around the baby to keep her from hitting the dashboard.
