interest rates

As a follow-up to an earlier discussion on rising deflationary risks in the Eurozone (here), it seems that the OECD is now also growing concerned about this issue. The latest economic report is openly suggesting that the ECB consider…

The recent increase in long-term rates is causing major changes in the mortgage markets. Here are some key trends

Fed Chair nominee Janet Yellen believes that the Fed will keep rates at zero long after the 6.5 unemployment threshold, according to news reports. Yellen made the comments responding to an inquiry by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren…

The German-language media have been voicing concerns over the ECB’s low interest-rate policy and its effect on savings and investment in the euro zone. This makes sense given the state of the economy in Germany and Austria is significantly…

Consumer price inflation in the Eurozone has been below the target of 2% and falling for quite some time. But until now, the ECB has been sitting on its hands. Inflation some distance below target didn't appear to bother it - most likely…

debt matters, even if it is possible to pretend for many years that it doesn’t (and this pretense was made possible by the implicit capitalization of debt-servicing costs). Japan never really wrote down all or even most of its investment…

Yesterday the European Central Bank cut the interest rate on its main refinancing operations by 25 basis points to a record low 0.25%. It also cut the rate on the marginal lending facility by 25 basis points to 0.75%. The news was…

Recently, I wrote a series of posts predicting that the Fed would give up on QE and move toward forward guidance in order to be able to normalize policy. Nevertheless, I have also been saying for quite some time I believe the US zero rate…

At 2PM ET today, the Federal Reserve is releasing the latest FOMC statement. Market players do not expect the Fed to taper its large scale asset purchase program because recent economic data in the US have been weak. Given controversial…

Fama has been doing research on QE for the last six months. And he basically tells Santelli that QE in the Treasury market is an asset swap of short-term government debt for long-term debt. Fama’s depiction of QE is accurate and mirrors…