Foreign Exchange Swaps: Hidden Debt, Lurking Vulnerability
How hidden foreign exchange swaps contribute to financial fragility.
Read more...Category Archives: Credit markets
Subprime Auto Loans Explode, “Serious Delinquencies” Spike to Record. But There’s No Jobs Crisis, These Are the Good Times
Nearly a quarter of all subprime auto loans are 90+ days delinquent. Why?
Read more...Coronavirus: Australia Faces Calamity
Identifying likely economic road kill from the coronavirus outbreak.
Read more...Do Davos Billionaires and Bankers Really Believe Booms and Busts Are Over Because They’ve Trained the Fed?
Fed tightening is no longer needed to create recessions, given fragile credit structures and a growing pandemic out of China.
Read more...Michael Hudson on the History of Debt Cancellation, Austerity in Europe, January 2020
Michael Husdon reviews the key themes of his recent book, ……and Forgive Them Their Debts, and discusses German austerity.
Read more...Debt Has Not Been Caused by Low Interest Rates, but Higher Rates Would Topple the Whole World Economy
Yet more official hand-wringing about interest rates…when they aren’t the core economic problem.
Read more...Student Loans, Meet Greece: Extend and Pretend Bond Maturities
Shed a crocodile tear for investors in student loans: they are sometimes discomfited by short-lived downgrades when loan maturities are pushed out.
Read more...Credit Cycles and Asset Returns
Yves here. I’m clearly not in touch. I am surprised that this finding, that credit booms predict equity busts, is novel. Of course, given that manias last way longer than cooler heads deem possible, judging the peak of a credit cycle is tricky business. Nevertheless, when a wee summer associate at bond trading powerhouse Salomon […]
Read more...Wolf Richter: How Ratings Agencies Inflate Credit Ratings to Get Deals & Fees
Haven’t we already seen this movie? Race to the bottom in gaming credit ratings agencies for commercial real estate Collateralized Loan Obligation deals.
Read more...After the Argentina Debacle, the IMF Endorses Weakening Capital Controls in Ecuador
The IMF is backing a tax reform bill in Ecuador that will enable capital flight and further austerity.
Read more...Sweden Retreats from Negative Interest Rate Experiment
Sweden throws in the towel on its negative interest rate policy as inflation stays stubbornly low.
Read more...There is No Economics Without Politics
Debunking the pretense that the economics discipline is neutral or objective.
Read more...Payday Lenders Offering Installment Loans to Evade Regulations – But They May Be Even Worse
When is a payday loan still pretty much a payday loan? When it’s an installment loan with annual interest rates over 100%.
Read more...Misunderstanding Volcker
A reappraisal of Volcker, who was more hostile to workers and less hard on financiers than the press would have you believe.
Read more...Why the UK Needs a Financial Transaction Tax
Claims that a financial transaction tax would be difficult to implement and raise little revenue are fake news.
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