Category Archives: Money

Agriculture, Autarky, Central banks, China, Credit, Fixed Income, Macro, Money, Profits, Revenues, Trade Wars, Yield Curve

Xi’s word is your bond

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

Though the latest set of profit data for China’s industrial concerns were outwardly positive, there are still many unresolved questions hanging over both the economy and the country’s politics, some of which we examine here. None of that is likely to deter bond investors and ETF buyers, of course, since their principal concern will be to bring their holdings into line with a major benchmark index which has just created a vast source of funds for Xi Jinping’s minions to exploit. We ask: should they?

To access this post, you must purchase Annual Subscription or Monthly Subscription.

Continue reading →
Austrian Theory, Central banks, Economics, Federal Reserve, Fiscal policy, Inflation, Keynesianism, Liberty, Macro, MMT, Money, money supply

MMT Vessels Make The Most Noise

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

As a sort of Keynes-manqué, Stephanie Kelton’s moment in the limelight is being granted her for much the same reason as was that of her more illustrious predecessor: she is telling free-spending politicians what they always want to hear – viz., that their habitual incontinence is statesmanship of the highest order.
With our good professor never missing an opportunity to remind anyone and everyone that her book – a veritable almanac of economic hocus-pocus – tops the non-fiction charts (surely a gross miscategorization if ever there was), we must therefore re-emphasize our view that the REAL peril of Magic Money Tree economics – aka MMT – is what it means for the private sphere in general and the scope for genuine entrepreneurship in particular, NOT whether it causes prices to rise or not. The question is one of liberty, not inflation; real prosperity, not growth.

To access this post, you must purchase Annual Subscription or Monthly Subscription.

Continue reading →
Central banks, China, Commodities, Equities, Fixed Income, Forex, Leverage, Margin, Money

Chasing the Dragon

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

As is by now widely reported, China stocks have been on something of a tear in the past few weeks, with the CSI300, for example, up by around 20% in that time. The usual suspects have been at work as the PBOC has encouraged a renewed money flood into being and those desperate for an income – and possibly with little else to do, at present – are enticed back into what is merely the latest in the nation’s rolling series of mania and speculative booms.

To access this post, you must purchase Annual Subscription or Monthly Subscription.

Continue reading →
Bank of England, Central banks, COVID19, CPI, ECB, Economics, Federal Reserve, Fiscal policy, Government, Inflation, Japan, MMT, Money, Productivity, UK Treasury, US Treasury, Wages

After the Fall of Caffa

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

While politicians anxiously check the shifting weather-vanes of public opinion and scientists squabble over facts as well as interpretations, central banks are resolutely doing what they do best – wildly exceeding their briefs and trying to drown all problems in a flood of newly-created money. As ever, the underconsumptionists worry that a lack of demand will usher in deflation, in spite of all such efforts. Some of us, however, worry more about what it will do to supply. Here, we explain why.

To access this post, you must purchase Annual Subscription or Monthly Subscription.

Continue reading →
Austrian Theory, Economics, Fixed Income, Inflation, MMT, Money, money supply, US Treasury, USA

Free Lunch Finance

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

The poster girl of the voguish crankdom that is Modern Monetary Theory (“MMT”) – Stephanie Kelton, has been out pimping her new book – “The Deficit Myth” – with a great deal of help from the unofficial PR department which she seems to have, nestled within the House Organ of Davos, the execrable FT.

To access this post, you must purchase Annual Subscription or Monthly Subscription.

Continue reading →
Austrian Theory, Central banks, coronavirus, COVID19, Demographics, Economics, Macro, Money

Not your Grandfather’s Crisis

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

Many people are trying to draw analogies with the Great Depression, with wartime, or the 70s stagflation era but we feel most of these analogies are missing the mark. Here we explain why

To access this post, you must purchase Annual Subscription or Monthly Subscription.

Continue reading →
Austrian Theory, Banking, Central banks, Credit, Cycles, Deflation, Economics, Federal Reserve, Fiscal policy, Inflation, Money, US Treasury

Money v Supply

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

With many commodity prices touching multi-year lows and with mounting fears for real estate valuations and car-lease residuals, numerous commentators seem convinced that ours is now a deflationary future. QE failed to raise CPI by anywhere near what the spin promised, they say, partly because it was ‘unsupported’ by fiscal policy. Therefore, if we don’t get Roosevelt, we’ll get Brüning, they conclude, and, meanwhile, we need the Fed to cut rates below zero, said one prominent pundit on April 5th. We replied:-

To access this post, you must purchase Annual Subscription or Monthly Subscription.

Continue reading →
Central banks, Credit, ECB, Economics, Europe, Intervention, Macro, Money

Whatever it doesn’t take

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

On March 15th, the Eurozone branch of the Throw-more-money-at-it lobby were making themselves heard, calling for the ECB to run the printing presses for a limited (author pulls down lower eyelid with index finger) period as a supplement to the to the €120 billion in extra security purchases already made to that point. [NB total ‘assistance’ to April 17th had reached to €275bln in RP, €148bln in securities, and €126bln in FX swaps for a total of €550bln in five short weeks].We responded:-

To access this post, you must purchase Annual Subscription or Monthly Subscription.

Continue reading →
Bonds, Central banks, Credit, Federal Reserve, Fixed Income, futures, Hedge Funds, High Yield, Money, Primary Dealers, repo, UK Treasury, Volatility, Yield Curve

Overstretch

Posted on by Sean Corrigan
21
Feb

Markets have paradoxically both been on edge – and in the throes of euphoria – since the repo shock in mid-September, being at the same time alarmed and yet strangely reassured by the Fed’s frantic backpedalling and the $400+ billion boost to its balance sheet which this entailed. Extreme levels of overstretch are everywhere apparent.

To access this post, you must purchase Annual Subscription or Monthly Subscription.

Continue reading →