Ben Bernanke’s speech is very dull but has an important paragraph near the end. “As I have discussed today, it is also true that nontraditional policies are relatively more difficult to apply, at least given the present state of our knowledge. Estimates of the effects of nontraditional policies on economic activity and inflation are uncertain, […]
Archives for August 2012
The Commodity Price Boom Is Over — FIU
“The commodity price boom is over and anyone with half a brain knows that.” so said Martin Ferguson, Australia’s Resources minister this morning. After the release of the last FOMC meeting minutes showed that the FOMC closely discussed all its options for providing more monetary stimulus. Most members, although not all, stated that they believed […]
August a mad month so far — FIU
August- could be described as a mad month so far. Price action in Core Government Bond markets this week has been very negative to say the least. The biggest moves have come in the US with Us Treasury 10yr yields rising 18bp from last Friday’s close and 30yr yields higher by 20bp. What has been […]
A lack of Bad News — FIU
A lack of bad news is enough for the Safe Haven markets to lose their appeal. Little US economic data and a quiet political period in Europe is taking some fear out of the market Yesterday’s auction of new 10yr US Treasuries was a real disappointment to the market and me. The result at 1.68% […]
Safe Haven Bonds — FIU
After a three day sell-off in “Safe Haven Bonds” which have seen 10yr Bund yields rise 23bp and 30yr US Treasury prices fall 5 points from Thursday’s highs some reflection needs to take place. On Friday I said that the peripheral bond markets needed to reflect that the ECB President was leaving all the hard […]