Pater Tenebrarum's Contributions

Even though it did not come entirely unexpected, the day has finally arrived. President Obama has decided to nominate Mel Watt instead of Ed DeMarco as the Director of the FHFA (Federal Housing Finance Administration).

Germany's constitutional court in Karlsruhe is traditionally buried in complaints with every major new decision concerning the bailout regime and every major new policy initiative by the ECB.

Italy finally has a new prime minister, Enrico Letta, who is expected to be supported both the center-left (its leader Bersani has recently resigned, as he was unable to get the bloc to vote for his choices for the job of president) and Berlusconi's center-right coalition.

Over the entire so-called 'recovery' and in spite of corporate profits reaching all time highs relative to total economic output, small business confidence in the US has failed to rise to any appreciable extent.

This is one to be savored…a prominent member of the highway robber brigade that is the French government has now been found to have squirreled money away in a bank account in Switzerland, after months of denials.

Last week saw a full court press in defense of the current money printing exercise. It started with Bernanke telling us the Fed is making the whole world happy … even if the world hasn't asked for it.

As our readers are no doubt aware, we have documented the strange dichotomy between stock market action and global economic fundamentals for some time. Obviously, increasing economic confidence due to massive money printing...

A headline from Reuters last week: "Blackstone eyes first-ever REO-to-rental securitization". I believe this marks the official arrival of Wall Street in the single family real estate market.

There is an interesting interview in 'Der Spiegel' with Luxembourg's prime minister and ex-euro-group chief J.C. Juncker. What is so remarkable about it is that Juncker seems to have realized that the one of the intentions that motivated the introduction of the euro has completely backfired...

Imagine the following: you read in a newspaper that a group of investors has sold US dollars to the tune of $820 million over the past two months for other currencies. This incidentally represents approximately 0.082% of the broad dollar money supply TMS-2 (which amounts to roughly $9.3 trillion at present).

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.