interest rates

Pending Home Sales Decline for Second Month in a Row

The National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales declined by -1.3% in July.  This is the second month in a row where pending home sales have declined as June dropped by -0.4%  Pending home sales have increased 6.7% from a year ago.  Pending home sales are also back to November 2006 housing bubble year levels.

Credit Union pays people to withdraw money

It's a sure sign that something is seriously wrong with the Federal Reserve monetary policy.

Nevada Federal Credit Union has a deal for big savers: Withdraw your money and you'll get a bonus...
The financial institution typically uses member deposits, including certificates of deposit and money market accounts, to make loans, which typically bear higher rates than deposits.
Beal figures those interest-bearing accounts are a money-losing proposition in Nevada's current depressed economy.
"We don't have any loan demand right now," Beal said.
The credit union is investing in short-term Treasurys and earns about one-quarter of 1 percent on those government securities on average, but it was paying 0.4 percent to customers with savings.

What does this mean? FDIC, Fed issues "interest rate risk" advisory

Isn't this strange? The Federal Reserve issues an interest rate risk advisory.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), in coordination with the other member agencies of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), released an advisory today reminding institutions of supervisory expectations for sound practices to manage interest rate risk (IRR). This advisory, adopted by each of the financial regulators, reiterates the importance of effective corporate governance, policies and procedures, risk measuring and monitoring systems, stress testing, and internal controls related to the IRR exposures of depository institutions. It also clarifies elements of existing guidance and describes some IRR management techniques used by effective risk managers.

Treasuries now reaching 3%

Deflation, inflation, it really doesn't matter. The price for money, that is interest rates, is going up. You can see it in the back month contracts in the futures market. You can see it in the failed auctions for foreign debentures like the Gilt in the UK. Investors/lenders are demanding a higher rate for loaning out money. The banks may be lending, but it's still a capital desert out there. We were at historical lows, not seen in decades.  Folks, it was not always going to stay that way.

Loan Sharks in Three-Piece Suits - Sen. Bernie Sanders, Limit Credit Card Interest Rates

Rely on Senator Bernie Sanders to state the obvious and someone, finally introduces legislation to stop these predatory loan practices:

Sanders Press release Loan Sharks in Three-Piece Suits:

Sen. Bernie Sanders will introduce legislation this week to cap interest rates charged by credit card companies that now slap consumers with rates of up to 30 percent. "This is money that comes right out of their hides and it hurts," Sanders told The Burlington Free Press. His legislation would impose 15 percent interest rate ceiling. It also would limit fees. “We are going to introduce a national usury law which will prohibit any financial institution from charging these outrageous rates,” he told Thom Hartmann’s nationally-syndicated radio show. “These loan sharks wear three-piece suits, but they’re not much different than those guys who break people’s knee caps.”

New low in Kondratieff interest rate cycle reached

Just a note for those of you who follow the 60 year long Kondratieff cycle.

Today (Nov. 20) both the 10 and 30 year bond took out their previous 2002 secular lows. The secular interest rate decline from 1981 is still intact, but at 27 years, is near to its turning point -- most likely whenever this deflationary recession ends.

From that point until ~2040 a secular rise in interest rates can be expected.

Borrow Money with No Interest? Oh, that doesn't mean you little consumer!

Imagine my joy when I read the headline, Zero Rate World May Lie Ahead.

The age of free money may be at hand.

As major central banks slash interest rates with unexpected speed, benchmark borrowing costs are now below core inflation for the first time since the early 1980s, and policy makers are signaling they will go deeper.

Gun Fight at OK Corral - Former Bank of England Policy Maker Slams Fed in Jackson Hole meeting

There is a Federal Reserve symposium in Jackson Hole and one, slammed the Fed.

The Fed listens to Wall Street and believes what it hears,'' Buiter said yesterday in a paper presented to the Fed's conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. ``This distortion into a partial and often highly distorted perception of reality is unhealthy and dangerous.

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