Production & Exports of Crude Oil & Petroleum Products Soar to Record in 2023, SPR Gets Refilled (Slowly) by Wolf Richter • Mar 4, 2024 • 65 Comments US oil production boom has dramatically changed global energy dynamics.
US Natural Gas Production, Exports of Natural Gas via LNG and Pipelines, All Soar to New Records in 2023, Price Collapses by Wolf Richter • Mar 3, 2024 • 86 Comments The US became the largest LNG exporter in the world in 2023. It has long been the largest natural gas producer in the world.
Fed Discusses Balance Sheet “Normalization”: ON RRPs & MBS Go to Zero, Reserves Drop a Lot, Slower QT Reduces Risk of “Accidents,” SRF Calms Repo Market, Future QE without Increasing the Balance Sheet by Wolf Richter • Mar 2, 2024 • 186 Comments The Fed’s Waller and Logan lay out some basic principles.
ECB Balance Sheet QT: Down €2.0 Trillion from Peak, to €6.83 Trillion. The ECB Shed 48% of its Pandemic QE Assets by Wolf Richter • Feb 28, 2024 • 55 Comments A big milestone for Quantitative Tightening in the euro area.
PPI Inflation Spikes in Services and Finished Core Goods, Very Disconcerting by Wolf Richter • Feb 16, 2024 • 138 Comments Reheating services inflation isn’t a surprise. But the PPI for finished core goods saps hopes for goods “deflation” to hold down overall inflation.
Beneath the Skin of CPI Inflation, January: Powell’s Gonna Have a Cow when he Sees the Spike in “Core Services” Inflation by Wolf Richter • Feb 13, 2024 • 291 Comments But that’s how inflation is, once out of the bottle: It serves up nasty surprises.
Even Banks in Asia-Pacific (APAC) on the Hook for US Office CRE: Fitch by Wolf Richter • Feb 12, 2024 • 64 Comments That’s what “spread far and wide” means. During the US CRE bubble, yield-chasers not just in the US but globally gorged on invincible US CRE.
Our Drunken Sailors’ Credit Card Balances, Burden, Delinquencies, and Available Credit by Wolf Richter • Feb 9, 2024 • 113 Comments Credit cards are the dominant payment method, from reimbursed business travel to ecommerce and bar tabs. And some people use them to borrow.
US Trade Deficit in 2023 Dropped 19%, as Goods Deficit with China Plunged 29%: Imports & Exports of Goods & Services by Wolf Richter • Feb 8, 2024 • 48 Comments The much improved (or rather less horrible?) trade deficit was one of the reasons GDP was much stronger than expected.
Here Come the HELOCs: Mortgage Balances, Delinquencies, and Foreclosures by Wolf Richter • Feb 7, 2024 • 102 Comments When will it get messy for our Drunken Sailors? Not now.
