The unconventional wisdom is that the Fed has learned nothing from the last bubble – or is so scared of deflation it’s willing to gamble on another bubble in asset prices. The trouble , the eventual bust in asset prices has to be reckoned up. And the Fed, along with all central banks who key off the Fed’s policy, are just kicking the can down the road, hoping asset values improve.
November 10th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 7 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "bubble"
Historically, the Only Reserve a Central Bank Can Trust is Gold
Imagine what would have happened if pharaoh had stocked up on radicchio instead of grain? Those 7 lean years would have been a lot leaner than they were.
November 6th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 3 comments | Continued
More Money in Cash Right Now Than Equity in U.S. Companies
Now, there is a very good reason investors are reducing their allocation to stocks. As we’ve said before, we think the equity premium – what people are willing to pay for stocks – is regressing to the mean. It was so high for so long because corporate cash flows in the second half of the last century benefitted so much from low interest rates and globalisation.
November 6th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 15 comments | Continued
Consumer Economy Not Going to Return to Robust Growth Anytime Soon
Mortgage lenders say they expect the peak in foreclosures to come about a year from now. As for the bottom of price declines, you can expect that in 2013 or beyond.
October 15th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | Continued
Feds Have Used the Correction to Increase Their Power and Add to Their Wealth
Noooo… We’re talking about a worthy correction…a real correction…a noble and distinguished correction…a correction that can hold its head up in public.
October 14th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Zombies at the Fed and the Treasury Department Try to Gnaw on Survivors’ Savings
The new movie – Zombieland – about a group of survivors in a world of zombies, was the biggest grossing film in America and Canada over the weekend. It must reflect the zeitgeist of the North American public…
October 6th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
New Default Wave Hits Mortgage Industry
Imagine how disappointed lenders will be when these loans default. And then, imagine how American investors will feel when a new wave of mortgage defaults and foreclosures is hits the commercial property market.
October 5th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 9 comments | Continued
Debt to GDP Ratio Will Return to Normal
He writes that, “During the credit boom, from 1995 to 2007, the debt-to-GDP ratio rose quite a lot, to all-time record levels, eclipsing the 1920s by considerable margins.
September 11th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 0 comments | Continued
Smart People to Blame for Central Planning
‘The Singularity’ is an idea from Ray Kurzweil. The gist of it is that computers will soon be smarter than humans; by the middle of this century they’ll be smart enough to figure out how to get smarter and smarter, faster and faster.
September 7th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 21 comments | Continued
China and its Perplexing Investment Strategy
But let’s start with sovereign wealth fund of China, the China Investment Corporation (CIC). CIC was set up in 2007 with US$200 billion of China’s nearly $2 trillion foreign exchange reserves. It’s been shopping ever since, with mixed results. Last year, for example, CIC stood pat and only invested US$4.8 billion outside China.
September 3rd, 2009 | Dan Denning | 2 comments | Continued