Fed to Maintain Record Balance Sheet for Years

Fed Prepares to Maintain Record Balance Sheet for Years - Bloomberg: " . . . Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP LLC, who has been watching money markets and Fed policy for three decades, compared the importance of the shift in strategy with the Fed’s decision to establish a monopoly on bank-note issuance after its founding in 1913. One reason the Fed may stick with the strategy for a long time: It would provide safe assets that banks need to fulfill stricter requirements for capital and liquidity imposed by regulators since the financial crisis... A large balance sheet with U.S. Treasury and mortgage-backed securities has other benefits for the Fed.It provides “continuing options for impacting long-term interest rates,” Eric Rosengren, president of the Boston Fed, said at a conference this week in Guatemala City. Meyer said the FOMC now doesn’t appear worried about having a big balance sheet, and many officials “prefer to operate at a higher level of reserves.” “There is a preference emerging to say, ‘This works,’” Meyer said. “The question is, do they ever want to get back to normal?”..."

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Wall Street Adjusts to the Trading New Normal

Wall Street Adjusts to the New Trading Normal - WSJ: "Transaction Volume in May Fell to Its Lowest Level Since Financial Crisis" -- ".... The slowdown in trading comes as investors see little reason to make big changes to their portfolios amid an expanding but unspectacular U.S. economy, lackluster first-quarter earnings reports, and above-average stock valuations as a share of projected company earnings. The decline comes despite six record closes last month on the S&P 500, extending a trading slowdown that started after the financial crisis. Daily average U.S. stock-trading volume last year was down 37% from the peak hit in 2009, Credit Suisse data show....At the Milwaukee stock-trading desk of investment bank Robert W. Baird & Co., Michael Antonelli uses the down time to send market-related tweets or works on posts for his firm's stock-market blog, Bull and Baird. A tweet from Tuesday: "Another completely dead day."...."The worst thing for a trading desk is for it to be slow," he said. "It's a tough job when it's slow because you start to overanalyze everything."..."

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New Normal, Obamacare, End of Employer-Provided Healthcare

It is changing before your eyes--

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: End of Employer-Provided Healthcare: By 2020, S&P 500 Companies May Dump 90% of Workforce into Obamacare: " . . . Companies did not always provide healthcare benefits. But over time, employer-provided healthcare became an expectation, if not a "right". That trend, especially with part-time workers has reversed. Some argue that by 2020, healthcare coverage may go full circle. For example, please consider the McClatchy article Report: large employers could shift nearly all workers’ health coverage to marketplace by 2020 (read more at links above)

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Jeffrey Gundlach, New Normal, No Normal (video)

Gundlach: 'New Normal' Is Actually 'No Normal’: Video - Bloomberg:
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Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive officer of DoubleLine Capital, discusses investor activism, interest rates, Apple's future, and high-yield bonds with Bloomberg's Tom Keene. (source: May 7 Bloomberg)

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