Financial Markets

There are echoes of the 1973 oil shock in the current virus scare and resulting economic seize-up. Central banks are likely to respond similarly: with "stimulus" and inflation.

By being so dovish for so long, the Fed has greatly limited what it can do in case of recession without resorting to untried and radical solutions like negative rates.

During January 2020, year-over-year (YOY) growth in the money supply was at 6.32 percent. That's up from December's rate of 5.53 percent, and up from January 2019's rate of 3.38 percent.

Harry Dent believes that a major crash is coming, which will probably begin this year.

Michael Milken was a threat to the complacent Wall Street cartels established by the New Deal. So ambitious prosecutors like Rudy Giuliani saw an opportunity to get in good with Wall Street by taking him down.

These days, the commercial banking system isn’t where the action is. Instead, it’s the shadow banking system that needs direct feeding to goose inflation—at least inflation in asset prices, and also to keep the debt service on the nation’s debt as low as possible.

The Fed's balance sheet has risen to $4.1 trillion from $3.7 trillion in August. Nomi Prins discusses what this policy shift means and what it portends for 2020.

During December 2019, year-over-year growth in the money supply was at 5.53 percent. That's down from November's rate of 5.9 percent, but was up from December 2018's rate of 3.90 percent.

Many mortgages have not just been modified once, but twice, and sometimes more. Loan servicers are holding higher-end mortgages rather than foreclosing a decade after the crash. Thus, there is plenty of shadow inventory lurking, waiting for the next crash.

If the small sample size of monetary history is any guide, the combination of asset market crashes and high goods inflation empowers sound money forces in the political arena. At the moment, neither of those factors are in play.