Gold traders are again rejoicing after the Federal Reserve (Fed) confirmed expectations of a modest 25 basis points interest rate hike on Wednesday. The bright metal has re-gained the $1,980 mark, back on the uptrend after having retraced from year-to-date highs on Monday and Tuesday.
Jamie Dimon is the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S., which is also ranked the riskiest global bank by its regulators. But instead of getting his own house in order in the midst of a banking crisis, Dimon has been peculiarly focused elsewhere.
Thanks to revisions, the Census Bureau's New Home Sales report shows new home sales rose for the third month. The good news, not that it's remotely believable, stops there.
But only 8% of Alphabet’s and 13% of Meta’s layoffs are in California: The tally based on California’s WARN reports.
American Empire at 234 years. “I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so dur…
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday will tell lawmakers that the federal government would take extra steps to stabilize the U.S. banking system if...
We might be headed for a hard landing after all.
After flirting with the "nice, round number" earlier this week, Gold - which soared by $150 in the past two weeks amid the relentless bank crisis - has just topped $2000 for the first time since March 2022 and then, since the Covid crash before it, when the Fed unleashed $10+ trillion in emergency liquidity.
Strange choice of words. As inflation continues to skyrocket and amid huge banking collapses, the White House press secretary declared Wednesday that the Biden administration “sees a strong economy.”
The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on Wednesday raised the target policy interest rate (the federal funds rate) to 5.00 percent, an increase of 25 basis points. With this latest increase, the target has increased 4.75 percent since February 2022.
As Simon White writes today, "a full guarantee of all bank deposits would spell the end of moral hazard disciplining banks and mark the final chapter of the dollar’s multi-decade debasement." And yet that's where we are headed, even if with a few hiccups along the way, because as White also notes, with the latest banking crisis in the US, it’s the clean-up that could end up doing far...
"To the shame of two generations of economists-turned-policy-advisors, moral hazard is a fact of life. We don’t need to add permanent dollar depreciation to this mess." ~ Alexander William Salter
The US only just scrapes into the second-best of the five categories, falling to #25 in the world.
Europe has made a valiant effort to seize back the banking shitshow crown it has owned for most of the past decade, but at the moment it seems the US still has a firmer grasp of it. Deutsche Bank’s George Saravelos has sent over some interesting charts on how US and European banks are faring at the moment. Notwithstanding the messy final denouement of Credit Suisse’s yearslong faceplants, Europe still looks better.
Approval of President Joe Biden has dipped slightly since a month ago, nearing the lowest point of his presidency as his administration tries to project a sense of stability while confronting a pair of bank failures and inflation that remains stubbornly high.
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
The median price of new home sales is down a whopping -8.18% since December 2022. And average price is down -12.83%.
Property Market Valuations: Another casualty (and cause) of banking stress is likely going to be all flavors of property… particularly given that all 3 of REITs, commercial real estate, and housing market valuations reached record highs in the wake of the pandemic emergency stimulus measures.
The boss of the country’s biggest brick-making company, Brickworks managing director Lindsay Partridge says a sharp slowdown in housing construction and renovations is likely towards the end of 2023, with a backlog of work stemming from tradie shortages to provide a short-term buffer of about six months.
While Fed Chairman Jerome Powell appears determined to bring inflation down to their 2% target, inflation is far from under control.