Analysis Topic: Interest Rates and the Bond Market
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Saturday, September 04, 2010
Quantitative Easing QE2, Debt Created Out of Thin Air, Banking Crisis Worsens / Interest-Rates / Quantitative Easing
In a futile attempt to keep the economic and financial system afloat, QE2 is underway. It began in early June as banks changed the rules for awarding loans. Their efforts over the past few months have only met with moderate success. Banks had cut back lending by some 25% over the past 16 months mainly to small and medium-sized companies. In the process the economy slowed down markedly and unemployment shot up to levels not seen since the 1930s. These first attempts to restart a sliding economy have so far not met with success. It was not long after that the real decision makers at the Fed that QE2 was going to be needed. We saw the marshalling of financial and economic forces and the tell tale sign of a stock market moving upward for unexplained reasons. That tipped us to QE2.
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Friday, September 03, 2010
Moving into Bonds: From Frying Pan to Fire / Interest-Rates / International Bond Market
David Galland and Kevin Brekke, Casey Research writes: The other day, I came across an article that said, while individuals may be moving their money out of equities, they have been moving into bond funds - and in a big way.
It's called jumping from the frying fan into the fire.
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Friday, September 03, 2010
How to Profit From the “Widow-Maker” Trade, Shorting U.S. Treasury Bonds / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: Although we're in the midst of a U.S. Treasury bond bubble so big that pundits are calling for investors to short the government paper, resist the urge to jump in with both feet.
Doing so right now is nothing more than a "widow-maker" trade that will test both your patience and your pocket book. And yet, "shorting" the U.S. Treasury bond market is an opportunity you can't afford to pass up - so long as you execute the trade correctly.
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Friday, September 03, 2010
Exhaustion Gap on Yields Chart! / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
Summary: The charts are signalling an important change in market attitudes to risk – and by implication, the Fed’s attitude to risk. If yields are to rise from here it will be because investors in treasury bonds are expecting to incur capital losses. Why would this be? This article comes to the conclusion that we are heading for a period of tight capital markets. If money is tight, credit will be tight. If credit is tight, then, to borrow money will require the borrower to pay higher rates of interest to compensate the lender for his higher level of risk. If credit is tight, consumer demand will, at best, not grow and, at worst, fall. In the former case, we can expect a steady-as-she-goes outcome. In the latter case, the result will be a slow down in economic activity and a so-called “double dip” recession.
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Thursday, September 02, 2010
Blowing Bubbles, U.S. Treasury Bonds / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done – C.E. Stowe
The American media is officially obsessed with sensational terminology when describing the financial markets these days. Nothing trends, it either explodes higher or melts down. We have “flash crashes”, a “new normal” and the frightening “double dip”. We also see bubbles about to burst everywhere.
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Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Government Debt Defaults and Inflation Are the Norm, Not the Exception / Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
The past 15 years have certainly been exciting for investors. During the second half of the 1990s we experienced one of the largest stock market bubbles of all times … and its bursting. Then, only a few years later, one of the biggest real estate bubbles … and its bursting.
In the aftermath of these events the world stumbled into the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. And the banking system came to the brink of a total collapse.
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Wednesday, September 01, 2010
US Must Displace Global Treasury Bonds Activity / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
Extremely low Treasury rates have been a boon for the Federal Government's bottom line, but they haven't helped attract any global interest in US debt. Instead, nations around the world are cutting back on their Treasury positions, internalizing the financing of new debts and deficits.
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Monday, August 30, 2010
What is Going on in Washington? / Interest-Rates / US Debt
What if you earned half of what you spent in a month and put the other half on your credit card? What if you did that month after month, year after year until your debt was six times your annual income? Would you consider yourself to be in deep financial trouble?
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Monday, August 30, 2010
Bernanke Hallucinating That Printing Money and Buying Bonds Can Save the Economy / Interest-Rates / US Debt
If Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke honestly believes what he said at Jackson Hole on Friday — that he can save the economy by printing more money and buying more bonds — he’s hallucinating.
Through the first quarter of this year, he printed $1.5 trillion of paper money and promptly bought $1.5 trillion in mortgage bonds, government agency bonds, and Treasury bonds.
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Monday, August 30, 2010
It is the FedOnomics, Stupid! / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
Seth Barani writes: It was 1913, year when US Federal Reserve Bank was established. Coincidently, the 16th amendment on income taxation was also passed in the same year. America was getting ready to wage wars. Fed was getting ready to print (aka "create") money and supply it in plenty. All done at your cost.
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Sunday, August 29, 2010
U.S. Treasury Bond Market Rally Hits Bernanke Brick Wall / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
The bond market continued to power ahead – until Thursday. On Friday morning the All-mighty Ben Bernanke opened his mouth and the words of wisdom that were emitted have caused great joy and happiness for the risk trade and got the long bond futures to tank 2½ points on the day. For a day it appears that Ben can walk on water, but I have to wonder how long before the deeply and increasingly disturbing reality will make this mirage disappear.
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Saturday, August 28, 2010
Translation of Bernanke's Jackson Hole Speech / Interest-Rates / Central Banks
It is far easier to translate Bernanke than Greenspan. Both men had this task: to deceive the public. Greenspan adopted verbal obfuscation as his technique. Bernanke has adopted boredom.
I hope this exercise will help you understand his speech of August 27.
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Saturday, August 28, 2010
U.S. Fed About to Launch Monetary Shock and Awe / Interest-Rates / US Debt
The equities markets are in disarray while the bond markets continue to surge. The avalanche of bad news has started to take its toll on investor sentiment. Barry Ritholtz's "The Big Picture" reports that the bears have taken the high-ground and bullishness has dropped to its lowest level since March ‘09 when the market did a quick about-face and began a year-long rally. Could it happen again? No one knows, but the mood has definitely darkened along with the data. There's no talk of green shoots any more, and even the deficit hawks have gone into hibernation. It feels like the calm before the storm, which is why all eyes were on Jackson Hole this morning where Fed chairman Ben Bernanke delivered his verdict on the state of the economy on Friday.
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Saturday, August 28, 2010
U.S. Fiscal Debt and Monetization are taking the Financial System Down / Interest-Rates / US Debt
The Congressional Budget Office thinks the country faces serious budget problems, as well as serious economic problems, because it estimates that the deficit for 2011 will be $1.066 trillion. In addition it sees fiscal 2010, which ends on September 30th, at $1.34 trillion, or 9% of GDP. Last year was 9.9%.
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Friday, August 27, 2010
Gold and Stocks Yield Relationship and Buy Signals / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
Time was, stocks were riskier than bonds and should have the higher yield. But then came inflation...
AT THE START of this week, stocks on the Dow Jones, Tokyo Nikkei and FTSE100 in London offered a bigger dividend-yield than you'd earn in interest from their local government bonds.
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Friday, August 27, 2010
U.S. Treasury Bond Rally Tiring, Gold Moving Higher / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
What might Bernanke's speech have said or implied that triggered the market response that we have witnessed so far today? How about: Don't fight the Fed...The economy is anemic, and the outlook might be uncertain-to-poor, but the Fed will pump, buy, and do whatever it takes to turn it around. The Fed will keep short rates at ZERO for a long time, and force companies and investors to take risk....
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Friday, August 27, 2010
Interest Rates Remain Low as Economic Concerns Persist / Interest-Rates / US Interest Rates
National average mortgage rates remain historically low and there appears to be no end in sight to the Fed’s low to no interest rate policy. A less than stellar Commerce Department report on the second quarter gross domestic product Friday (August 27) morning is the latest contributor to the sense of pessimism hanging over the US economy.
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Thursday, August 26, 2010
Play the Treasury Bond Market Yield Curve with New ETNs / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
Many individual investors spend their time thinking about stocks. Which stocks are going up? How high are they going? Should I buy now?
These can be important questions, but stocks aren’t the only financial market. So why do eyes glaze over when the bond news comes on? My guess is that people don’t understand how big the bond market is — or how much influence it has on everything else.
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Thursday, August 26, 2010
Marc Faber and Peter Schiff on the U.S. Treasury Bond Bubble / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
As I've been saying for some time that the bond market is screaming for an imminent burst, now Dr. Marc Faber and Mr. Peter Schiff also spoke with CNBC on Aug. 23 warning of a bond bubble trouble.
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Wednesday, August 25, 2010
UK Government Bonds Gilts vs Gold, Vying for “Safe Haven” Money / Interest-Rates / UK Interest Rates
“I care not what puppet is placed upon the throne of England to rule the Empire on which the sun never sets. The man that controls Britain’s money supply controls the British Empire, and I control the British money supply,” declared Baron Nathan Mayer de Rothschild, - once the richest man in Europe. In 1840, NM Rothschild was appointed as the bullion broker to the Bank of England, and went on to operate the Royal Mint Refinery in 1852. Nathan gained a position of such enormous power in the City of London that he was able to supply enough money to the Bank of England to enable it to avert a market liquidity crisis.
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