Friday, September 13, 2019
The contagion of the record low 10-year Treasury yield of July 2016 has spread to the 30-year in August 2019
The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note settled at 1.367% Tuesday, breaching the previous close low of 1.404% set in July 2012 when investors rushed into haven debt amid the depth of the eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis. Yields fall as bond prices rise. ...
On an intraday basis, the U.S. 10-year yield touched as low as 1.357%. It was 1.446% Friday and 2.273% at the end of last year. The U.S. bond market was shut Monday for a holiday.
Traders say the 10-year yield still has room to fall. Investors and analysts say bond yields are in uncharted waters now and that it is hard to predict how low yields could go in this environment.
Few in the financial markets have foreseen a period of negative interest rates touching off globally. The total of sovereign debt with negative yields jumped to $11.7 trillion as of June 27, up $1.3 trillion from the end of May, according to Fitch Ratings.
The pool is likely to expand further in the months ahead due to ongoing purchases of government bonds by the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan. ...
The 30-year Treasury bond has been the market darling, and the buying spree has pushed down its yield to record lows lately. The 30-year bond’s yield settled at 2.138%, falling below its record close low of 2.226% Friday.
The 30-year bond was usually the playground for pension funds and insurance firms. But it is now being bid up by a broader investor base due to the global hunger for income. Analysts say it wouldn’t surprise them if the 30-year yield falls below the 2% mark in the weeks ahead.
Three years later:
In late Wednesday trading, the yields on 30-year government bonds were 1.939%, down 2.2 basis points from late Tuesday. They hit an all-time low of 1.905% earlier Wednesday.
Last night's Democrat debate was so bad . . .
. . . I couldn't find one tweet mocking it worth reproducing here.
There's exhaustion out there, people.
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Atlantic article totally soft-peddles how Obamacare's architects made millions vulnerable to estate recovery under Medicaid
The only reason Obamacare can be called successful reasonably is that it threw millions onto Medicaid, except that what is spent on you in life for your healthcare under Medicaid ends up coming out of what's left of what you owned after you die, if anything, including from the sale of your house, and even from the sale of granny's hand-me-down quilts.
America's first black president, Bill Clinton, signed estate recovery into law, and the second one then sold that bill of goods to millions of America's uninsured poor. He just bought himself a $15 million mansion to celebrate.
For many participants, the program that provides health care to millions of low-income Americans isn’t free. It’s a loan. And the government expects to be repaid. ...
One lawyer in Tennessee recalled a case in which a woman went to her late mother’s Medicaid auction to buy back quilts that had been passed down for generations. ...
One of the few times estate recovery has made headlines was earlier this decade, during the rollout of the Obama administration’s Medicaid expansion. As more Americans considered Medicaid as a health-insurance option, more came across the fine print. At least three states passed legislation to scale back their recovery policies after public outcry.
Gasoline consumers continue to pay bubble-levels, $2.571/gal on average under 2.5 years of Trump, as oil company profits soar
 |
| https://www.wsj.com/articles/big-oil-companies-finished-2018-strong-despite-plunge-in-oil-prices-11549031069 |
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Jeffrey Snider explains the decline in bond yields to The Wall Street Journal's Andy Kessler, tells a clueless Fed what must be done
The Fed Can’t See Its Own Shadow
Its asset purchases are squeezing nonbank lending and sinking long-term bond rates. ...
Shortages of long bonds—good collateral—are causing “relentless”
demand and therefore lower yields. That’s why German long bonds have
negative interest rates: not because losing money is a great investment,
but because negative interest is the cost of doing business to get
“pristine collateral” to use in repos.
This is how the global credit system—what Mr. Snider labels the
Eurodollar market—now works. The Fed has become the lender of last
resort for the global market, including banks and shadow banks. It’s
about time its governors figure that out.
So what should they do? Encourage the Treasury to issue more of the
long bonds the market is demanding: 30- or even 100-year. Feed the
beast. Then stop quantitative easing: It doesn’t work and soaks up
collateral. Next, stop paying interest on reserves. Maybe even create a
nontradable “Treasury-R” to act as reserve currency elsewhere, freeing
up more bonds. If history repeats, there are about 90 days until China
repos roll over again.
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Peak Trump administration delusion: "Labor market hotter now than during any time in our history"
The Trump administration pointed to the poverty decline as evidence that its economic agenda is helping the neediest Americans. “Employment is the best way out of poverty, and President Trump’s policies have made the labor market hotter now than during any time in our history,” said Tomas Philipson, acting chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Podshare: The Soviet future of housing
Comrade Kaprugina to Yuri: "There was living space for thirteen families in this one house."
Yuri: "Yes. Yes, this is a better arrangement, comrades . . . more just."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)