With a disgust commensurate with the fact, Michael Bennet, the Colorado Democrat, says that during 40 percent of his 10 Senate years the government has been run on “continuing resolutions.†Congress passes these in order to spare itself the torture of performing its primary function, which is to set national priorities. Bennet is too serious a person to be content ...
Read More »Small cars are being driven out of existence
Car launches are 10-a-penny so it’s very rare that a particular model’s demise captures the world’s attention. The Volkswagen Beetle, the last of which rolled off the production line in Mexico this week, was no ordinary vehicle though. The downfall of the “People’s Car,†an icon of post-war German prosperity as well as the 1960s counterculture, is all the more ...
Read More »Powell and Fed have zero control over the long bond
Day two of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s congressional testimony was much like the first. He reiterated that the economy is “in a very good place,†but that the central bank has room to lower interest rates to keep the expansion on track. As dovish as that may sound, the comments didn’t offer much comfort to bond traders – they ...
Read More »Bonds climb in busy week of Fedspeak; stocks mixed
Bloomberg Treasuries climbed at the start of a busy week for economic data and Federal Reserve speakers. Stocks were mixed as traders assessed corporate earnings. After last week’s jump in yields, long-term Treasuries outperformed their shorter-tenor peers as investors bought bonds at cheaper prices. The S&P 500 Index fluctuated as banks fell after Citigroup Inc’s results, while Broadcom Inc rallied ...
Read More »Australian exchange plans for negative interest-rate trading
Bloomberg Australia’s ASX Ltd is testing its systems for the trading of negative interest-rate products, underscoring how markets are preparing for the potential introduction of quantitative easing in yet another Group-of-10 nation. The exchange has made available trial environments so market participants can test their processes for interest-rate futures prices that are greater than or equal to 100.00, according to ...
Read More »Central bankers readying to fight another downturn
Bloomberg Central bankers readying to fight another economic downturn are tossing hand grenades rather than firing bazookas. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi stand ready alongside many of their counterparts to cut interest rates to bolster the weakest growth in a decade and lackluster inflation. Yet they have little to work with and, perhaps ...
Read More »Deutsche sees India yields drop to lowest
Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG is predicting a big decline in India’s sovereign bond yields to levels last seen in 2009. The yield curve is pricing in a deeper trough on policy, with expectations of more rate cuts from the Reserve Bank of India and a change in the way the authority manages liquidity to help transmit lower borrowing costs through ...
Read More »Citigroup counts on cost cuts, consumers as trading sputters
Bloomberg At Citigroup Inc, bean counting and boring banking are in ascendance. Trading, not so much. The lender cut costs deeper than analysts expected while its consumer division posted its strongest second-quarter since 2013. Together, that outshined the firm’s Wall Street operations, where dealmakers eked out a surprise increase in revenue from underwriting debt while traders struggled. “We have good ...
Read More »World Bank appoints State Bank of India’s Anshula Kant as CFO
Bloomberg The World Bank Group appointed Anshula Kant of the State Bank of India as chief financial officer, according to a statement in Washington. Kant is currently a managing director at SBI and previously served as its CFO, the World Bank said. It hasn’t yet announced when Kant will start the new job. Kant will report to World Bank President ...
Read More »Facebook’s crypto plan unites Trump, Democrats
Bloomberg It’s long seemed that nothing could unite President Donald Trump and Democrats on Capitol Hill. Then Facebook decided to create a cryptocurrency. Washington’s bipartisan distrust of the social-networking giant will be on display as it defends the digital-money proposal in two congressional hearings. In a sign that the testimony is likely to be an ordeal for Facebook, Trump took ...
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