Business

Experian recently released their Q4 2016 Automotive Finance Market update which includes a lot of statistics that seem to confirm our frequently documented concerns about the sustainability of the current level of annual auto sales (see here, here and here for our recent notes on the topic).

First, there is the staggering growth of auto loans outstanding.  It should be readily apparent to almost anyone that a 21% expansion in credit issuance over the course of just two years likely implies there has been at least some degradation in underwriting standards.

Not The Onion... 

On the week when The Dow crossed above 21,000 amid multi-year highs in retail equity inflows, none other than Mike Tyson reminded us with a tweet of how these runs always end.

Launched last year, Mike Tyson's retail brokerage firm Trade12.com allows up to 400x leverage on FX, commodities and futures on stocks... and don't worry there are plenty of education tools.

Via Lance Roberts of RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

I have a simple question…

If the rally in the market that began following the election was pricing in the expectations for tax reforms, repatriation, building the wall, and infrastructure spending, then what did the rally on Wednesday following Trump’s speech to Congress price in?

Via Mike Shedlock of MishTalk.com,

The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), an entity created to “guarantee” pensions of private corporations, is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Teamsters and other unions are poised to take huge pension hits. Previously, airline employees have taken a hit.

Please consider PBGC Running Out of Cash to Cover Union Pension Funds.

After years of listening to Bernanke and then Janet Yellen, it is no surprise that some have finally snapped, as Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ's Chris Rupkey appears to have done in his post-Yellen, post-mortem.

Breaking economy news. If you were looking for a signal that a Fed rate hike was imminent, you would be hard-pressed to find any urgency to respond with a Fed rate hike on March 15 in Fed Chair Yellen's Chicago speech today.