Having flunked the very first month of its balance sheet unwind that was articulated in its 04 May ‘cunning plan’, the US Federal Reserve will find that the alternatives will prove no more palatable than those following the inept tenure of that chair up to 1978, Arthur Burns. Sure, the immediate response to Jerome Powell […]
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“Is this deliberate?” is becoming a more familiar question as people slowly awaken. The answer of course remains an emphatic “Yes”, but it is the growing realisation of this agenda that is the important feature here. ‘They’ told you that money printing was good, that lockdowns work and are legal, as are mandating experimental gene […]
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Jerome Powell seems eager to talk the talk on tackling inflation, but has yet to walk the walk. According to his 4 May published plan, the initial reduction in the Fed’s balance sheet should have kicked off at approx $47.5bn per month from 1 June, rising to $95bn per month by September. However, in the […]
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Markets may be focused on rising inflation and bond yields, but this doesn’t fully explain the forces at play here, or the potential ramifications. One of these can be seen by the diverging spreads in government bond yields as an enforced tightening monetary policy removes central bank ability to artificially suppress funding costs for the […]
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The 1956 movie Forbidden Planet was at its core a tale of hubris; that technology can overcome nature, whether for Krell or human. The analogy for markets might be the conceit that the business cycle can be expunged without consequence and that one can borrow oneself out of debt. Like the ‘monster from the Id’ […]
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A flattening yield curve is often seen as an ominous portend of economic doom, while a forced increase in interest rates can often ensure its delivery. This convergence however, is the conclusion of a tale that has been in the making for a couple of decades, but one where the inflationary consequences now threaten to […]
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Talk about fast markets. Blink and you might have missed WW3, as markets broadly return to where they were just 5 days ago. Good news however, may not be so positive for asset prices as waning emergencies mean fewer excuses by hard-up governments to keep printing their way out of deficits. And that means its […]
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Oops, those betting on a weak US jobs report for January have been seriously wrong-footed. Instead of the expected negative figure, the BLS not only reported over +400k of net jobs in January, but a +649k upward revision to the jobs growth reported for the previous two months. Roll-in an average hourly wage inflation approaching […]
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