For the past three years, stock markets have been either placid or up. That is especially true of U.S. stocks, but global markets have largely followed suit. Bonds have been similarly subdued. Over the past two weeks, that calm has been shattered.
Read moreJunk Bonds Are Back!
Interest rates have been falling once again. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury, which acts as a global benchmark of sorts, dipped as low as 2.44 percent last week, which is well below where rates began the year—and lower than at most points throughout the 20th century and into the first decade of the 21st.* At no point between 1961 and 2011 were rates as low as they are now, and for most of that time, the yield on the 10-year was above 6 percent.
Read moreThe Opportunity in Flat Stock Markets
One obvious consequence of the information technology revolution has been an explosion of news and noise. We are bombarded daily with information and commentary that comes at us online, in print, and over various airwaves. This information overload is especially acute in the world of finance and financial markets.
Read moreThe Most Important Lesson the Fed Taught the World This Week
So the Federal Reserve did not taper after all. Having signaled in May and June that the central bank was likely to pare back its monthly purchases of $85 billion in mortgage and Treasury bonds, the bank and its chairman Ben Bernanke essentially said “Never mind,” and decided that now was not the time after all.
Read moreThe Upside: Why Markets Are Out of Touch
Reuters columnist Zachary Karabell explains why Americans are not freaking out over the recent big swings in stocks and bonds.
Read moreThe Upside: Hey, It's Time to Stop Beating Up the Fed!
Forget the NSA's spying program! What really will shape our future is the Fed, according to Reuters Columnist Zachary Karabell. He speaks to former Treasury official David Malpass.
Read moreStandard & Poor’s and Other Ratings Agencies Must End Their Power Trip
In early December, the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s placed all 15 Eurozone countries under what it calls “negative credit watch.” Typically, that means there is an even possibility that it will downgrade the credit of these countries within 90 days.
Read moreThe U.S. Will Not Default on August 2
The only thing that matters for global markets over the coming days is whether a deal can be struck in Washington over the debt ceiling. That said, there is one major misconception – fostered by politicians – about what the stakes actually are.
Read moreThe Shame of the Ratings Agencies: How Moody’s Blows It Again
If the economic news wasn’t bad enough after the release of yet another anemic jobs report, the highly influential global ratings agency Moody’s just announced that it was contemplating a downgrade of the U.S.’s credit rating.
Read moreObama and the GOP's Risky Gamesmanship Over Debt Ceiling Could Spur Another Credit Crisis
It’s official: the United States government is overdrawn on its debt limit of $14.294 trillion as of yesterday. Well, not technically overdrawn, as the U.S. Treasury directed by Secretary Timothy Geithner has taken a variety of measures to forestall any actual federal defaults on its operations—which range from keeping the lights on at the Smithsonian to maintaining combat forces in Afghanistan. These accounting sleights-of-hand will delay any actual defaults to early August. But still, after months of inconclusive wrangling by both parties, a new Rubicon has been crossed.
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