Humana, Caught up in the Metastasizing Medicare Overbilling Scandal, Enters Our Imploded Stocks by Wolf Richter • Mar 30, 2026 • 4 Comments Government crackdown and legal entanglements take all the fun out of the Medicare Advantage plan bonanza.
Status of US Dollar as Global Reserve Currency: USD Share Drops to 31-Year Low as Central Banks Diversify into Other Currencies & Gold by Wolf Richter • Mar 28, 2026 • 68 Comments The spike of the “non-traditional reserve currencies.”
Update on the “Lock-in Effect” in the Housing Market: Below-3% & 4% Mortgages Fade Very Slowly by Wolf Richter • Mar 27, 2026 • 51 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 • 133 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 • 54 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.”
Prices of New Single-Family Homes Drop Further, Inventory of Completed New Homes for Sale Highest since 2009 by Wolf Richter • Mar 19, 2026 • 37 Comments Hoping for lower mortgage rates that may not come.
Bond Market Gets Edgy as US Treasury Debt Hits $39 Trillion, Spiking by $2 Trillion in 7.5 Months and Not Slowing Down by Wolf Richter • Mar 19, 2026 • 80 Comments But debt doesn’t exist in a vacuum: The Debt-to-GDP and Deficit-to-GDP ratios provide (ugly) context.
Fed Holds Rates, now with Only 1 Dissenter, Sees Accelerating Inflation & GDP Growth by Wolf Richter • Mar 18, 2026 • 79 Comments Dot Plot projections still point at 1 rate cut in 2026. Powell: “If we don’t see that progress [on inflation], then you won’t see that rate cut.”
Hot Producer Price Inflation Adds to Fed’s Complex and Worsening Inflation Problem by Wolf Richter • Mar 18, 2026 • 57 Comments Worst 6-month PPI inflation since August 2022 (+5.3% annualized). After multiple rate cuts by the Fed, inflation heats up everywhere: services, food, energy, other goods.
The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America: Price Drops & Gains in 33 Big Expensive Cities, February 2026 by Wolf Richter • Mar 17, 2026 • 50 Comments Each city has its own housing market. In some, home prices have dropped a lot; in others, prices have hit new highs.
Pending Home Sales Ticked Up from Record Low. But Now Mortgage Rates Spiked Back over 6.3% by Wolf Richter • Mar 17, 2026 • 22 Comments Home sales in February, as feeble as they were, benefitted from the lowest mortgage rates in years. Those rates are now gone.
Another Mostly Empty Office Tower in San Francisco Sells for 75% Off: Juul’s Abandoned Headquarters by Wolf Richter • Mar 16, 2026 • 45 Comments Now there’s a new wave of investor-funded tenants in town that are swimming in cash: AI companies.
Treasury Yields Jump, 10-Year to 4.28%, 30-Year to 4.90%, Mortgage Rates Spike to 6.41%, on Inflation & Deficit Fears by Wolf Richter • Mar 14, 2026 • 54 Comments US Government sold $651 billion of Treasury securities this week into these rising yields.
