A lot of headline numbers show an economy that’s in pretty good shape. Official unemployment is 5%. GDP is growing at a totally acceptable 3%
Short-term interest rates are now as negative as they were in the inflationary 1970s. But that’s where the similarity ends. As the above chart shows,
Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s biggest investment company, just went on CNBC to commiserate with today’s savers. You may need to work longer,
One glance at this chart should silence any talk of “a return to normalcy”. We are emphatically not headed in a normal direction. The liquidity
This is a time of almost supernaturally-easy money. US financial conditions, in fact, have never been this accommodative, which is why junk bonds, CLOs, NTFs,
The “Everything Bubble” has jumped from hyperbole to literal truth in just a couple of years, as more and more assets enter “crazy expensive/extremely reckless”
Before the pandemic, auto sales were booming, mostly because car loans were available to pretty much anyone with a driver’s license and a heartbeat. “Subprime”
So a single political party gains control of a lockdown-battered country desperate for any and all forms of government spending. Direct payments, loan forgiveness, infrastructure,
California and Texas were, until very recently, the two best US states. The former is the richest and highest-profile, and home to Silicon Valley and
Financial history includes plenty of extreme years. That’s not surprising, since we’re emotional beings with short memories. Combine those two traits and you get cycles,
If you’re over 40 you’ve lived through at least three epic financial bubbles: junk bonds in the 1980s, tech stocks in the 1990s, and housing
Wall Street traders have traditionally played hardball with each other. They’ll take a position and then “talk their book” on CNBC, or short a competitor’s
Incoming president Joe Biden just proposed that $10,000 of student debt be forgiven for each borrower. This sounds generous but is actually just the opening
This week’s theme is “spikes and crashes,” and why they’re great for gold and silver. Let’s begin with inflation, which is suddenly spiking after decades
The riots, political turmoil, and other banana republic embarrassments seem to be ending – for now. So let’s get back to examining the real problems
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