Global coordinated central bank balance sheet expansion, better known as QE, has been rushing through our veins. And the heart of the global economy, developed market equity capital, has been on an adrenaline moon shot. It feels GREAT!!!! The spoo is up about 16...
Literally translated, "Ame futte chi katamaru" means "After the rain, the earth hardens". It is a Japanese saying that implies - "adversity builds character". And no matter how you look at this past week, there was an epic thunderstorm and plenty of adversity in the...
Ben's speech at Bard college over this past weekend was touted as a non-event for monetary policy. I beg to differ. I thought this speech told you more than nearly any other about how he views the monetary policy transmission process into the real economy. The speech...
Many in the doom and gloom crowd have warned of impending disaster as JGB prices plummet. The typical story centers upon unsustainable debt levels and higher debt service costs associated with higher rates. The story line generally involves a vicious payment spiral...
In early 1995 I made my first trip to Japan. At the time, as a young market strategist at Swiss Bank Corporation in London, I had just seen USDJPY cart out nearly every levered trader on its freefall from 105 to 80. And when I arrived in Japan that Spring, I quickly...
I am putting the finishing touches on a commentary that highlights the some of the similarities between the 1995/98 period and the current environment. The focus is on Japan and EM - and needless to say, it will not paint a pretty picture for EM. I hope to send that...
So the verdict is in. Gold is settling down 8 to 10 percent from its pre-crash levels and the world feels mighty fine. Spoos are a few ticks from record highs and the Nikkei is Motte Isuma!! So much for the endless stream of comments suggesting that because of a Gold...
As one might have expected, I received quite a number of responses to Monday's commentary. While there were a few that expressed solidarity with the view that this gold sell-off is a POSITIVE sign for the GLOBAL reflation/recovery trade, most of the replies were...
What a wild week! While it felt great to be back in the risk pool just before last Wednesday's liftathon in spoos; the late week Yen strength, gold meltdown, JGB long-end volatility and Cypriot bailout shenanigans provided plenty to ponder. Of course the long term...
There is no question that the news from Japan has been extremely important for global markets. And to be sure, we have been arguing since November 2012 that significant changes to BoJ policy would be one of the primary drivers of ALL global asset prices in 2013. Some...
There is no question that the news from Japan has been extremely important for global markets. And to be sure, we have been arguing since November 2012 that significant changes to BoJ policy would be one of the primary drivers of ALL global asset prices in 2013. Some of my favorite commentaries over the past […]
