QUESTION:  Dear Mr. Armstrong- You seem to hint that Bernanke didn’t want rates to go up especially when there is a ceiling impasse. Yet, he talked about taper/untaper and torchured the market for 3 months to prepare investors for a smooth QE-reduction. Most investors I know were expecting a small taper that could have still been interpreted as […]

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew made the following statement during remarks today before the Economic Club of Washington D.C.: “[W]e are relying on investors from all over the world to continue to hold U.S. bonds.  Every Thursday, we roll-over approximately $100 billion in U.S. bills.  If U.S. bond holders decided that they wanted to be repaid […]

The Fed said that it would continue buying bonds at an $85 billion monthly pace for now, expressing concerns that a sharp rise in borrowing costs in recent months could weigh on the economy. What the Fed is really saying is that behind-the-curtain everyone is screaming that interest rates will rise and that will blow […]

Germany’s parliamentary elections  will be held on 22 September 2013 to determine the 598 (or more, if overhangs are produced) members of the 18th Bundestag, the main federal legislative house of Germany. The elections may by no means bring the expected calm and stability to Europe. Indeed, the elections may well usher in a period of […]

The Bankers have the Fed investigating the regulations in a very clever bid to trade wildly once again your and other people’s money. They are claiming that in the bond markets “Regulations have created multiple constraints likely to curtail liquidity when it is really needed.” This is the statement made by the ill-fated Treasury Borrowing Advisory […]

Greece is in trouble because the entire global monetary system is turning to dust and will soon fall to the ground. You cannot borrow forever with no intention of paying anyone back. Greece will still need even more help possibly twice according to the ECB (European Central Bank):. Greece will need about €10-11 billion euros and […]

Bernanke is in a real box. He knows he needs to trim back the QE purchases, but at the same time he is concerned about the rising bond yields and interest rates. This can send the deficit much higher at a time when there is still a debt ceiling debate ahead. The question of will he […]

Britain remains the EU’s biggest financial center and is opposed to the 2014 tax on financial transactions to begin in the EU. Britain, and several other EU states, are refusing to participate in the tax scheme that will clearly send capital out of the Euro. There are still 11 members that will go ahead Germany, France, […]

Many people are talking about a stock market crash when Obama invades Syria. When we look at that historically, war does not create a major decline in stocks. Here is a chart of the Dow for the Gulf War in 1991. The market rallied after Congress authorized force. The idea that people will dump stocks […]

The US is dependent upon selling debt to someone. This Sovereign Debt Crisis has made the US vulnerable for it really cannot act unilaterally in international affairs as Obama is attempting. The USA is dependent upon selling its debt with about 40% being held internationally. Obama’s policies come at tremendous cost to the economy long-term. […]