Michael Ashton

E-PIPHANY

Contributor since: 26 Feb 2010

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• You Can't Jawbone a Bungee Jump

  Published 12 July 2013 | viewed 0 times

  Incredible to me, as well as to many others I am sure, is the fact that the words of one guy, Chairman Bernanke, who is…

• Moderate Monetary Policy: Vice Or Virtue?

  Published 11 July 2013 | viewed 0 times

  Barry Goldwater once said "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." It is…

• The Baby is Calm … For Now

  Published 08 July 2013 | viewed 0 times

  So, the bond market has had another few days of riding the yo-yo. A 20-bp bond selloff on Friday (followed by a 10bp rally today)…

• The Healing Power of Quarter-End

  Published 27 June 2013 | viewed 0 times

  Ah, it is so nice to be in this illiquid period right before quarter-end, when interested parties can easily ramp up prices to where they…

• Bond Beatings Continue

  Published 25 June 2013 | viewed 0 times

  The beatings are continuing, and apparently morale really does improve with such treatment. Consumer Confidence for June vaulted to the highest level since early 2008,…

• Quick Notes on the Week

  Published 21 June 2013 | viewed 0 times

  I have been quasi-vacationing this week on the Continent, and trying to follow the news and the markets. This will be a brief comment but…

• Summary of My Post-CPI Tweets

  Published 18 June 2013 | viewed 0 times

  The following is a summary and further explanation of my tweets following today's CPI release: core #inflation +0.167, a smidge higher than expected but basically…

• Classic

  Published 13 June 2013 | viewed 0 times

  Numerous classic cognitive errors are on display at once in these markets. We have "overconfidence," with large bets being made on the basis of strongly-believed…

• Equity Returns and Inflation

  Published 08 June 2013 | viewed 0 times

  There has been a lot written in the academic literature about why equity returns and inflation seem to be inversely related. What is amazing to…

• Rough Week, But it Could Have Been Worse

  Published 08 June 2013 | viewed 0 times

  It was an interesting week. Considerable volatility in the foreign exchange markets (the dollar fell 5.5 handles from 105.50 yen to 95 yen before bouncing…

• Is This the 'Real' Selloff?

  Published 05 June 2013 | viewed 0 times

  Let the wailing and gnashing of teeth begin: the stock market is down almost 5% from the highs! It was once the case that investors…

• Deflation Isn't An Export; Crazy Talk Is

  Published 03 June 2013 | viewed 0 times

  We are once again witnessing the market effects of a deficit of basic knowledge of economics. This is, of course, no news in itself: the…

• Bonds and the 'Convexity Trade'

  Published 29 May 2013 | viewed 0 times

  It has been a long time since we have had to worry about and think about the phenomenon of mortgage convexity and the effect that…

• I Say, Let 'Em Crash

  Published 27 May 2013 | viewed 0 times

  John Mauldin wrote a piece last week about Brown-Vitter, a piece of legislation making its way through Congress that has a "simple" approach to getting…

• Unsteady As She Goes

  Published 25 May 2013 | viewed 0 times

  Let's reset the state of things: The Federal Reserve, and other central banks, have added a tremendous amount of liquidity to global financial markets. Ironically,…

• Existing Home Inflation Remains 'Contained'

  Published 22 May 2013 | viewed 0 times

  Right, the Fed's actions have definitely not caused any inflation. Asset inflation is only a temporary relief/diversion from consumer price inflation. In this case (unlike…

• Chutzpah

  Published 21 May 2013 | viewed 0 times

  It has been a busy couple of weeks on the business side, which is why I haven't been writing many articles. However, I wanted to…

• Summary of My Post-CPI Tweets

  Published 16 May 2013 | viewed 0 times

  Writing from the Netherlands after visiting future clients this week; here is a summary of my post-CPI tweets (Follow me @inflation_guy): very surprising core inflation,…

• Magic Trees

  Published 07 May 2013 | viewed 0 times

  Imagine an island on which magic trees grow. These trees, as it turns out, are exactly like the trees everywhere else, except for three things.…

• Comparisons

  Published 06 May 2013 | viewed 0 times

  With little economic data on the calendar, and the Fed speakers back-loaded at the Chicago Fed conference later in the week, there is time to…