The Institutional Risk Analyst

President Trump is using the threat of tariffs to change the behavior of some of our trading partners, particularly Canada and Mexico. 

But what happens if the US simply picks up the proverbial football and goes home?

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell now reports up to National Economic Council head Kevin Hassett.

Banks continue to show a strong preference for late vintage loans over securities, a fact which may cause loan yields to continue falling

Folks in the financial sector are beginning to wonder if certain parts of the government apparatus will continue to function.

The real threat of tariffs announced by Trump is not inflation, but rather a LT decline in the dollar as the global reserve currency

When President Donald Trump says that interest rates are too high, he may not fully understand just how right he is about the cost of credit

With Gov Michael Barr stepping down from bank supervision, perhaps Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is more willing to test liquidity lower bound

Cute reference to "average cost," but total return to date would be of greater interest.

Our bet is that the Bessent "3-3-3" plan likewise will be a failure and that the Fed will be forced to restart QE sooner rather than later

As a practical matter, no Fed chairman or governor can function without the support of the White House and the US Treasury.

Could President elect Donald Trump be facing a maxi market correction before inauguration day?

The changes that are going to occur in Washington over the next four years will be dramatically different than during Trump I.

You can tell lies and damn lies about the idea of releasing Fannie and Freddie, but the SEC and FINRA cannot and will not say a word. 

Last year, when a lot of people were predicting the demise of SCHW, we told our readers to calm down.

In opposing Basel III, Chopra is doing the bidding of Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) but big banks are very happy to have no rule at all.

The Basel Accord is one of the single biggest examples of a regulatory agency literally creating a new law from whole cloth.

Obviously, there should be no interest rate cuts by the FOMC without deficit reduction by Congress.

If President Trump starts talking about fixing the federal budget deficit and redeveloping moribund urban real estate, he’d win in November