The hindrance of global debt – Spain accelerating to major bailouts and bond markets react. Eurozone stock markets in major decline.
It is always a sign of desperation to ban short selling. Trying to put an artificial bottom usually backfires and we are seeing this hit in Spain. The situation is unsustainable and has taken the headlines away from Greece. Spain is a much bigger economy and they are deep in a recession with headline unemployment […]
The sinister nature of inflation – historic droughts push food costs up impacting 46 million Americans on food stamps. What happens when everything gets more expensive and incomes fall?
Inflation is an odd sort of economic beast. People take it for granted that inflation will always be a part of our life sort of like a quite humming background noise. The Federal Reserve is doing all it can to increase inflation so banks can essentially inflate their debts away. Yet the impact for most […]
Refinancing debt into prosperity – most mortgage activity for refinances with applications up 97 percent from last year and car sales are down by over 50 percent from 2001.
Shuffling papers around on your desk does not mean you are being productive but might give the appearance of activity. Refinancing debt in countries in an insolvent position may feel good for the moment, but ultimately the position is unsustainable.  You buy yourself a window of opportunity. With the Federal Reserve pushing mortgage rates to […]
The dynamic central banking duo – ECB balance sheet up over €3.1 trillion mimicking Fed balance that is close to $3 trillion. Shuffling toxic assets into darkness.
You might have the vague memory that the European Central Bank reacted somewhat negatively to the Federal Reserve’s massive balance sheet expansion a few years ago. The ECB was not following in the same path as that of the Fed. Well fast forward to the current Euro crisis and the ECB now has a balance […]