It seems that the ECB president has for the moment prevailed in a similar way as his MIT cohort Ben Bernanke has been “successful” with his famed Portfolio Balance Channel. Remember, it was Jackson Hole speech of August 2010 in which Chairman Bernanke laid out his view about the importance of the PBC, which was previously referred to by Alan Greenspan as the “wealth effect.” President Draghi has steepened the Spanish and Italian curves by threatening to purchase short-term debt and thus driving the Spanish and Italian 2-YEAR NOTE YIELDS more than 300 basis points lower.
Posts Tagged ‘Italian 2-yr notes’
Notes From Underground: I’m Singing and Dancing In the Rain—the SONG OF MARIO AND BEN
August 16, 2012Notes From Underground: Irony of Ironies … In the Land of Fiscal Austerity and Budget Cutting Circumcision is Outlawed
August 13, 2012The news is so slow that some ridiculous headlines just creep in, but I wonder what the Greeks think. If the fiscal sheriffs from the TROIKA only took the tip it wouldn’t have been so bad but the German creditors took the entire reproductive assemblage. Ok, enough. New word out of Germany is that a Berlin-based think tank has filed a new case against the legality of the ESM but is asking the Federal Constitutional Court to allow the EUROPEAN COURT of JUSTICE (ECJ) to hear the case and decide if the stability mechanism is legal under EU law. The Eurosceptic group EUROPOLIS is asking for European to determine the legal status of any European bailout program.
Notes From Underground: The RBA Will Announce Its Rate Intentions. Should We Care?
August 6, 2012Tonight at 11:30 CST, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will announce its interest rate intentions. Readers of NOTES know that I place a high value on the RBA as a barometer of the global macro economy. Australia’s huge trade with China provides the best look at the Asian growth story as Australia’s reserves of natural resources provides China with its own COMMODITY HOME DEPOT WAREHOUSE. During the last 12 years, massive foreign investment has poured into the energy, mining and agricultural sectors of the AUSSIE economy and provided the best consistent growth of any of the developed economies.
Notes From Underground: Unemployment In the U.S. Was Much Ado About Nothing
August 5, 2012The better-than-expected NFP number–163,000 net job gains–was above the consensus of 105,000. Average hourly earnings and hours worked were weaker than projections while the over all rate went up to 8.3%, leaving all the talking heads with something to either like or dislike. In my mind it is highly doubtful that the unemployment data was responsible for the 2% increase in the S&Ps, which brings back the Spanish and Italian 2-YEAR NOTES as the key variable.