Almost Daily Grant’s (
ADG) made the pronouncement on December 14th that a “new benchmark in financial repression” had been set: ”a record $18.4 trillion in global debt is priced to yield less than zero, up from less than $8 trillion in March and a five-year average of $10.3 trillion.”
ADG consulted interest rate historians Sidney Homer and Richard Sylla, who opined, “nominal negative yielding debt had never been seen in material size in the 4,000 years of interest rate history prior to the current cycle.”
Economist Ludwig von Mises never imagined such a thing, writing in
Human Action,
There cannot be any question of abolishing interest by any institutions, laws, or devices of bank manipulation. He who wants to “abolish” interest will have to induce people to value an apple available in a hundred years no less than a present apple. What can be abolished by laws and decrees is merely the right of the capitalist to receive interest. But such decrees would br
By: Doug French
Between the Federal Reserve, Congress, and covid, navigating the business cycle is equivalent to sneaking through a house of mirrors. The stock market is making new highs as unemployment rates do the same. Thousands line up for free food and soon will do the same to be vaccinated. The nation’s governors tighten restrictions by the day while the Federal Reserve remains loose in its monetary operations.
Wolf Richter of Wolf Street has split the US economy into “the weirdest economy ever” when writing about the trucking boom and Online sales and “the most distorted economy ever” when addressing the record low junk bond yields.
The Weirdest, Most Distorted Economy Ever zerohedge.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from zerohedge.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
“Russia, Russia, Russia,” the current president used to sarcastically chastise opponents for wondering about 2016 election tinkering from Putin’s principality. Recent MAGA rallies featured “Covid, covid, covid,” with President Trump complaining that the press could think of nothing else.
In investmentland, it’s “Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin,” again knocking on dollar door number twenty thousand, where it ventured in late 2017. Bloomberg’s November 21 edition features this flashy headline sure to inspire FOMO (fear of missing out), the predecessor of the more quaint Keynesian animal spirits: “Bitcoin Revival Unleashes Animal Spirits and $300,000 Forecast.” Imagine if I could retrieve the bitcoin I lost years ago when my phone went dark.