Will Banks Get Burned on Huge Holdings of U.S. Treasuries?

With loan demand still tepid after over five years of unprecedented monetary stimulus by the Federal Reserve, banks need to invest trillions of dollars of deposits that they can’t lend out. Just as individual savers have been forced to take on more risk and go further out on the yield curve, banks have been forced […]

Negative Real Interest Rates – The Invisible $290 Billion Tax On Savers

Whatever happened to the concept of earning interest on savings?  Since the start of the financial crisis in 2008, the Federal Reserve has aggressively suppressed interest rates to near zero. The Fed’s rationale for lowering interest rates was to get the economy back on track by lowering borrowing costs for both consumers and businesses.  Lower […]

Interest Rates At All Time Lows And Home Prices At Ten Year Lows – Why Are Home Sales The Worst Ever?

In Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s world, all he had to do was lower interest rates enough and housing prices would magically re-inflate.  Wrong!  Mortgage rates are at all time lows, home prices are at 2002 levels and owning a home is just as cheap as renting, yet the housing market remains mired in a […]