Category Archives: Credit markets

Dumb Money Watch: ZIRP-Starved Insurers Beefing Up in Lending as Banks Exit the Pool

Insurers are going long risk at one of the worst possible junctures.

Wolf Richter: US Homeownership at Lowest Level in Over 50 Years

Despite large subsidies to housing and mortgage finance. homeownership has plunged to 1960s levels.

Oil Industry About To Be Burned Again By Fall In Oil Prices

Easy access to capital has driven oil prices lower and is likely to do again as E&P’s directly invest in more rigs ahead of demand.

Is Brexit Moment a Lehman Moment? Fear Factor in Financial Crises

Comparing the market reaction to Brexit with key events during the crisis.

How Finance Costs Too Much and Fails to Deliver

The costs of looting by the financial services industry are even more staggering than you probably imagined.

Will Italian Banks Tear Down Europe?

Will Italian banks be the detonator of a political and economic crisis?

Beyond Credit Rating to Stabilizing an Unstable Economy

The third part in a three-part series on how to fix what is wrong with credit rating agencies.

Michael Hudson: William Goetzmann’s Money Changes Everything – A Travesty of Financial History Which Bank Lobbyists Will Applaud

Why William Goetzmann’s Money Changes Everything is unadulterated Austrian twattle.

Instability in Capitalist Economies and a Better Way to Think About Credit Risk

Instability in capitalist economies comes from the quest for profit. And that has implications for credit ratings that are often ignored.

How Private Credit Rating Agencies Reinforce Global Economic Instability—and What We Can Do About It

A look at a fundamental point of failure in our financial system, rating agencies, and potential remedies.

Regulator Warns Commercial Real Estate Bubble Is Biggest US Bank Risk

By the time regulators start warning of risk, as the OCC is now in commercial real estate, it’s often too late.

Political and Financial Contagion from the Italian Banking Crisis: Italy’s Exit?

Eurocrat rigidity about half-baked, never-tested bail in rules could turn an Italian banking crisis into a full bore financial and political meltdown.

Wolf Richter: The Big Unravel – US Commercial Bankruptcies Skyrocket

Commercial bankruptcies rose at a much bigger clip in early 2016 than in recent years. How worried should we be?

Unfounded Debt Fears Block Economic Recovery

Debt scaremongering as voodoo economics.

Puerto Rico ‘Rescue’ Bill to Reinforce Colonial Relationship with US

Not surprisingly. Puerto Rico is about to get a big dose of austerity…..which Latvia-style, will push more people with skills to leave.