2014

News links for 13 Jan 2014

When I last wrote you I was talking about 2013 as being akin to the mid-cycle tightening year of 1994. In this view, we are well into a business cycle but it is far from over because of cyclical agents could spur the cycle on. But what…

Loan growth in the US continues to slow. Credit expansion is certainly not nearly as bad as what has transpired in the Eurozone, but the slowing trend is unmistakable. The current rate of loan growth is now significantly below the nominal…

- At the risk of oversimplifying, there seems to be a single overriding driver of the global capital markets in the coming days - The US real sector data, like retail sales, industrial production and housing starts, risk being on the soft…

12 Jan 2014

News links for 11 Jan 2014

By Willem Buiter This post first appeared on Vox Fiscal sustainability has become a hot topic as a result of the European sovereign debt crisis, but it matters in normal times, too. This column argues that financial sector reforms are…

By Marc Chandler The shockingly poor US employment data is bolstering bonds, while initial equity market gains have been reversed. It is weighing on the dollar, nearly across the board, and giving some of the accessible emerging market…

Most investors are expecting 2014 to be a good year economically and for this to translate into a good year for investing. But we have never been deep into a business cycle with rates at zero or with no chance of a Fed hike on the horizon.…

One suspects the reason for the sensitivity within the ranks of the Democratic party water-carriers to the “corporatist” label is that Obamacare is a textbook case. Democrats try to undermine this charge by serving up an example of…