Analysts are struggling to handicap the outcome of inflation, earnings, and the odds of a recession, keeping Wall Street off balance as it tries to make sense of the rapidly changing financial landscape. As the bear market has worn on,… Read More »The Burning Loach
If stock investors are glum, then bond investors must be downright depressed. The combination of rising inflation and aggressively tightening central banks has led to one of the worst years for bonds since the early 1980s. As of this writing,… Read More »Bond Vigilantes Are Back in Town
For more than a decade, Wall Street and the Federal Reserve had seemed like they would be best friends forever, but no longer. Like a romantic relationship gone bad, the Fed, once Wall Street’s main squeeze, is now viewed with… Read More »Central Banks Hit the Panic Button
Investors can be forgiven if they’ve got a swimming feeling in their heads as they read financial market news. Journalists no longer use the words “rise” or “fall” to describe market direction but rather “plunge,” “plummet,” “nosedive,” or “soar,” skyrocket,”… Read More »With a Bang or a Whimper?
Recently minted day traders, newbie speculators, and seasoned investing veterans alike are being reintroduced to the idea that stock prices move in two directions. Long fed by the Federal Reserve’s repeated “quantitative easing” (QE) policy, Wall Street mopped up each… Read More »It Was a Lovely Dream
For the past thirteen years, central banks around the world have tried to hold back 3000 years of history by suppressing interest rates. Through their unique ability to create money out of thin air, they have embarked upon the greatest… Read More »Rough Road Back to Normal
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the land Inflation was stirring, getting out of hand. Our bills were all paid, but we were feeling repressed, Seeing our savings were very depressed. On our children most of our money… Read More »The Price Before Christmas
We remember the great events of history, but we seldom remember the path it took to get to them. The convoluted sequence of events and decisions that have led to memorable, sometimes cataclysmic, outcomes are muddied by the effects of… Read More »Butterflies Flapping Their Wings
To be or not to be? That is the question:Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them? One can imagine Hamlet’s words… Read More »To Taper or Not to Taper?
For the last twelve years, borrowers and financial markets have enjoyed the benefits of record low interest rates. Moreover, official measures of inflation have remained tame, confounding economists who assumed the explosive growth of money supply created by the U.S.… Read More »Hubris