@itunesbrian
Toronto-Scarborough Guildwood-Rouge Park riding. Liberal voter. After the Ottawa protests I will never vote CPC ever again (1980โs was the last time I voted PC). Love travel, cooking, art. โค๏ธquote โOscar, weโre out of Corn Flakes. -F.U.โ -The Odd Couple.
Professor Janice Stein is always interesting to listen to. I only wish her audio link had been better (but she was in London).
I like her statement that Trump has taken a massive gamble on his Presidency.
youtu.be/goZRuQ0zPBw?...
The ๐บ๐ธ๐๐คกโs economy folks!
youtube.com/shorts/Y-Iwc...
The Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi didnโt have to walk Mark Carney around the room like a geriatric patient (like that ๐บ๐ธ๐๐คก).
youtube.com/shorts/k3nwW...
Alleged heterosexual! ๐คฃ๐๐คฃ๐๐คฃ๐
youtu.be/GdZWYQUOpAE?...
Based on 2025 Federal Reserve research, Cayman Islands-based hedge funds are the largest foreign holders of U.S. Treasuries, with estimated holdings of over $1.85 trillion by late 2024. While official Treasury International Capital (TIC) data reported lower figures, Fed analysis indicates a $1.4 trillion undercount caused by unrecorded "basis trades," making their true holding larger than that of Japan or China. B Bloomberg.com +2 Key details regarding this finding include: โข Magnitude of Holdings: The estimated $1.85 trillion in holdings represents a massive surge, driven by hedge funds using Cayman entities to structure portfolios. โข Cause of Undercount: Official Treasury data likely fails to capture the full extent of transactions related to the "basis trade" - a strategy of shorting futures while buying underlying Treasuries. โข Market Impact: These holdings are significant for global financial markets, as they are often financed via the repo market and can be highly leveraged.
Yes, liquidity problems in the shadow banking sector can, and historically have, led to a significant selloff in U.S. Treasuries. Because shadow banks (non-bank financial intermediaries like hedge funds, money market funds, and special purpose vehicles) are highly leveraged and rely on short-term repo markets for funding, a disruption in their liquidity often forces them to sell high-quality, liquid assets โ primarily Treasuries โto raise cash, leading to "fire-sale" conditions.
The Cayman Islands is actually the largest holder of US Treasuries (exact holders unknownโฆ Hedge Funds).
Those holders of treasuries might be forced to sell off their holdings to cover loan losses.
With Qatar raising the prospect of $150 crude, our @pippastevens.cnbc.com says that would -- theoretically -- put retail gasoline somewhere in the $5.50 range.
@cnbc.com #OOTT
Telling courts that refunds would be "automatic" and "assured" was the government's way of avoiding emergency relief.
โWar-a-Lagoโ
By Barry Blitt @newyorker.com
".. Since October, payrolls have declined by -82k. Go back .. to August, employment is down -76k. Go back even further than that to June, and payrolls are off by -32k. That is stabilization? Really?? The YoY trend is now +0.1%, so if that gets you excited as a macro bull, go knock yourself out."
ROSENBERG: ".. You call this a 'stabilizing' labor market?
".. The unemployment rate .. would have spiked up to 5.1% had the labor participation rate not fallen from 62.5% in November to 62.0% in February, the lowest it has been since December 2021 (almost all owing to the 25-34 year-old cohort.)"
JEFFERIES: โ.. Crude is the 2nd most overbought in history. The only time it was more extended was during the Gulf war in 1990 (10,583 trading days in this dataset). Given the inverse correlation to equities, as crude stalls, that should help the tape.โ
Atlanta tracking uncharacteristically cool.
Collecting 53,173,939 tariffs was easy, tho.