What we’re reading (6/22)
“Fed To Lift Rates By 75 Basis Points In July, 50 Bps In September - Reuters Poll” (Reuters). “The Federal Reserve will deliver another 75-basis-point interest rate hike in July, followed by a half-percentage-point rise in September, and won't scale back to quarter-percentage-point moves until November at the earliest, according to economists polled by Reuters.”
“Tracking Fear On Wall Street” (DealBook). “One of the best bets recently has been volatility. The VIX volatility index, which is commonly called the “fear index” because it tracks investors’ demand for a type of financial instrument that offers protection against market drops, has more than doubled in the past year, to well over 30. The index had fallen to around 15 at times during the second half of last year, its lowest level since the start of the pandemic.”
“The Fire Burning Beneath Crypto’s Meltdown” (Wall Street Journal). “The question for crypto enthusiasts is which lesson they should take from history. Are bitcoin and other crypto tokens crashing because of the usual excesses that accompany advances in finance? Or do they have the sort of fundamental flaws that will see them join cowrie shells and Sweden’s 20 kg (44 pound) copper coin as historical relics? I lean toward the latter.”
“The World’s Bubbliest Housing Markets Are Flashing Warning Signs” (The Business Times). “Falling home prices would erode household wealth, dent consumer confidence and potentially curb future development. Animal spirits are typically tamed when people are faced with higher repayment costs on an asset that’s losing value. And property construction and sales are huge multipliers of economic activity around the world.”
“What We Pay For When We Pay For A Gallon Of Gas” (The Week). “When you buy gas — or at least when you bought gas in April — 60 percent of your money goes toward crude oil, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) says. The rest goes toward refining (17 percent), distribution and marketing (11 percent), and state and federal taxes (12 percent). So at $5 a gallon, $3 of your gas money goes to the company drilling or mining the crude oil. ‘On average, gas stations make about 5 cents per gallon of gas sold,’ WUSA9 reports.”
