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Case-Shiller: Home Price Declines Accelerate

On January 31, 2012, in Housing, by Tim

Standard and Poor’s reported that the November data for the Case-Shiller Home Price Index indicated further declines, the 20-city index falling 1.3 percent for the second straight month as property values declined in 19 of the 20 cities, also for the second month in a row. On a year-over-year basis, the 20-city index is now down 3.7 percent.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, home prices were down only 0.7 percent with three cities seeing gains and David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices, was not hopeful when he noted the following:

Despite continued low interest rates and better real GDP growth in the fourth quarter, home prices continue to fall …  The trend is down and there are few, if any, signs in the numbers that a turning point is close at hand.

It looks like policy makers in Washington might want to accelerate plans for the next attempt at rescuing the housing market, that is, before prices fall too much further.

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Bernanke’s War Against Savers – Part 63

On January 30, 2012, in Economy, by Tim

More fallout from last week’s Fed announcement of a one-and-a-half year extension to their freakishly low interest rate forecast comes via this MarketWatch story about the dim prospects of money market returns between now and sometime in 2015 (or later).

Money funds are designed to be ultra-safe cash-equivalents, and traditionally they provided a bit more return than bank certificates of deposit or savings accounts.

But for about 18 months now, nearly two-thirds of all money funds have yielded under 0.01%. To see just how horrible that is, consider that if you had $1,000 and split it evenly between a money fund and a piggy bank, at the end of a year the fund would only be ahead by a nickel.

This is not a new problem, but the Fed paints it in a new light. Central bankers made it clear that savers will not see any boost in money-fund returns for the foreseeable future, and can be sure that inflation will take a bite out of their cash. So if you use a money fund for emergency savings, the dollars aren’t growing even as the cost of insurance is rising.

Even when rates rise, money-fund yields aren’t likely to go up. Financial-services firms have been waiving costs, basically operating them at a loss to keep assets in-house; many smaller firms have simply shuttered their money-market funds. When rates finally do go up — and the Fed forecast doesn’t mean it can’t happen, it just suggests that it won’t until 2014 — firms will first take much of any increase for themselves.

By the way, does anyone know how stable value funds are doing these days?  I was tempted to not convert one of our 401ks to a self-directed IRA when we left our cubicle jobs back in 2007 in order to get the 3 or 4 percent these funds paid in the event that the early-decade low rate environment returned which, as it turns out, it did with a vengeance.

I regret that decision a little more each year…

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Some of the Many Unintended Consequences of the Ongoing North Dakota Oil Boom

On January 30, 2012, in Commodities, Economy, by Tim

From last week, a series of interviews at Bloomberg with government officials in and around the North Dakota oil boom region where the influx of out-of-state workers is stressing government services, infrastructure, housing, and other things.

We’re only about an eight hour drive from that area and, as a result, we hear quite a bit of the local news that doesn’t make it to the network news broadcasts including two separate instances of locals being murdered by men attracted to the area and, for whatever reason, choosing an alternative path than driving a truck for an oil company.

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Ben Bernanke is the Next Arthur Burns

On January 27, 2012, in Economy, by Tim

In yet another follow-up to yesterday’s Bernanke’s Disingenuous Message to Savers, it certainly looks like Fed Chief Ben Bernanke is the second coming of Arthur Burns when looking at real interest rates (i.e., the Fed Funds rate minus year-over-year inflation).

Note that the 2012-2014 period assumes the current 3.0 percent inflation rate and zero percent Fed Funds rate continue for three more years – it might move up a little, but not much. Also, that little red sliver in 1978-1979 represents G. William Miller’s tenure as Fed chief – it hardly seemed worth it to put his name up there.

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More on Bernanke’s War Against Savers

On January 27, 2012, in Economy, Our Culture, by Tim

A couple of items related to yesterday’s Bernanke’s Disingenuous Message to Savers come via this Reuters report that chronicles the difficulty older, fixed-income investors are having under Fed Chief Ben Bernanke’s policy of freakishly low interest rates and this item at The Aleph Blog that captures my sentiments fairly well.

Bernanke Does Not Understand Savings
Twice in his press conference yesterday, Bernanke showed that he was out of touch with average Americans. He argued that average people could keep up with a 2% increase in the price level by investing in stocks and (presumably short-term) bonds.

(Speaking to The Bernank)

I’m sorry, Ben, but ya gotsta come down from the uneducated ivory tower and wallow in the mud wit da restov us. There are three problems with what you said:

- It’s hard to earn 2% (after-tax) consistently when the Fed funds rate is zero.

- Only the top 20% of the wealthy have enough assets to keep themselves afloat using the asset markets. Most people would like to do something to protect themselves from inflation, but lack the means to do so.

- Average people do not invest, they save at financial intermediaries like banks, S&Ls, and life insurers. Fed policy kills rates for savers. They will not become investors, because they lack the knowledge to do so.

I am again sorry, Ben, because your policies discriminate against the poor, and the lower middle class. Yes, the rich and the upper middle-class clever can escape the penalties stemming from your policies, but the lower-middle class and the poor can’t.

Think of it this way: your policies are making it more palatable for average people to buy gold, because the alternatives in savings are lousy. If there is no income, why not grab safety from inflation?

Author David Merkel then suggests a comparison to Arthur Burns, one of the worst Fed Chairman ever, a subject that will be taken up in the next item that appears here.

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Roach: “Zero Bound Until 2025″

On January 27, 2012, in Debt, Economy, by Tim

Not surprisingly, Morgan Stanley’s Stephen Roach doesn’t think much of the idea of perpetual ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Policy) as part of an ongoing policy by the Fed and he talks to Bloomberg’s Tom Keene on this subject and others while in Davos, Switzerland.

Roach says that, along with many other Western central bankers, Fed Chief Ben Bernanke is “betting the ranch on open-ended QE and zero interest rates” that, throughout history, have only been used as emergency measures, not long-term policy.

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