LTRO birdie telling me maybe the BOJ gave the nod to its banks

Just a hunch now, but Italian, Spanish, and related bond yields began falling coincident with the first ECB LTRO. The question is why, as I saw no operative channel of consequence from ECB liquidity provision of 3 year funds on a floating rate basis to the term structure of rates. So it seemed to me […]

CB announcements

Just looks like the Fed lowered the rate on its swap lines to keep libor down, which had been moving up to its prior swap line rate. No big deal, apart from the fact the Fed shouldn’t be allowed to lend on an unsecured basis like this without explicit approval of congress. Lending unsecured on […]

BOJ Shirakawa Warns Japan Economic Outlook ‘Very Severe’

After all these years they are still threatening to use policy tools that have no effect on the real economy, and little if any effect on finance. And with the rest of world seemingly thinking the same way as well risks of a global double dip are increasing. BOJ Shirakawa Warns Japan Economic Outlook ‘Very […]

BOJ and inflation

[Skip to the end] Bank of Japan keeps distance from Fed, ECB hawks by Leika Kihara (Reuters) Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa distanced himself on Friday from the hawkish tone of U.S. and European central bankers, and signalled slowing economic growth was still a key factor in deciding interest rates. After keeping rates steady […]

Re: tell Paulson to let the MOF buy $

(an email) On Jan 23, 2008 9:26 AM, Mike wrote: > Trichet and his standard model are going to engineer a market crash in > europe it looks like… wonder if he will be FT’s man of the year next > year? and he’s playing with fire with the lack of credible deposit insurance in […]

Fed communications

If conveying information is considered important for market function, why not just say it clearly and directly in a targeted announcement? Kohn Says Fed Is Trying to Signal When Views Shift `Materially’ 2008-01-05 11:15 (New York) By Scott Lanman and Steve Matthews (Bloomberg) Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said the central bank has increased […]