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In a recent episode of “The Problem With Jon Stewart,” the former Daily Show host asks former president of the Kansas City Fed Thomas Hoenig why the Fed couldn’t have bailed out homeowners, or just “quantitative ease” away the Treasury’s debt. Hoenig gives muddy answers, so Bob tries to clarify. Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest: Jon Stewart’s full interview with Thomas Hoenig Jon Stewart skewers Paul Krugman Jon Stewart interviews Kelton and...

Overview: The record-long yen slide has stalled just shy of JPY129.50, even though the Bank of Japan defended its Yield-Curve Control cap on the 10-year bond and will continue to do so for the next four sessions. The greenback fell to almost JPY128 before steadying. China again defied expectations for lower rates (loan prime rate), the yuan’s sell-off accelerated and slide to its lowest level since last October. Chinese and Hong Kong shares fell, but most of the...

Let’s have a thought experiment.  Suppose that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Cuban president Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez issued a joint announcement stating that North Korea had accepted an invitation to install some of its nuclear missiles in Cuba. The announcement made it clear that although the missiles could reach any American city, they would be entirely for the defense of Cuba, not for the purpose of attacking the United States.  There is no...

Let’s ask “cui bono” of the $33 trillion in added debt and the $9 trillion added to GDP: to whose benefit? I’ve been thinking about how hard it is to get our heads around big numbers. Technical analyst Sven Henrich (@NorthmanTrader) recently provided one method to grasp the immense wealth of Elon Musk: How to become as wealthy as Elon Musk? Easy. Get paid $1 Million every single day. For 750 years in a row and you’re there. How can we get a handle on the $33...

It is estimated that about a third of the oil traded globally is bought and sold in Switzerland. Keystone/Sergey Ponomarev Switzerland will decide case by case whether to curtail traders’ purchases from Russia’s state-controlled companies under European Union sanctions. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) which is in charge sanctions confirmed the Swiss policy to follow in principle the EU measures, which aim to limit commodity deals to those deemed...

Overview: Benchmark 10-year bonds yields in the US and Europe are at new highs for the year.  The US yield is approaching 2.90%, while European rates are mostly 5-8 bp higher.  The 10-year UK Gilt yield is up nine basis points to push near 1.98%. The higher yields are seeing the yen’s losing streak extend, and the greenback has jumped 1% to around JPY128.45  The dollar is trading lower against the other major currencies but the Swiss franc. The dollar-bloc currencies...

Zurzeit würde wohl nichts die Mass Adoption mehr fördern, als wenn Amazon Zahlungen mit Cryptocoins akzeptierte. Doch Amazons CEO macht der Crypto-Community wenig Hoffnung, wenn es um eine baldige Implementierung von Zahlungen mit Bitcoin und Co. geht. Crypto News: Zahlungen mit Cryptocoins auf Amazon noch weit entferntOffenbar gibt es derzeit keine Pläne, Zahlungen mit Cryptocoins auf Amazon zu akzeptieren. CEO Andy Jessy sprach auf CNBC über den Cryptomarkt und...

When the system can’t borrow more and distribute the insolvency, it implodes I started writing about debt saturation back in 2011. The basic idea is we can continue to borrow and spend as long as one of two conditions hold: 1) real (inflation-adjusted) income is rising, so there’s more income to service additional debt, or 2) the cost of borrowing declines so the same income can support more debt. After 13 long years of declining interest rates and stagnant...

Students and expanding companies are demanding more blockchain courses at Swiss universities. © Keystone / Christian Beutler The rapidly expanding Swiss blockchain industry is facing growing pains: a limited supply of qualified workers to fill the expanding number of job vacancies. Universities are stepping up to meet the challenge by designing new courses around blockchain and decentralised finance. Blockchain is the digital system that powers bitcoin and other...

At the end of March this year the difference between the yield on the ten-year Treasury bond and the yield on the two-year Treasury bond fell to 0.010 percent from 1.582 percent at the end of March 2021. Many analysts believe that a change in the shape of the yield spread provides an indication regarding where the economy is heading in the months ahead, with an increase in the yield spread raising the likelihood of a possible strengthening in economic activity in the...