The number of 401(k) plan participants taking hardship distributions increased by 13% between the second and third quarters, according to an analysis by Bank of America of its clients’ employee benefit programs. That figure now stands at 18,040, the highest level in at least the past five quarters since Bank of America started tracking this
The share of U.S. households reporting that it’s harder to obtain credit than one year ago is hovering near the high in the New York Fed’s consumer survey, which is around 10 years old.
Walmart on Thursday topped Wall Street’s fiscal third-quarter earnings estimates as sales rose, but the big-box retailer struck a cautious tone with its outlook after it saw consumer spending weaken at the end of the period. The company’s shares slid more than about 8% on Thursday after they touched an all-time high the previous day.
You can watch and listen on Youtube via the timestamps below: 00:00 Introduction 24:37 Powell Is No Volcker – Luke Gromen 28:18 The Fed Has Broken The U.S. Energy Market 38:35 Will Demand Destruction Keep Oil Prices From Spiraling Out Of Control (Greater than $120)? 42:51 How Long Till The Fed Intervenes? 47:49 The Banking
I graduated from Yale University’s PhD programme in economics six years after Janet Yellen did so in 1971. We both studied under Nobel laureate Professor James Tobin. Nevertheless, she is a liberal and I am a conservative when it comes to economic policymaking. I coined the phrase “bond vigilantes” four decades ago. Now, as the
Ed Yardeni’s op-ed in the FT is an important signpost: Credible, mainstream analysts are starting to see the US Treasury feedback loop/debt spiral, and the mainstream financial media is starting to report on it. However, they do not appear to realize two critical things yet: With all due respect to Yardeni, things are WAY different
Unhedged has written several times about the rising term premium, an important, and concerning, attribute of the recent sell-off in long bonds. The term premium is the extra dollop of yield investors get for holding long-dated Treasuries, as compensation for taking on interest rate risk. Think of it as the difference in yield between a