Media – Blog
May 9, 2019
Brexit has been delayed until Halloween, a fitting deadline for what has turned into a three-year nightmare for the British populace. UK Prime Minister Theresa May had pushed for a shorter extension, out until the end of June, in hopes that the UK would not have to participate in the
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May 3, 2019
Overview The FOMC concluded its two-day meeting on Wednesday, May 1st and, as expected, kept the fed funds target range unchanged at 2.25-2.50%. Echoing its comments in March, the Fed expressed comfort with their current “wait and see” approach to monetary policy. The equity markets declined slightly as Fed Chair
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April 11, 2019
The Fed took more than a few people by surprise several weeks ago when it suddenly signaled there would be no interest rate hikes in 2019. Especially when it pointed to "slower growth of household spending and business fixed investment." Then, in seemingly no time at all, the yield curve
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March 15, 2019
When the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported early this month that non-farm employment rose by only 20,000 jobs in February—a huge miss from consensus estimates of about 175,000 new jobs—it threw many observers for a loop. Was the low number an indicator of a slowdown in growth? Or could it
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February 22, 2019
Remember CDO's, those collateralized debt obligations at the center of the massive mortgage meltdown in 2008? These days, you can expect to start hearing about CLO's, collateralized loan obligations, that are at the tip of a rapidly growing iceberg of leveraged corporate debt. The recent growth of CLO's is only
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February 21, 2019
It’s been widely publicized that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has come under pressure from the White House to pause rate hikes for fear of straining the economy. More recently, there have been allegations that balance sheet reduction is in part to blame for the volatility that shook markets in
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January 23, 2019
The longest government shutdown in history is already having a significant impact on the economy. Equally important, but less well understood, is the potential impact on negotiations over the March 1 deadline to raise the U.S. debt ceiling. As President Trump has continued to insist on a $5.7 billion allocation
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January 3, 2019
What a difference a year makes. Every January we publish a report analyzing top trends to monitor in the coming year. Last year, we noted the relative calm in short-term debt markets, a full-employment economy boosted by tax-cut legislation, and expectations that the Fed would continue its series of slow,
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December 13, 2018
Trade wars. Stock market volatility. An economy on the verge of overheating. Rising uncertainty about the Fed’s next moves. Welcome to 2019. Whatever happened to that more placid era of zero interest rates, when the Fed signaled its first tentative rate hikes months in advance? When that beautiful, unbroken string
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November 27, 2018
For corporate cash investors managing portfolios during an economic expansion, “what goes up, must come down” is a good rule to live by. The current decade-long expansion in the U.S.---among the longest on record---has defied that maxim so far. But as it matures into old age, risks for investors are
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