Markets

Thanks to Iza Kaminska for pointing me to the video below of row after row of incomplete homes in Spanish host towns, las ciudades fantasmas. Spain has the same problem of overbuilding that the U.S. had during its bubble days. Now that…

The house price data has been dismal in the last several months. With the S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Indices released today, we have now passed below the post-bubble trough and are hitting new low prices across the country. For data…

By Win Thin S&P cut Portugal one notch from BBB to BBB-, and comes just five days after it cut the rating from A- to BBB. Did things really materially change over the past five days? It’s time for a reminder of what the agencies are…

ECB President Trichet remained hawkish in comments today, noting that inflation is persistently above the target of just below 2%. Yet ECB monetary policy is not base don one pillar but two. The other pillar is money supply. Money supply…

This morning's note from UBS' Andy Lees addresses something about which I am sceptical regarding the escalating Libyan conflict: global spare oil capacity. I am in the same camp with Jeremy Grantham. Call it peak resources, peak oil,…

From David Rosenberg's Breakfast with Dave missive: Dallas Fed President Fisher, who is an FOMC voter this year, told Bloomberg News yesterday that there is not going to be any more stimulus after June. This is going to leave Mr.…

If you look at U.S. equity valuations based on value metrics like the Shiller P/E, stocks are rather expensive right now. Because many factors within an individual business cycle are mean-reverting, to the degree one wants to conduct…

In my previous missive I concluded that investors should stay true to the principles that have always guided (and should always guide) sensible investment, but I left readers hanging as to what I believe those principles might actually be.…

By Marc Chandler News that the US Treasury will begin selling off its portfolio of mortgage-backed securities was greeted with dollar buying. The Treasury's portfolio of $142 bln of agency guaranteed MBS will be sold at a pace of $10 bln a…

By Warren Mosler In the context of this ‘everyone’s out of paradigm’ world, it makes sense for Japan’s MOF (Ministry of Finance) to buy dollars vs yen. But it makes no sense to do this as a coordinated effort with other nations also…