First of all a number of clients picked up on a rather large typo in my commentary from a few hours ago. The last sentence read - "The Germans will not destroy EMU but there will be some countries that may make it through to the end." It should have read - "The Germans will […]

A perfect speech from Ben!!! I would have titled it "The semi-annual affirmation of the Bernanke Put to the Congress" or maybe better and more simply put "Buy spoos, I got your back". I liked this except on how the Fed describes QE policies - "by removing substantial quantities of longer-term Treasury securities from the […]

When 2 trillion of market cap moves into a complete liquidity vacuum, it’s a problem. The explanations for the recent Italian debt price moves seem to be all over the map. Domestics exiting, foreign central bank selling and then of course foreign central bank buying and ecb buying. The usual market story-telling and confusion. The […]

The post payroll price action has been less eventful than I would have thought given the size of the miss. The mortgage and corporate credit markets are only a touch softer and equities are down about 1% - all certainly within one standard dev for a payroll day! The 10yr is 12bps lower on the […]

Everything about that report stinks. Household survey showed -445k employed and +173 unemployed with the participation rate falling. Headline payrolls very soft at +18k with private payrolls only +57k. And the U6 rate went up to 16.2 from 15.8! A very bad report and the market was caught off side with the Obama press conference […]

Yesterday’s commentary on the ratings agencies – “A last gasp of hot NRSRO air” - was luckily well timed. From yesterday’s note I opined – “If anyone believes that the Europeans are going to rely on American based rating agencies to govern their public sector financial decision-making, while the US regulators cast them aside, they […]

Section 939A of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, enacted on July 21, 2010, requires the Fed, FDIC and OCC to review their regulations that require the use of an assessment of creditworthiness of a security or money market instrument and make reference to, or have requirements regarding, credit ratings. The agencies […]

Someone should drop off a copy of the “Mortgage Portfolio Selling for Dummies” book to 20th and Constitution Ave in DC. It’s a pretty simple book as it has only 3 basic rules. 1. Be opportunistic with your sales - never commit to any program. 2. When the market chokes on your bonds - stop […]

Well, the near collapse of the global financial system has been averted after many sleepless June nights! Syntagma square has firmly cemented its place in modern financial history, and the Greek people are now resigned to their plight of lower wealth and lower income as the public sector Ponzi scheme shuts down. As time goes […]

The vote has passed and it looks as though "da dip" in risk assets is being bought!! It certainly has been tough to hang with a long term rosy view in June, but for those that were able to remain committed, and buy in the face of adversity, the rewards have been spectacular with equities […]