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Another ‘conspiracy theory’ bites the dust?
After lies, damn lies and statistics, government ‘estimates’ such as the BIS’s monthly guesstimates for non-farm payrolls must rank as one of the more unreliable economic datasets, particularly in the run up to a quadrennial election year in the US. While also undermined by the debt fueled life support currently being administered by the incumbent […]
Continue readingIf rates are expected to fall, why the surge in corporate bond issuance?
If ‘everyone’ believes interest rates are going back down, then why was US corporate bond issuance up +54% YoY in Q2 and with the high yield/junk end the most active? Seems like corporate treasurers were happy to unload some extra debt to “willing buyers at a fair market price” as Jeremy Irons character ‘John Tuld’ […]
Continue readingMarkets play chicken with the US Fed again
Markets are down as a sense of fear grips investors. That however, has less to do with a sudden re-evaluation of the economic outlook following the release of the US employment survey data for July and much more to do with a growing panic that the US Fed is resisting the pressure to be bounced […]
Continue readingSomething fishy with official US employment data
US residential construction can slightly lag private housing starts, but never to this extent. Either the US residential construction industry has become a lot less efficient (as in the ratio of employees needed to build the average house), or there’s something increasingly fishy with the official BIS employment data.
Continue readingIs the ECB being hung out to dry?
Has the US BIS not got the memo to support the easing narrative with softening economic data, or is the ECB and Euro being hung out to dry? For those hoodwinked by the manipulated GDP deflator assumptions (see below) between Q4 2023 and Q1 this year, into over-estimating the slowdown in economic activity must have […]
Continue readingThe mighty US dollar – ruling over the ashes
At times like this it is difficult to comprehend whether there are any adults left at the helm in the US. Jerome Powell’s attempts to ape his failed predecessor, Arthur Burns, is unraveling as fast as gold prices and bond yields are rising in the face of a so-called Republican Congress seemingly incapable of reining […]
Continue reading“Ukraine will become a member of NATO” – another gem from Blinken!
“All warfare is based on deception”, albeit presumably Sun Tzu expected those following this advice to be able to have a modicum of proficiency in misdirecting their opponents. So what are we to make of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s promise today that “Ukraine will become a member of NATO”, knowing full well this […]
Continue readingJapanese MMT – the last domino to fall
Rising wage settlements and the falling Yen may have finally forced the Bank of Japan to reverse its negative interest rate policy, if recent media leaks ahead of its March meeting are to be believed. Behind this however, is the inexorable pressure to fund structural deficit spending when previous debt monetisations are cascading through into […]
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