The Greek vote over the weekend was a little surreal. Greeks were asked to vote on an offer from Greece’s creditors that technically had been withdrawn prior to the vote. Regardless, Greeks voted by an overwhelming margin against the proposal, and this was taken as a repudiation of the bailout offer and an endorsement of the existing government under Alexis Tsipras. This throws the entire Greek situation into turmoil, not the least of which are serious questions about the viability of the Greek banking system and Greece’s place in the eurozone....
Continue reading >>

Cast your mind back to early 2004 when the Fed starting raising interest rates. Then as now the trade de jour was to cut bond portfolio durations in anticipation of rising rates. Fast forward to 2005 and everyone felt like an idiot because long-term rates didn’t budge. This was Greenspan’s ‘conundrum’ that he ruminated about for years to come....
Continue reading >>

George Magnus posted this chart from the OECD on oil import dependency by region. If this is even close to being true, the economic and geopolitical environment in 2035 could be very different than today....
Continue reading >>

There are a number of reasons why bond yields remain low in 2014, but one factor is likely the federal deficit picture this year. ...
Continue reading >>

The big news of the day is the meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB)…...
Continue reading >>