Analysis Topic: Interest Rates and the Bond Market
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Sky No Longer the Limit for U.S. National Debt / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Pravda
The U.S. national debt has hit a new record. It has long been clear that no one can handle the problem. Therefore, the term, which the U.S. will need to come close to the legislative ceiling of this indicator, remains the main topic for speculation and forecasts. It is possible that the Americans will make it during the remaining several months of 2012.
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Wednesday, September 12, 2012
QE3, What’s the Fed Going to Do? / Interest-Rates / Quantitative Easing
By: Graham_Summers
Yesterday we worked through the illusion to the reality of the ECB’s “unlimited” bond purchases, the end result being that we discovered the ECB:
Monday, September 10, 2012
Why ECB Bond Buying Undermines Democracy; Is Draghi Above The Law? / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
A post on the the Fibs and Waves blog by "Blankfeind" outlines the actual legal case against the OMT. I believe the case is rock solid. How the German constitutional court rules in two days is another matter.
Please consider The ECB Thumbs Its Nose At The Law.
Read full article... Read full article...On September 6th, the ECB announced its Outright Monetary Transactions program, known as OMT. Justified as a means for the ECB to repair monetary policy transmission and to recreate the singleness of monetary policy for the euro area, the OMT offers an unlimited commitment by the ECB to purchase short-term (one to three year) sovereign debt in the secondary markets for sovereigns who agree to certain conditions.
Sunday, September 09, 2012
The Myth that Japan is Broke: The World’s Largest “Debtor” is now the Largest Creditor / Interest-Rates / Japan Economy
By: Ellen_Brown
Japan’s massive government debt conceals massive benefits for the Japanese people, with lessons for the U.S. debt “crisis.”
In an April 2012 article in Forbes titled “If Japan Is Broke, How Is It Bailing Out Europe?”, Eamonn Fingleton pointed out the Japanese government was by far the largest single non-eurozone contributor to the latest Euro rescue effort. This, he said, is “the same government that has been going round pretending to be bankrupt (or at least offering no serious rebuttal when benighted American and British commentators portray Japanese public finances as a trainwreck).” Noting that it was also Japan that rescued the IMF system virtually single-handedly at the height of the global panic in 2009, Fingleton asked:
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Sunday, September 09, 2012
Why The Fed Will Not Launch QE3 / Interest-Rates / Quantitative Easing
By: Tony_Pallotta
Whether the Fed decides to launch QE3 this week is far more a complex decision than they lead us to believe. It is not as simple as monitoring economic data and deciding whether to expand the balance sheet or not.
Yet the Fed rarely discusses what that other criteria is in making such an important decision. The recent Jackson Hole speech by Chairman Bernanke did offer some insight to the other factors, as well as his recent Congressional testimony.
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Friday, September 07, 2012
Supra Mario Bond Vigilante / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Adrian_Ash
"The objective of this programme? It is to repair monetary policy transmission and to recreate the singleness of monetary policy for the euro area." ~ Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, Thurs 6 Sept 2012
For the second time or more since May, today's Handelsblatt newspaper in Germany carries a big picture of Edvard Munch's The Scream.
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Friday, September 07, 2012
Draghi Buys Euro-zone Bonds, Fed Buys Time / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Ashraf_Laidi
ECB president Draghi has succeeded in reducing the relevance of the Bundesbanks opposition to bond purchases by making bond-purchases dependent upon ESM conditionality. And by integrating the conditionality of the ESM/EFSF plan into the much-needed bond purchase program, Draghi has also firmly sent the ball back into court of national governments.
Thursday, September 06, 2012
Bernanke Wealth Tax, Why Does He Hate Old People? / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Ned_W_Schmidt
A question that follows from the above is also of interest. Why is Bernanke transferring so much income and wealth from savers and investors to mega-banks and other speculative funds? We are of the basic crowd that believes that actions are more important than words. Since Bernanke has assumed a dictatorial role at the Federal Reserve, savers and investors have been punished. We need only look at the poor plight of savers to see the imposition of the Bernanke Wealth Tax.
Wednesday, September 05, 2012
Eurozone Crisis Spain's Capital Flight Is Now Bigger Than Asian Financial Crisis / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: DK_Matai
Spain is emerging as the centre of the battlefield for the survival of the Eurozone as the probability for further fragmentation and exits increases dramatically. The flight of capital from Spain is now bigger than what Indonesia, one of the hardest hit countries during the Asian financial crisis experienced in the late 1990s. On an annualised basis, portfolio and investment outflows from Spain now total more than USD 750 billion, ie, more than 50 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as measured by the World Bank.
Wednesday, September 05, 2012
The U.S. QE Debate / Interest-Rates / Quantitative Easing
By: Peter_Schiff
There is an ongoing three way debate between those who believe the Fed should do more to strengthen the recovery, those who believe that the recovery is strong enough to continue on its own, and those who believe that the economy has been so fundamentally altered by the recession that no amount of stimulus can succeed in pushing unemployment down to pre-crash levels. As usual, they all have it wrong (although some are more wrong than others).
Wednesday, September 05, 2012
Why the Fed Should Not Do QE3 / Interest-Rates / Quantitative Easing
By: InvestmentContrarian
Sasha Cekerevac writes: In his recent speech at the Jackson Hole economic symposium, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made some interesting comments in regards to monetary policy. Following these remarks, gold moved up strongly, indicating that the market’s interpretation was that the Federal Reserve was indeed going to enact further stimulative monetary policy, also known as quantitative easing #3 (QE3). However, I don’t think it’s clear from the speech or recent events as to why now is the best time to use this monetary policy tool.
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Wednesday, September 05, 2012
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Speaking from Jackson Hole / Interest-Rates / Central Banks
By: Ian_R_Campbell
Why read: You will by now have been bombarded for three-plus days by written and verbal commentary on Federal Reserve Chair Bernanke's Friday, August 31, 2012 remarks made from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. You will have observed last Friday afternoon's U.S.$35+ jump in the physical gold price, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 Index advances on Friday on the same news. Friday was a 'when Mr. Bernanke speaks, everyone listens positively' moment, even if it is 'just possible' that not everything Mr. Bernanke said on Friday ought not to be seen positively.
Wednesday, September 05, 2012
The Quadrillion Dollar Deflationary Debt Raft / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Our Down Under roving reporter Skip came up with a few interesting questions when watching an interview that Russia Today recently ran with economist Richard Duncan.
Where doth debt take us going forward, and, for that matter, where has it - really - taken us so far? If and when Japan implodes, does that force the US out of the possibility of moving - or already being - into the Japanese deflationary scenario and into something more sinister? Will it be a quadrillion dollar long-term drip-feed, in essence prolonging death, or a massive quadrillion dollar diversion into breakthrough technologies? Both perhaps? Go halfsies?
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Sunday, September 02, 2012
Ultra Easy Monetary Policy and the Law of Unintended Consequences / Interest-Rates / Quantitative Easing
By: John_Mauldin
"No very deep knowledge of economics is usually needed for grasping the immediate effects of a measure; but the task of economics is to foretell the remoter effects, and so to allow us to avoid such acts as attempt to remedy a present ill by sowing the seeds of a much greater ill for the future." – Ludwig von Mises
We heard from Bernanke today with his Jackson Hole speech. Not quite the fireworks of his speech ten years ago, but it does offer us a chance to contrast his thinking with that of another Federal Reserve official who just published a paper on the Dallas Federal Reserve website. Bernanke laid out the rationalization for his policy of ever more quantitative easing. But how effective is it? And are there unintended consequences we should be aware of? Why is it that the markets seem to positively salivate over the prospect of additional QE?
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Thursday, August 30, 2012
Expects U.S. QE3 'Relatively Soon' Says PIMCO's Bill Gross / Interest-Rates / Quantitative Easing
By: Bloomberg
Bill Gross of PIMCO spoke to Bloomberg Television's Trish Regan this afternoon during a special edition of "Street Smart" live from the Bloomberg Link convention headquarters in Tampa, FL and said that he expects more quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve "relatively soon" and that "they have a dual mandate."
Gross said "unemployment is still above 8% and it's obvious that the Fed isn't comfortable, nor is the nation or the economy with 8% unemployment going forward," but that "Ben Bernanke would agree that the next quantitative ease will produce limited results."
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Saturday, August 25, 2012
U.S. Economy: The Financial Tectonic Plates Are Shifting Once Again / Interest-Rates / Financial Markets 2012
By: EWI
History books call the period after the War of 1812 "The Era of Good Feelings."
America was a young nation that had a sense of purpose. National political strife was at a minimum; optimism was in the air.
Major advances in technology and engineering brought the country turnpikes for easier travel and "The Canal Craze" for more efficient commerce.
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Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Eurozone Debt Crisis: Will The Grexit Finally Become Reality? / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Money_Morning
Ben Gersten writes:
The Eurozone debt crisis has long needed a "Grexit" or some other landmark event to occur to change the direction the beleaguered continent is headed.
When Mario Draghi announced that he would do whatever he can to preserve the euro, it seemed that moment was imminent. Since he uttered those words on July 26, the IBEX 35 in Spain has gained 17%, while Italy's FTSE Milano Italia Borsa is up 13%.
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Wednesday, August 22, 2012
What Happened To The Debt? / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Alright, OK, so we have new sorts of relative highs in European and US stock markets, even as we keep a w(e)ary eye on Shanghai's new lows. The western highs seem to have a lot to do with all kinds of expectations of ECB sovereign bond purchases and/or cooling German resistance against them.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Crunch Time for Central Banks / Interest-Rates / Central Banks
By: Michael_Pento
Global central banks have promised to pump an unprecedented amount of money into the system. They are trying to mollify the effects from a global contraction in GDP and the growing likelihood of a war between Israel and Iran.
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Monday, August 20, 2012
ECB Capping Rates on PIIGS? Wait Till Traders Call Its Bluff / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: EconMatters
The big buzz about the debt-embattled Euro Zone on an otherwise quiet Sunday came from German news magazine Der Spiegel that ECB is considering measures to cap the borrowing costs of the crisis-central PIIGS countries. According to Bloomberg,