Prodigal Families and Comical Tragedies: The Cannibalization of the Price of Capital
Rembrandt’s painting portraying the return of the prodigal son is an amazing and monumental piece of art. It signifies the most joyful moment of reuniting a family and starting a new chapter/direction in everyone’s life. No matter how many times someone has seen the...
Weekly Market Update
Market Action Despite a turbulent Friday the major averages delivered small gains this week, save for the tech heavy Nasdaq. While yields fell on the week the rising trend and widening spreads with corporate bonds lifted Financials this week. Another week has gone by...
Dancing with Lemmings: The Migration of Crowded Trades
We live in an epoch where volatility is becoming a trademark. We try to discover causes for this and all we are successful in doing is reshuffling symptoms. Like lemmings we follow a herd mentality that resembles a dance of morons. And as we are dancing along the...
Weekly Market Update
Market Action Both equity and fixed-income assets sold off this week, posting poor results for the second straight week. The drama in Greece and the impact currencies are having on asset markets continue to dominate the news. After the strong jobs report released on...
Monthly Barometer’s Forward-Looking Monthly Review: An Interdisciplinary View of our Complex Global Economy
On all fronts, global economic growth remains soft: facing headwinds in the US, tepid in the Eurozone, underwhelming in Japan and decelerating across emerging markets (with exceptions, such as India). For reasons expanded below, and barring a productivity miracle...
Weekly Market Update
Market Action U.S. stocks performed poorly this week as all sectors sustained losses. Poor economic data, led by a revision for Q1 GDP to -0.7%, contributed to the selloff on Friday but equities still remain within a tight range. Japan’s Nikkei hit a 15-year high on...
Weekly Market Update
Market Action Equity markets in the U.S. remained subdued again this week in light of little economic data. Earnings reported this week, most notably from the retail sector, were mixed as expected. Stocks remain in a tight trading range while long-term bonds go...
On the Chinese Wall of Steroids: Imbalances and Asymmetries
In a recent study by the McKinsey Institute total credit market debt in China is shown as the largest in the world, and that is only what we know of. The dangers are not limited just to China but are extended to the global financial system. In a world where financial...
Weekly Market Update
Market Action While equity markets in the U.S. pulled out small gains fixed income movements dominated discussion during this past week. Considerable moves in longer term bonds in the U.S. and Europe captured attention with benchmark rates hitting their highs...
Dioskouri Brothers Confronting a Joyful Disorder: Bonds, Yields, and Negative Equilibrium
Over the course of the last two weeks, we have been observing a twist in the bond markets. Yields are rising and consequently bond prices dropping. More than $420 billion worth of paper wealth has been wiped out in the bond markets across the globe. The rooster of...
