deleveraging

Comstock Partnrs writes that its fund is currently positioned to benefit from a declining stock market. This bearishness is mostly due to the enormous debt built up over the last few decades (total debt-including private debt-- was $11…

I doubt we are going to see wide scale debt forgiveness until defaults and debt deflation have taken center stage. But this is something to consider as it was an approach used during the Great Depression.

The over-indebted American consumer will be hard pressed to simultaneously reduce debt and maintain levels of consumption that support economic growth. On CNBC today, Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley says, we need a debt jubilee for…

Bill Gross was on CNBC yesterday talking about the debt ceiling deal. His first thoughts were about jobs. "There are no jobs in terms of growth. There are no wages in terms of increase… This is a classic de-levering cycle.”

The job cuts are principally in the United States and Europe and the job hires are in the emerging markets. This is a significant shift away from the developed economies, which are mired in a debt crisis to areas of the world which are…

As we have said numerous times, economic growth following major credit crises is always slower than average, while recessions occur more often as consumers deleverage the vast amount of debt built up during the boom. In our view it will…

If the US wants job growth, it will need to reduce private sector debt levels - and that takes time. The government can act a a counterweight to the demand drag but I am very sceptical of claims like Summers’ that doing so would solve a…

Niels Jensen clears up a number of common misconceptions about the macroo environment which whave great importance for investing.

The Federal Reserve will be on easy street for a long time to come. Real interest rates will remain low, meaning debtors will be favoured over savers. Investors in fixed–income will take it on the chin.

Australian Professor Steve Keen explains why private sector debt dynamics drove both the Great Depression and the Great Recession.