Dorothea Lange Farm boy at main drugstore, Medford, Oregon 1939 Central bankers have promised ad nauseum to keep rates low for long periods of time. And they have delivered. Their claim is that this helps the economy recover, but that is just a silly idea. What it does do is help create the illusion of a recovering economy. But that is mostly achieved by making price discovery impossible, not by increasing productivity or wages or innovation or anything like that.
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Russell Lee Tracy, California. Gasoline filling station 1942 • In Greek Debt Puzzle, the Game Theorists Have It (NY Times) • Greece Misses IMF Payment In Warning Shot, Showdown With Europe Escalates (AEP) • A Speech of Hope for Greece (Yanis Varoufakis) • EU/IMF Lenders Demand Asset Sales, Pension Cuts In Greek Proposal (Reuters) • Greece’s IMF Repayment Delay Smacks Of Both Desperation And Defiance (Guardian) • Greek Finance Ministry: German WWII Debt €280 To €340 Billion (Kathimerini) • Stay
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G.G. Bain Political museums, Union Square, New York 1909 • It’s Wealth Inequality That Drags Down The Economy (WaPo) • US Companies Owe $1.267 For Every Dollar Of Earnings (Bloomberg) • BofA Explains How the Bond Rout Could Turn Into a Bloodbath (Bloomberg) • Bond Rout Wipes Out 2015 Gain as Traders Fret Even Leaving Desks (Bloomberg) • Bond Slump Deepens as Europe Shares Slide With Metals, Oil (Bloomberg) • Wall Street Sounds Bond Warning as Holdings Shift Sparks Concern
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Jack Delano Mike Evans, welder, Proviso Yard, Chicago & North Western RR 1940 We’ve been entertaining ourselves to no end the past couple days with a ‘vast array’ of articles that purport to provide us with ‘expert’ opinion on the question of whether we are witnessing a bubble or not. Got the views of Goldman’s David Kostin, Robert Shiller, Jeremy Grantham, Jeremy Siegel, Howard Marks. But although these things can be quite amusing because while they’re at it, of course,
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Harris&Ewing Childs Restaurant, Washington, DC 1918 • IMF Economists Say Some Countries Can ‘Just Live With’ High Debt (Reuters) • Fed Mouthpiece Jon Hilsenrath Furious “Stingy” US Consumers Don’t Spend (ZH) • Goldman Sachs to Companies: Stop Buying Back Your Stock (Bloomberg) • Pension Payments Are Starving Basic City Services (SacBee) • Europe and Greece: The Damage Is Done (Bloomberg) • Greek Standoff Takes Another Twist as Dueling Plans Are Drafted (Bloomberg) • Tsipras To Meet EU’s Juncker As Greece
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Lewis Wickes Hine Berrie pickers, Seaford, Delaware. ‘Seventeen children and five elders live here’ 1910 • Velocity of Money Below Great Depression Levels (Martin Armstrong) • From Whence Cometh Our Wealth – Labor Or Printing Press? (David Stockman) • Fed’s QE Policy Helped Most Where Needed Least (MarketWatch) • The Winners and Losers of the Fed’s QE • “The Fed Has Been Horribly Wrong” Deutsche Bank Admits (Zero Hedge) • Easy Access to Money Keeps US Oil Pumping (WSJ) •
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Lewis Wickes Hine Whole family works, Browns Mills, New Jersey 1910 • QE For The People: Monetary Policy For The Next Recession (Bloomberg) • The Liquidity Timebomb – Monetary Policies Create Dangerous Paradox (Roubini) • Bond Dealers Enfeebled as Liquidity Breakdown Boosts Derivatives (Bloomberg) • Top US Fund Managers Attack Regulators (FT) • Banks Are Not Intermediaries Of Loanable Funds – And Why This Matters (BoE) • Alexis Tsipras: The Bell Tolls for Europe (The Automatic Earth) • Defiant Tsipras
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