Explore every episode of the podcast THE WOLF STREET REPORT
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stocks, Bonds & CRE Face QT | 01 oct. 2023 | 00:12:39 | |
Fundamentals for markets have boiled down to QE or QT since 2009. Now there’s QT, a lot of QT, globally, to battle the worst inflation in decades. | |||
| Revenge of Variable-Rate Commercial Debts | 25 juin 2023 | 00:14:46 | |
Most people in finance today cut their teeth in the era of Easy Money, when history books were thrown out the window. | |||
| Free Money Turned Brains to Mush. Now Some Banks Fail | 19 mars 2023 | 00:12:35 | |
The Fed ended Free Money, and the only thing it broke is the consensual hallucination that spawned during the Free Money era. And look what we got. | |||
| Housing Bust #2 Has Begun | 26 févr. 2023 | 00:15:23 | |
Some markets are already deep into it, others just started. A sobering trip from the free-money decade in la-la-land, back to normal. | |||
| What’s Behind the Mass Layoffs in Tech & Social Media? | 22 janv. 2023 | 00:10:31 | |
Drunk with Easy Money, companies were hogging office space and workers for a future that did not come. | |||
| The Price of Easy Money Now Coming Due | 18 déc. 2022 | 00:15:05 | |
The Crazy Stuff and Crazy Asset Prices that arose during Easy Money started blowing up when Easy Money ended. | |||
| Where’s the Contagion from the Crypto Implosion? | 13 nov. 2022 | 00:10:46 | |
As the FTX collapse shows, the shenanigans guarantee smooth, efficient contagion inside the crypto zone. But beyond it? | |||
| The Housing Bubble Pops, and the Fed Can Let it Rip | 30 oct. 2022 | 00:14:57 | |
Raging inflation knocked out the “Fed put,” and banks are no longer on the hook for mortgages; taxpayers and investors are. | |||
| Return of the Bond Vigilantes Sent Shockwaves Around the Globe | 16 oct. 2022 | 00:11:48 | |
Deficits don’t matter – until the bond vigilantes ride into town. | |||
| Something Big Has Already Broken: Price Stability | 09 oct. 2022 | 00:11:24 | |
The Fed will tighten “Until Something Breaks” and then pivot? Wait a minute... | |||
| This Inflation Will Be Tough to Get under Control | 18 sept. 2022 | 00:13:18 | |
Higher interest rates and mortgage rates for much longer, with lower asset prices, as the Everything Bubble gets dismantled. | |||
| Housing Bubble Getting Ready to Pop: The Big Boys Leave, Wait for Market to Reset | 08 août 2022 | 00:10:53 | |
Biggest investors in single-family houses: “We need to be patient and allow the market to reset.” | |||
| Markets Are “Fighting the Fed” | 31 juil. 2022 | 00:11:53 | |
One of the most important dictums in US finance is this: “Don’t fight the Fed.” And this could get ugly. | |||
| Big Tech & Startups Getting Ready for Reality | 24 juil. 2022 | 00:13:48 | |
Shedding People, Offices, and Warehouses. It’s kind of sobering. Reality has that effect, after a drunken binge. | |||
| US Dollar Exchange Rates & Inflation: What’s Next? | 10 juil. 2022 | 00:10:59 | |
The USD had a heck of a ride, which kept inflation from spiking even further. But it may not last much longer. | |||
| Leverage & Interconnectedness Are Blowing Up Crypto & DeFi | 04 juil. 2022 | 00:12:30 | |
That’s what’s different this time: Stuff is blowing up because of leverage, and the blow-ups cascade through the crypto space because everything is now interconnected. Those weren’t factors in prior “crypto winters.” | |||
| What’s Behind the Collapse of so Many Stocks since Feb 2021? | 20 juin 2022 | 00:13:21 | |
This crash beneath the surface showed something had broken, that the magic had died, that hype and hoopla were suddenly unable to carry the day. | |||
| Dotcom Bust 2, New & Improved | 06 juin 2022 | 00:12:28 | |
But we’ve had it so good for so long. And it was so easy, and it made everyone look like a genius. | |||
| Tech Bust Takes Next Step: Layoffs & Hiring Freezes | 29 mai 2022 | 00:11:33 | |
Dotcom Bust 2 has begun. Only bigger. | |||
| Bond Massacre, Inflation Prick Biggest Bond Bubble in History | 28 mars 2022 | 00:13:34 | |
The dollar’s role as dominant global reserve currency is at risk if the Fed fails to crack down on inflation. | |||
| This Stock Market Is Coming Unglued Stock by Stock | 28 févr. 2022 | 00:08:33 | |
The mayhem that has totally crushed one stock after another for a year breaks through the surface. | |||
| The Fed Lost Control of the Inflation Narrative | 01 nov. 2021 | 00:16:11 | |
Mega-policy decisions to boost demand. Now mega-consequences. | |||
| China’s Model of Dictated Economic Growth Blew Up | 18 oct. 2021 | 00:13:07 | |
What’s left of the debt-fueled property speculation that drove growth is a huge explosive mess and an enormous amount of debt. | |||
| China's Crackdown on Debt, Tech & Evergrande Sends Frazzled Wall Street Titans to China | 20 sept. 2021 | 00:12:11 | |
The property sector and its debts are possibly the biggest financial mess in China’s history. | |||
| What a Collapse of China’s Evergrande Would Mean | 13 sept. 2021 | 00:10:48 | |
China still hasn’t bailed out investors in the property developers, to the shock of foreign investors who’d bought their dollar bonds. Could the forced deleveraging trigger a financial crisis? | |||
| Free Money and the Shortages | 30 août 2021 | 00:12:01 | |
Enough consumers, flush with free money, suddenly eager to pay those high prices, particularly for big-ticket items they didn’t have to buy. Magic Mix. | |||
| The Most Monstrously Overstimulated Economy & Markets Ever | 23 août 2021 | 00:09:43 | |
The Fed will trim back its stimulus, but it’s already too late, and it’ll be too little and too slow. | |||
| What’s Behind this Messed-Up Bond Market? | 16 août 2021 | 00:11:49 | |
The Fed. And then the Fed steps away. | |||
| Dollar’s Purchasing Power Gets Zapped. It’s Permanent | 02 août 2021 | 00:12:38 | |
This combo of massive QE, repressed interest rates, huge government stimulus with borrowed money, and raging inflation is new in recent history. | |||
| “Temporary” Inflation Is Turning into Inflation Spiral | 12 juil. 2021 | 00:09:39 | |
Get Used to Higher Inflation. My Thoughts on the Biggest Mess I’ve Seen in Decades. | |||
| “Just Shut Up and Buy”: But Now Hype-Stocks & Cryptos Crashed | 23 mai 2021 | 00:11:59 | |
It works until it doesn’t. Now all eyes are on housing. | |||
| Perfect Time to Sell a Home to FOMO-Addled Buyers | 25 avr. 2021 | 00:08:42 | |
And for buyers, it's a Perfect Time to make a Terrible Deal. The winner in these crazy bidding wars is the seller. | |||
| Market Manias Galore, But Long-Term Interest Rates Smell a Rat | 15 mars 2021 | 00:14:10 | |
These manias and the rising long-term yields are on collision course. | |||
| The Big “Buy & Hype” Bitcoin Casino | 22 févr. 2021 | 00:11:13 | |
In 2012, dude offered to buy my book for 1.5 bitcoin, a “Monetary Revolution” that “doubled in 4 months.” I’d just need to hype bitcoin on my site. That’s still how it works. And big highly leveraged players with huge megaphones jumped in. | |||
| The Stock Market Is Broken, Now for All to See | 01 févr. 2021 | 00:18:21 | |
A historic short squeeze, engineered by millions of deeply cynical small traders, exposed just how rigged the market has been. | |||
| American Debt Slaves in the Weirdest Economy Ever | 27 déc. 2020 | 00:13:24 | |
During the Financial Crisis, consumers deleveraged by walking away from their debts. And now, with 20 million people still claiming unemployment insurance? The opposite is happening. | |||
| “Creative Destruction” or Just “Destruction”? | 18 oct. 2020 | 00:13:44 | |
Under the effects of the Pandemic, consumers and businesses grapple with their own “Reset.” | |||
| The Big Boys Are Back Financializing Single-Family Houses | 05 oct. 2020 | 00:10:16 | |
As after the last crisis, fueled by ultra-cheap money, they’re taking financialization of the housing market to the next level: Now it’s buy-to-rent, build-to-rent, sale-leasebacks, and buy-to-sell. | |||
| What’s Behind the Fed’s Project to Send Free Money to People Directly | 27 sept. 2020 | 00:13:44 | |
A lump-sum payment in digital dollars for all Americans during a recession or to raise inflation as an alternative to QE and negative interest rates, which have failed. | |||
| Great Time to Turn a Nest Egg into Scrambled Eggs | 14 sept. 2020 | 00:11:31 | |
It just looks so tempting. | |||
| This Tech-Stock Sell-Off Is a Sign Something Broke | 06 sept. 2020 | 00:12:23 | |
SoftBank was only a cog in the huge machinery. | |||
| Second Wave of Layoffs is Here. Now Hitting Well-Paid Jobs | 31 août 2020 | 00:12:30 | |
A sort of sector rotation of layoffs, and it’s not a good sign, even as millions of lower-wage workers are being hired back. | |||
| The Zombie Companies Are Coming | 24 août 2020 | 00:11:55 | |
Easy money is a curse for capitalism. | |||
| The Rich Got Richer in the Pandemic. Why? | 17 août 2020 | 00:10:22 | |
Over 30 million people lost their jobs between mid-March and mid-May during the lockdowns. But over the same period, the wealth of America’s 600-plus billionaires ballooned by $434 billion, pushing their combined wealth to $3.4 trillion. How did this happen? | |||
| Nobody Knows How to Ever Get Out of This Mess | 27 juil. 2020 | 00:11:21 | |
“Extend and Pretend” forevermore. | |||
| America Convulses in Pain, Fed Bails Out the Wealthy | 08 juin 2020 | 00:14:18 | |
What’s so insidious about the Fed’s bailouts of investors in hedge funds, mortgage-REITS, stocks, bonds, leveraged loans, and other often risky assets? The destruction of capitalism. | |||