Today’s intraday one-minute S&P 500 chart is amusing.
This continues to be the worst market since Late Devonian Extinction (via @Grantspub, yesterday): “The ARK Innovation ETF has garnered net inflows in each of the past eight trading days, totaling $639 million, or about 7% of total assets at Cathie Wood’s flagship fund, data from Bloomberg show. That marks the longest such winning streak since March 2021.”
I see headlines like this: The personal savings rate in America just hit its lowest level since the Great Recession — even as rates on savings accounts have risen. What gives? I’m tired. You want to tell them?
Case-Shiller home price index is up 21.2% YOY Sorry kids. CNBS just described this as “cooling.”
The FHFA House Price Index is only up 18.8%. This must be the deflation I keep hearing about. I mean, Spain PPI has plunged to only up 43.6% YOY.
U.S. blocks gold imports from Russia I’m told that “The United States imported…under $1 million [of Russian gold] in 2020 and 2021.” Americans don’t own physical gold. They don’t get it. I would think China (or India) would gladly buy up Russians $19 billion (2020) in gold exports to the west.
Grant’s: “the Bank of Japan’s government debt holdings have reached ¥514.9 trillion ($3.8 trillion), equivalent to 50.4% of total JGBs outstanding…The grand monetary experiment continues apace.”
Thank you, Craig.
New York Fed Chief John Williams is just another uber-wanker who should have no influence on any of our lives.
OK, Bulgarian, not Bolivian, but still: Credit Suisse is fined for helping a Bulgarian drug ring launder money, a court said. (I particularly love that the NY Times felt the need to add “a court said,” as if there’s still some doubt and confusion here.
Do you ever see a headline that says, “Liquor Store robber fined for robbing liquor store, a court said”? No, you don’t, because people and corporations above a certain net worth (at least 8 or 9 figures I’d guess) have an entirely different justice system.
I notice these things:
Eric Holder didn't send a single banker to jail for the mortgage crisis. Is that justice?
To reiterate: HSBC laundered money for guys who chop peoples' heads off with chainsaws. So we can dispense with the "but no one broke any laws" thing.
If anyone in power really cared about money laundering HSBS wouldn’t exist: HSBC escaped US money-laundering charges after Osborne's intervention
I can’t make this stuff up: Big Four auditing firm EY has agreed to a record $100mn settlement with the US securities regulator to resolve claims that dozens of its employees cheated on an ethics exam and that it misled investigators.
Hey, fyi - with these spiking rates lately, Bank of America is now paying 0.01%! We’ve bailed these guys out multiple times too! Yay!
Saw a lot of this in the bubble before this bubble:
Q: Is The Fort Worth Real Estate Market Headed For a Slowdown?
A: First of all — RELAX. NoOne in 10 U.S. homes sold in the first quarter of 2022 was "flipped" — or bought-and-sold within a year by an arms-length buyer — the highest level since 2000…Home flipping has been on the rise for five straight quarters
Don’t get me started on the Saudis: Flurry of Calls Among Saudi Diplomatic Staff and Spy Coincided With 9/11 Hijackers’ US Arrival
Just finished The Lords of Easy Money (Leonard). Took 2 days. It should be required reading in all business/MBA programmes. I did my MBA in 1990 and we read Liar’s Poker. Back then the Fed wasn’t even on the curriculum. Financial Engineers should read it too so they understand in the way Brad Pitt’s character understood in The Big Short.
A+ on the caption for the G7! 😂