The Housing Bubble Is Back … Cullen Roche is worried that the trajectory of housing prices might deviate from what practical assumptions would predict " Real estate returns are not rocket science. Because they're such a huge portion of the consumer balance sheet they tend to be tied very closely to wage growth. Wage growth, by definition, is very closely tied to the rate of inflatio...Read More

The Rise of Robots – and Decline of Jobs – Is Here … Last night, 60 Minutes aired an interesting report on the rise of robots in the workforce – a subject we've covered extensively. What they concluded was the robots we're seeing aren't necessarily the R2-D2's and Short Circuits of science fiction – the ones that become so self-aware that they challeng...Read More

Nine Facts about Top Journals in Economics … How has publishing in top economics journals changed since 1970? Using a data set that combines information on all articles published in the top-5 journals from 1970 to 2012 with their Google Scholar citations, we identify nine key trends. First, annual submissions to the top-5 journals nearly doubled from 1990 to 2012. Second, the total number of...Read More

BRICS Nations Plan New Bank to Bypass World Bank, IMF … The biggest emerging markets are uniting to tackle under-development and currency volatility with plans to set up institutions that encroach on the roles of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The leaders of the so-called BRICS nations − Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa − are set to approve the estab...Read More

Gold repatriation … The Cyprus/ Eurozone crisis has just intensified, as Dutch Bank ABN Amro has sent a letter to clients this weekend informing them that they will halt extradition and physical delivery of their clients' gold holdings effective April 1st! No worries however, Amro ensures its clients that there is no need to panic or do anything rash (such as remove your phyzz prior to A...Read More

Cyprus's banks have been tamed – are Malta and Luxembourg next? Tiny Malta's banking sector is even bigger relative to GDP – and secretive Luxembourg's banks exceed GDP by a factor of 23 … For the architects of the Cyprus bailout – the German government and the International Monetary Fund – there was no doubt that the central aim of the shock therapy was t...Read More

Stubborn and Egotistical: Europe Is Right to Doubt German Euro Leadership … The drama over Cyprus has made clear that the euro-zone crisis is developing into a struggle over German hegemony in Europe. On the surface, Merkel and Schäuble seem to be working to stabilize the economy. In actuality, they're binding other nations with the shackles of debt. Throughout Cyprus's financia...Read More

Nobel Economist: Mexico's Economic Boom Will Make The Immigration Debate Irrelevant … For several years now, net migration from Mexico has fallen to zero. Gary Becker, a Nobel Prize-winning University of Chicago economist, writes that it's got little to do with the U.S. Rather, it's mostly thanks to Mexico and it's growing middle class, as expressed in lower birth rates and r...Read More

China's Xi promises equal trade relations with Africa … China's new president sought to address concerns among African leaders about the uneven nature of trade relations on Monday, promising an equal relationship that would promote development on the continent … Xi will finish his trip in the Republic of Congo, from where China imports oil to fuel its economic growth. – C...Read More

BRICS Nations Plan New Bank to Bypass World Bank, IMF … The biggest emerging markets are uniting to tackle under-development and currency volatility with plans to set up institutions that encroach on the roles of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The leaders of the so-called BRICS nations − Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa − are set to approve the estab...Read More

Gold repatriation … The Cyprus/ Eurozone crisis has just intensified, as Dutch Bank ABN Amro has sent a letter to clients this weekend informing them that they will halt extradition and physical delivery of their clients' gold holdings effective April 1st! No worries however, Amro ensures its clients that there is no need to panic or do anything rash (such as remove your phyzz prior to A...Read More

Cyprus's banks have been tamed – are Malta and Luxembourg next? Tiny Malta's banking sector is even bigger relative to GDP – and secretive Luxembourg's banks exceed GDP by a factor of 23 … For the architects of the Cyprus bailout – the German government and the International Monetary Fund – there was no doubt that the central aim of the shock therapy was t...Read More

Stubborn and Egotistical: Europe Is Right to Doubt German Euro Leadership … The drama over Cyprus has made clear that the euro-zone crisis is developing into a struggle over German hegemony in Europe. On the surface, Merkel and Schäuble seem to be working to stabilize the economy. In actuality, they're binding other nations with the shackles of debt. Throughout Cyprus's financia...Read More

Nobel Economist: Mexico's Economic Boom Will Make The Immigration Debate Irrelevant … For several years now, net migration from Mexico has fallen to zero. Gary Becker, a Nobel Prize-winning University of Chicago economist, writes that it's got little to do with the U.S. Rather, it's mostly thanks to Mexico and it's growing middle class, as expressed in lower birth rates and r...Read More

China's Xi promises equal trade relations with Africa … China's new president sought to address concerns among African leaders about the uneven nature of trade relations on Monday, promising an equal relationship that would promote development on the continent … Xi will finish his trip in the Republic of Congo, from where China imports oil to fuel its economic growth. – C...Read More

Getting Beyond the Fed … Let us be the first to endorse the Centennial Monetary Commission Act, which has just been introduced in the Congress. It is being advanced not by one of the so-called marginal figures but by the chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, Kevin Brady. The measure would establish a serious, bipartisan committee on monetary reform as we begin the second century under a...Read More

Japan breaks China's stranglehold on rare metals with sea-mud bonanza … Japanese scientists have found vast reserves of rare earth metals on the Pacific seabed that can be mined cheaply, a discovery that may break the Chinese monopoly on a crucial raw material needed in hi-tech industries and advanced weapons systems. The team have found deposits just two to four metres from the seabed s...Read More

Cyprus crisis is at the heart of fundamental problems in the eurozone … According to the well-known quotation from Virgil, you should beware Greeks bearing gifts. But what about Greeks asking for them? Even if the Cypriot government has been able to facilitate a deal and get concessions from the Troika of the EU, the ECB, and the IMF, it will not close the matter. – UK TelegraphDominan...Read More

Traders cheer Cyprus deal … The euro, stocks and crude oil are firmer after Cyprus reached a deal on a €10bn bailout. Money is moving out of supposed havens, pushing the yen and Swiss franc lower, while forcing Treasury yields higher. US index futures suggest Wall Street's S&P 500 will open later in the day with a gain of eight points to 1,566, leaving the benchmark on course f...Read More

Counterparties: The broken brokerage industry … Where the hell should you put your money these days? If you're like most Americans, you probably haven't saved enough for retirement. That the stock market is flirting with an all-time high isn't actually helpful — it'll make it that much harder for savers to catch up. People used to listen to brokers for this kind of thin...Read More