News
Bloomberg | Bernanke Boom Signaled by Yield Surge as Market Recalculates
The worst first half for Treasuries in four years has wrung the unprecedented Federal Reserve stimulus out of bond prices as investors now look to low inflation and slow economic growth to contain yields.
WSJ | Banks Cautious as Profits Rise
Two of the nation's largest banks reported better-than-expected profits Friday, but executives warned that mortgage lending could drop in the second half of 2013 if interest rates stay elevated.
Econ Comments & Analysis
AEI | The 21st-century Glass-Steagall Act
Senators John McCain and Elizabeth Warren are giving it a shot. The Arizona Republican and Massachusetts Democrat last week unveiled their “21st-Century Glass-Steagall Act,” which would restore the barrier between commercial banking and investment banking first established by the Banking Act of 1933.
Forbes | Want To Break Up The Banks? Be Very Careful What You Wish For
A popular refrain on the left AND right ever since the financial crisis* is that to ensure nothing like it happens again, the banks must be broken up. Explicit here is that if no bank is too large, no one entity can ‘threaten the financial system’ if calamity strikes. They also presume that smaller banks mean no more bailouts. Both are nice thoughts, yet totally divorced from reality.
Fortune | Sorry, but hedge funds aren't going away
Hedge funds may be a media piñata right now, but they aren't going away. Nor should they.
Bloomberg | Should Fed’s Policies Rule the World?
Up to 60 percent of global transactions are conducted in U.S. dollars, more than one-third of world economic output is produced in dollar bloc economies, and an even greater share of global assets are priced in the currency, or linked currencies. This role as the de facto global currency for more than six decades has made the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy one of the U.S.’s greatest exports.
Blogs
WSJ | Fed’s Plosser: Time to Taper Bond Buying, End by Close of Year
One of the Federal Reserve‘s leading opponents of its bond-buying stimulus efforts called on the central bank to begin shrinking the purchases and stop them by year-end.
WSJ | Vital Signs Chart: Tracking the Dollar
The buck stops here? The WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against seven currencies, has risen about 6.5% this year as investors position for a gradual end to the Federal Reserve’s currency-weakening easy-money policies.
