Business

The U.S. government are planning to spend over $1 million of taxpayer’s money on a new initiative to encourage people to report their neighbours online if they spot them doing anything “suspicious”. The campaign encourages internet users to report potential online threats, and has been modelled on the “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign initiated after the 9/11 attacks. Critics fear the scheme will target those with “anti-government” views.

After refusing to even consider the possibility of a recession in the US for over a year, the first cracks in Goldman's armor are starting to appear. Over the weekend chief equity strategist David Kostin said that while the probability of a recession according to GS economists remains low, saying that "their model suggests the US has an 18% probability of recession during the next year and 24% likelihood during the next two years", Goldman's clients and investors "continue to inquire about the impact a contraction would have on the US equity market."

While MatlinPatterson's Portfolio Manager Michael Lipsky can't wait to enter the distressed junk bond space, thanks to "$74 billion in debt trading at under 25 cents on the dollar, and $205 billion trading at under 70 cents on the dollar", he agrees with BofA's Michael Contopoulos that it is still far too soon to buy.

As we detailed initially here, and followed here, there is a clear and present danger - no matter what the vareious Fed speakers say - that The Fed will be forced into negative rates sooner rather than later. The market appears to be losing complete faith in The Fed's current narrative as bets on NIRP have reached record levels - with 2017 now more likely than 2016 (QE first?).

As we showed previously, the overall bets on NIRP continue to soar to record highs...

By EconMatters