California, New York and other states are showing many of the same signs of debt overload that recently took Greece to the brink — budgets that will not balance, accounting that masks debt, the use of derivatives to plug holes, and…
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An auction of 5 year treasury notes on Tuesday and one of 7 year notes today appear to be driving the market. Everybody is focused on the federal deficit, China’s appetite for our debt and what this means for inflation…
For some reason at about 1pm EST long term treasuries started selling off causing interest rates to surge and dragging the stock market down with it. I missed my man Rick Santelli explaining why at the close but that’s what happened…
At the beginning of the month Barron’s ran a cover story calling a bubble in treasuries: “Get Out Now” (subscription required – e-mail me if you want a link). A month earlier, the fabulous Jim Grant wrote an op-ed in the…
This is really off the charts in terms of anything we have ever seen. – Martin Fridson, CEO, Fridson Investment Advisor, a non-investment grade debt specialist Junk bonds on average now yield more than 20% for the first time ever…
While everybody has been focused on the stock market holding the lows from Jan 22-23, less noticed has been the fact that long term treasuries are holding their highs from the same period (30 Year T Bond Chart). As you…
As we work through a pretty slow day as investors try to get their bearings after yesterdays huge selloff, here are some things I’m looking at and thinking about: A lot of stocks are cheap. We aren’t dealing with the…
“… defaults of a different kind could be the big issue of 2008. If you want to mug up on jargon for the year ahead, then the business of insuring against bond defaults known as credit default swaps, or CDSs,…