Financial Markets

Liberation Day morphed into an Obliteration Day of everyone’s retirement account in a matter of minutes as Trump’s tariffs were announced.

What happens to businesses when liabilities exceed assets? They go bankrupt, with the spectacular failure of FTX being front-and-center. However, the Federal Reserve is in the same position but unlike FTX, the Fed can create fictitious assets and pretend that nothing is happening.

Although tariffs and other issues are getting the most news coverage, a harbinger of recession is looming: the slow collapse of commercial real estate values. This is the result of reckless policies at the Federal Reserve and the Fed cannot fix it.

Despite the government‘s efforts to prop up real estate prices, the markets are having the last word. Commercial real estate is especially vulnerable to the latest trends.

The 1929 Stock Market Crash led to the largest economic recession in modern world history.

What determines currency exchange rates? While “experts” present a number of theories such as trade balance, the most important factor is the purchasing power of the currencies in question.

Much of the world‘s financial system is undergirded by the false claim that US government bonds are “risk-free.” The truth is that all is not well when it comes to banking and finance.

President-Elect Trump has been threatening tariffs against BRICS countries unless they abandon their plans to abandon the US dollar. While Trump may come off as being "tough" in his negotiations, he cannot bluster his way to a stronger dollar, thanks to reckless monetary policies.

The Federal Reserve‘s reckless policies have created havoc in the housing markets, with the government and monetary authorities helping to create the apartment bubble, which is in the process of bursting. As usual, bad policies bring bad people into the markets.

Thanks to the Fed's balance sheet and the Fed's policy on reverse repurchase agreements, it's hard to tell whether the Fed is being hawkish or dovish.