liquidity trap

The Fed’s intent is not to create consumer inflation, but rather asset inflation — primarily in the equity market.  By pulling longer-term bond yields lower, the Fed hopes that this will alter how investors value equities relative…

by Comstock Partners On Tuesday the market soared on the grounds that global efforts to engage in another round of monetary ease and devalue currencies would boost economies around the world. We think that the market's initial reaction is…

I have just been listening to Ben Davies' podcast (see also FT Alphaville here) from Hinde Capital about the funding issues of the Japanese government and the points he makes are important. I have used the metaphor of Japan as a bumblebee…

by Rick Bookstaber This reflects my personal opinion, not the views of the SEC or its staff. I just finished reading Robert Reich’s new book, Aftershock. The critical points of the book are well presented in his pre-publication New York…

As you know, I have been back pedalling on my support for fiscal stimulus since late in 2009. I still think fiscal policy is effective – more so than monetary policy; quantitative easing is a bust because we are in a liquidity trap. But the…

By Comstock Partners. Five years ago on the eve of another of the Fed's annual financial symposiums at Jackson Hole, we wrote the following: "Since 1999 when the financial bubble was in full bloom (due in large part to the Fed) we…

Excerpts from Comstock's latest weekly: Debt is discussed by the pundits on financial TV also, but in almost every case the discussion revolves around government deficits relative to GDP or government debt relative to GDP.  They…

As we begin the second half of what has already been a challenging year, it may be helpful to consider the potential drivers of the global capital markets.    As always, numerous factors have to be juggled.  Now however,…

Nouriel Roubini, writing in the New York Daily News , said on Sunday that “unemployed Americans should hunker down for more job losses” given the likelihood of a job less recovery. This was as gloomy a piece as I have seen from Roubini in…

You have heard me use the phrase “liquidity is seeking return” to describe the increase in the price of riskier assets due to monetary stimulus. The Bloomberg News video clip below points to an increase in lending for buyers of riskier…