Understanding Financial Risk Modeling – written is simple language, shows pitfalls of Monte Carlo simulation, discusses financial crisis – Surly Trader
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Why Japanese Bonds Yielding 1.3% Offer Highest Return – By Wes Goodman – Nowhere are yields as low as in Japan’s debt market and nowhere are returns higher as Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s government fails to stop deflation. The combination of the fastest drop in consumer prices in five decades and the yen trading at about a 14-year high has turned Japanese government bonds into the past month’s best performers … – Bloomberg
2s-10s – Yield Curve Risks ‘Short Term’ Narrowing: Technical Analysis – By Liz Capo McCormick – The difference, or spread, between yields on 2- and 10-year Treasuries will likely narrow after failing to break a key resistance level, according to a Citigroup Inc. report citing technical indicators. The yield curve steepened 2 basis points today to 272 basis points, after widening to as much as 276 basis points on Dec. 11, the most since June 5, when it touched a record 281 basis points. – Bloomberg
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Greenspan: Bernanke Is Out Of Bullets, Now Inflation Is The Big Risk – Joe Weisenthal – yuck … – Clusterstock at Business Insider
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Time Magazine – Person of the Year 2009 (Bernanke) – The story of the year was a weak economy that could have been much, much weaker. Thank the man who runs the Federal Reserve, our mild-mannered economic overlord – TIME Magazine – the bloggers will go crazy over this (BC)
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read this good historical perspective – Bond price crash is the surest bet in town – Jeremy Warner – Past performance, all financial advisers are obliged to tell you when seeking to stuff your hard-earned nest egg into the latest investment fashion, is no guide to the future – Telegraph UK
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Interest Rates Are Low, but Banks Balk at Refinancing – By DAVID STREITFELD – Mortgage rates in the United States have dropped to their lowest levels since the 1940s, thanks to a trillion-dollar intervention by the federal government. Yet the banks that once handed out home loans freely are imposing such stringent requirements that many homeowners who might want to refinance are effectively locked out – NY Times