Category Archive: 6b.) Bawerk

How Peak Debt Constrain the Fed from Moving Rates Higher

We have argued for a long time that 2016 will probably be a year of recession in the US and the Federal Reserve’s intent on raising rates will only help expedite it. We believe the current rate cycle will be short lived as the Federal Reserve is cons...

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Unintended consequences of lift-off in a world of excess reserves

Bar a disastrous NFP print this coming Friday the US Federal Reserve will change the target range for the Federal Reserve (Fed) Bank’s Funds rate from the current level of zero – 25bp to 25 – 50bp on December 16th.  The Fed will effectively raise the...

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What a Negative SWAP Spread Really Means

SWAP spreads recently took a nosedive and are once again trading at negative levels, even for shorter maturities. As can be seen from the chart below, treasury yields, here represented by the 10 year maturity, rose during QE policies programs contrad...

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How the Fed gave away its independence – Interest Rate Sensitivity at ZLB

In fiscal year 2014, which ended September 30 2014, the Federal government of the United States reported a cumulative deficit of US$484 billion, while the total debt outstanding increased by more than a trillion dollars. For fiscal year 2015, the dif...

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The Credit Multiplier – Revisited

In last week’s article, we explained how the yield curve could cause GDP to contract in The Yield Curve and GDP – a causal relationship. Some of our readers suggested the analysis was wrong on back of an outdated view of modern money creation. The cr...

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The Yield Curve and GDP – a causal relationship?

One of the most reliable indicators of an imminent recession through recent history has been the yield curve. Whenever longer dated rates falls below shorter dated ones, a recession is not far off. Some would even say that yield curve inversion, or backwardation, help cause the economic contraction.

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The Great Unwind

Over the decade long commodity boom made in China we have all been accustomed to the large and growing current account surpluses being recycled back into western financial security markets. Case in point, from 2000 to its peak in the fall of 2013 the...

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The Misleading Concept Called GDP

GDP is (or has become) a measurement of activity and consumption but not of capital accumulation and production. In many cases, GDP is negatively correlated to savings. Higher savings (aka austerity) lead to lower GDP today, but higher GDP in the future. In its worst case, GDP growth could be completely based on credit, eliminating the capital basis of a country (example Greece). Western countries saw rising housing investments based on more...

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