So this past week the French and the Greeks have made strong political moves towards the anti-austerity left. The Germans have rejected the center right in local elections. And the anti-austerity movement has won the day in Italian regional elections. As discussed in a commentary a few days ago, we are moving towards a kinder […]

Spoos are up 20+ pts from the Sunday evening lows, and they are now above Friday’s close. The Euro is still down from Friday, but Estoxx are zooming - up 40pts from Friday and up nearly 80pts from the morning open. Markets seem to be embracing a renewed optimism for European stability. Or maybe they […]

Bon Soir!! Kalispera!! Welcome to "The New European Republic" - otherwise known as Den Europeiska Republiken. Forget about the goal of moving towards a "United States of Europe", we are now heading down a decidedly "Swedish" path on the European continent. The move to the left in both France and Greece has dramatically changed the […]

It was a soggy payroll report but certainly not a calamity. With revisions we were actually near the recently lowered expectations. The flat AHE certainly isn't a plus and the further drop in the labor force will get the "structural unemployment" camp hot and bothered. Bottom line - rampant growth is not in sight!! And […]

From Ben's Q&A today on the possibility of more QE – "We have been very accommodative. And we remain prepared to do more as needed to make sure this recovery continues and that inflation stays close to target......so those tools remain very much on the table. We will not hesitate to use them, should the […]

This week is the Milken Global Conference in LA - an event that I very much look forward to each spring. This year I will participate in a panel entitled - "Twist and Shout - the Limits of Monetary Policy". It should be a spirited discussion between Fed policy makers and market participants, moderated by […]

This week we will see the release of the FOMC's "Summary of Economic Projections" - the SEP. While there will be the usual focus on GDP, PCE and the U-rate, the key charts for the market will be the newly generated "Appropriate Timing of Policy Firming" and the "Appropriate Pace of Policy Firming". To see […]

Yes, another line from that song I cannot get out of my head - "Loca People". But I replaced "los DJs" with "los central bankers". It seemed appropriate as they are the ones keeping the beat and making this party lively. If it wasn't for DJ Benny B we would have the masses listening to […]

Last year we kicked off the Institutional Investor Fixed Income voting campaign with our "Vote for Pedro" commentary (attached at the end). For those that never saw the movie "Napoleon Dynamite", please read the original commentary first to better understand our "Pedro" analogy. And Just so everyone is aware, 2011 was the first ever attempt […]

A few days back, as the spoo was toying with 1350, we wrote a commentary entitled "Shhh!!! Don't tell anyone, Spanish banks have problems". It was a tongue-in-cheek title that attempted to poke fun at all the doom mongers running around stating the obvious - “Spain is falling, Spain is falling". Throughout the piece we […]