Category Archives: Credit markets

IMF Paper Finds That Too Much Finance is Bad for Growth

A new IMF paper strikes another blow against the idea that Big Finance is good for you.

Greece Cornered as IMF and ECB Refuse to Relent

A flurry of stories this weekend confirms that Greece and its creditors remain hopelessly at odds. The inertial path is to a Greek default

Exit Strategy, Part One: ZIRP

Why exit from ZIRP has to precede exit from QE.

Wolf Richter: “Smart Money” Prepares to Profit from Bond Market Rout

“If I had an easy way and a non-risk way of shorting a whole lot of 20- or 30-year bonds, I’d do it,” said our favorite uncle Warren Buffett on CNBC. These kinds of bonds have been on a terrific bull run ever since Paul Volker, as Chairman of the Fed, cracked down on inflation. But now, even the avuncular face of capitalism would bet against them.

How Shale Is Becoming The Dot-Com Bubble Of The 21st Century

The parallels of the dot com era with the shale boom are simply stunning as most E&P companies need to spend well over their operational cash flow.

Eurogroup Demands Varoufakis’ Ouster; Trajectory Toward Default Continues

In case you had any doubts that Greece is supposed to act like a good debt vassal, the Eurogroup’s hissy fit over Yanis Varoufakis at last Friday’s meeting, which stoked a raft of unflattering articles, has now led it to demand to that Greek government remove him.

Greece Talks With Eurogroup Hit “Complete Breakdown”

The Greek negotiations with the Eurogroup are exemplifying the saying, “Things look the darkest before they go completely black.”

Pettifor Warns of GFC 2.0 Approach

Yves here. This is a short but important debate over how much to worry about the upcoming train wreck in emerging markets when the Fed finally gets around to tightening. Pettifor sees it as a potential global crisis event; Macrobusiness sees it as a typical emerging markets bust. The Pettifor viewpoint seems more on target. First, […]

Greece Endgame Nears

Despite the market jitters of last Friday, which were triggered in part by the recognition that the odds of Greece reaching a deal with its creditors are far lower than had been widely assumed, Greek-related coverage has ratcheted down, even as Greece seems certain not to get any funds released in the April 24 Eurogroup meeting and is very likely to miss the end of April deadline for getting its reforms approved by the Troika and Eurogroup.

Nobel Prize Winner Robert Merton Slams Fed for “Negative Wealth Effect” Policies

Nobel Prize winner Robert Merton and Arlin Muralidhar have charged ZIRP and QE happy central banks with economic malpractice.

Elizabeth Warren Throws Down Gauntlet, Calls for Genuine Financial Reform

Elizabeth Warren makes a bold call for wide-ranging, serious financial reform.

Greece: Default or Grexit?

A Greek default does not mean an inevitable Grexit. But even in the event of a default in the Eurozone, the costs to Greece of staying in the Eurozone are set to rise.

Bill Black: How the “Super Crunchers” Became the “Super Torturers” of Finance Data

Many of the concerns about Big Data focus on the surveillance apparatus used to collect it, or on the naive modeling approaches, like attributing causality to mere correlations. Here Black addresses an established problem: that of deliberate abuse of models.

Debunking the Causes of the Eurozone Crisis

The orthodox German view of the Eurozone crisis gets shellacked at an important INET panel.

CFPB Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Proposal May Enable Redlining

CFPB’s HDMA proposal includes no reporting requirements to determine whether mortgage servicers are treating distressed borrowers equally.