Oooh, I can take only so much double-speak in a single sitting. The object lesson today is a Reuters article reporting on a Larry Summers speech, “Obama policies averted economic “abyss”: Summers.” Let us not forget that “Obama policies” in this case are “Larry Summers policies.” Obama has never displayed much interest in economics; he […]
Read more...Bloomberg reports that former Harvard Fund Management CEO, now Pimco CEO Mohammed El-Erian does not buy the idea that US is returning to normal any time soon. El-Erian in particular took issue with some of Larry Summers’ sunnier prognostications: El-Erian likened Summers’s view of the economy to a three- stage rocket attempting to escape Earth’s […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns In my last post, I presented you with a bunch of data on debt levels broken down by sector of the economy (see “A brief look at the Asset-Based Economy at economic turns”). I found it interesting that a secular pattern seemed to be at play when looking […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. This is a re-post of an article I wrote last night at Credit Writedowns where I stressed a U.S.-centric view of Faber’s comments that the Fed is a money printer. However, here I have re-dubbed the post to reflect Faber’s comments, which are more comprehensive, in effect pointing […]
Read more...Nouriel Roubini, who has backed off from what was once his signature bearishiness (he has been calling for an U or perhaps a W shaped recovery) nevertheless thinks the current market rallies are considerably overdone. From Bloomberg: New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini, who predicted the financial crisis, said stock and commodity markets may drop […]
Read more...More and more real-world data and forecasts are conflicting with the “green shoots-surely things are getting better” story. One view comes from Institutional Risk Analytics’ Chris Whalen. In his monthly Special Feature (pdf only, no online source), Whalen suggests that banks are far from out of the woods. Although he believes that damage will not […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. Yves’ posting will be at a low ebb over the next week (post-book trauma!). So, I will be covering some of the bases in the interim. Expect at least a post per weekday through next week. Below is one I wrote on the employment numbers which came in […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns This is a post I wrote earlier to day at Credit Writedowns. I just noticed that Albert Edwards and David Rosenberg are saying similar things. See the FT Alphaville post on their comments here. As for me, for the last few months, I have been casting around looking […]
Read more...I’m not certain I would give Greenspan great market as a stock market seer, but he may have gotten better over time. He saw the stock market as frothy in 1996 (the time of his famed “irrational exuberance” remark, and was a skeptic through most of the equity bubble, then threw in the towel and […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. Hi all. Yves is getting slammed because of her book project, so I am stepping in with a few additional posts over the next few days. I may have a few investment posts (which Yves usually avoids) to run by you. Below is the first investment-oriented one, a […]
Read more...By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. A 2005 letter in premier scientific journal Nature reviews the research on trust and economics: Trust … plays a key role in economic exchange and politics. In the absence of trust among trading partners, market transactions break down. In the absence of trust in a country’s institutions and leaders, […]
Read more...Um, this isn’t exactly consistent with the recovery story. From MarketWatch: Employers’ hiring plans for the upcoming fourth quarter dropped to their lowest level in the history of Manpower’s Employment Outlook Survey, which started in 1962. A net -3% of employers said they’ll hire in the fourth quarter, down from -2% in the third quarter, […]
Read more...We’ve commented from time to time on dubious Chinese data releases. But this report from Foreign Policy reports on an interest aspect: that the statistics are not manipulated only in the normal bureaucratic manner (fudging them) but also by getting companies to change behavior so it can be tallied in a more flattering fashion. The […]
Read more...Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has not given up on his deflationary views, which until recently were quite an outlier. But some recent data releases give support to his downbeat take. From the Telegraph: CPI inflation has dropped to –2.2pc in Japan (a modern record), -2.1pc in the US, -1.8pc in China, -1.4pc in Spain, -0.7pc in France, […]
Read more...Note that while this Bloomberg story discusses that some major hedge funds are skeptical of the theory that the recovery is on, for the most part, it is silent on how they are implementing that view. Recall that even if a trader does make a correct fundamental call, investing successfully on it is another matter. […]
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