Pater Tenebrarum's Blog

The country is spending more than it makes, to the tune of over $1 trillion per year for the last four years and the foreseeable future. Households are spending more to keep up a lifestyle supported by borrowed money.

Most of the commonly used real estate indicators are "interesting" but what do they actually tell you? Nationwide data such as new and existing home sales combine unrelated market conditions.

On Thursday we were inundated with GDP data from European countries, all of which were apparently 'weaker than expected'. We once again have to ask who exactly is doing all this 'expecting'?.

There must be a nest in the UK somewhere – apparently the country is a breeding ground for monetary cranks.

The final euro area PMI data have been released by Markit, following on the heels of a number of individual country PMI releases.

Here is another one from the 'you couldn't make this up' department (the ECB is a rich fount of those). The ECB is apparently worried that the digital currency bitcoins could ruin the reputation of central banks.

If you like real estate, India is the place. There are probably more households here with no homes than the entire population of the United States, with a birth rate that would guarantee an endless wave of "household formation".

Ludwig von Mises stressed that the 'impoverishment created by a boom' does not necessarily mean that a boom leads to an overall loss of wealth.

There are two types of Fed bureaucrats at present – a small minority that stresses its 'humility' – for example Kansas City Fed president Esther George, who we suspect will be inclined to follow in Thomas Hoenig's footsteps and come down on the cautious/hawkish side of the debate...

With the “battle against the markets” seemingly won, Draghi could now “afford” not to cut his almost non-existent benchmark rate even further toward non-existence. Instead, he could now “keep some of his powder dry”, just in case those unruly markets were to pipe up again.