Credit Writedowns

Yesterday, we learned that the Case-Shiller Housing Index is up 12.1% through June. In response, Robert Shiller said "housing is a market with momentum" and he believes that the momentum is up. Let's remember that the Case-Shiller Index is…

This is beginning to sound like a broken record, but India's currency has come under severe pressure - again. India's central bank, the RBI, seems to have completely lost control over the rupee. The currency broke through 67 to the dollar…

The problem in a nutshell is that the U.S. is the world's reserve currency. And so, other countries are forced to adhere to Fed dictates in a liquidity crisis because everyone is hoarding dollars, trying to maintain their supply of…

The histogram below shows the total return of long-dated treasuries over a rolling 4-month period since 2007. The leftmost bucket contains five periods that constitute the worst treasury losses since 2007. All five of these periods ended…

The latest Fed confab at Jackson Hole is demonstrating that central bankers were so keen to avoid taking much blame for the global financial crisis that they also failed to learn critical lessons from it. That lapse in turn is directly…

Yet again, the U.S. debt ceiling is going to become a political football that could threaten the U.S. and global economy. While I don't think the U.S. will default on its debt these recurring manufactured crises make the U.S. extremely…

News links 27 Aug 2013 (Members only until the 11am newsletter goes out.)

News links for 26 Aug 2013

In a fashion similar to what became known as the "Asian Contagion" in the late 90s, the current stress in emerging economies has been spreading. One of the nations to experience financial stress recently has been Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s…

The gain in equity prices is now outpacing profits at a rate not see since the heady dot-com days. In fact, on a GAAP accounting basis, profits have been falling. I believe this creates a dangerous situation in view of rising interest rates…