An unprecedented leak of more than 11 million documents, called the "Panama Project", has revealed the hidden financial dealings of some of the world's wealthiest people, as well as 12 current and former world leaders and 128 more politicians and public officials around the world.
US equity markets rebounded by the greatest amount ever in Q1 to end the quarter with a "keep the dream alive" positive return. This 'central-bank'-sponsored bounce occurred as S&P 500 earnings expectations plunged 9.6% - the biggest quarterly collapse since Q1 2009. As FactSet details,
Back in late 2014 and early 2015, this website soundly mocked any and every economist that suggested that plunging oil prices - in a globalized economy where oil has been financialized beyond recognition and impacts every asset class, the stock market, global trade flows, and international diplomacy - is "unambiguously good."
One month ago, when looking at the overall level of short interest across the market, we reported that according to JPM, the "most painful part of the short squeeze may be yet to come", and sure enough, aided by an unprecedented amount of central bank intervention, the market has since surged, in no small part due to ongoing covering of short positions.
However, one look at the NYSE short interest data reveals something troubling: there are still many shorts out there.
The Fed has backed itself into a corner.
For seven years now we’ve been told the US is in a recovery. However, if this were the case, the Fed would have started raising rates years ago (likely in 2012). No other recovery on record saw the Fed maintaining ZIRP for so long.
There is simply no factually credible argument for why rates should be ZIRP if the economy is expanding. You cannot have claims of a “recovery” or expansion while ZIRP is in place. ZIRP is meant to be an emergency policy meant to pull the economy out of a severe recession, NOT a long-term program.