interest rates

This is crazy. John Carney tells us that not only are homes now growing increasingly less affordable, but the psychology of the US housing market is changing to one of the fear of being priced out. Frankly, I can't believe we are here…

We've had a great deal of movement in the NAR US Housing Affordability Index recently. The index is meant to measure homebuyers' ability to finance house purchases and given some recent events, it's worth taking a look at what the index is…

Something highly unusual is happening in the mortgage market however. Recently jumbo mortgage rates have been lower than conforming rates. This is one of those market dislocations that most would have never thought possible. Yet here we…

Emerging economies are reeling as rising US bond yields are squeezing the most vulnerable and funding intensive parts of the market. But the squeeze in EM yields is merely an hors d'oeuvre to what is likely waiting in the wings.

The X-axis is the change in the spot currencies against the dollar since late May. The Y-axis is the change in the local 5-year debt. It is a useful way to conceptualize what has happened from a total return perspective. Korea, Czech,…

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…

The same people who have been screaming inflation for the past few years are now saying that interest rates are finally about to explode. This is alarmist nonsense that disregards the influence policy rates have over the term structure of…

Osborne's behaviour both angers and frightens me. He is playing brinkmanship with the UK economy to achieve political ends. Nothing he does makes much sense from an economic point of view - which is why the flagship Help to Buy scheme has…

Brazil's financial markets remain under pressure. In spite of some recent interventions, including a rate hike, the currency touched another multi-year low today. The market is "testing" the central bank with bets that the real has more…

Fred Sheehan provides a compilation of articles and quotes suggesting that the solution to the mortgage problems in the United States bears a striking resemblance to the policies which led to those mortgage problems in the first place.