I think that the central bankers are very comfortable with derivatives. That is a place where we need a fly on the wall, at Basel meetings talking about derivatives. Basel is seeking more collateral for derivatives and is succeeding somewhat. But unfortunately, it causes bonds to be in ever more massive demand as collateral. But it is a little collateral for a whole lot of derivatives, so, there could be something that the central banks cannot deal with. However, they planned and took down the housing bubble so they probably think they can control derivatives as well. JMO.

I trust buying assets will push long bond rates even closer to negative. You would think the central banks would listen to Eric Lonergan and stop this folly of buying scarce bonds, already made scarce because of their use as collateral for derivatives.

Well, I guess it is hard to quantify, but they are talking about just under 10 trillion dollars of treasury bonds needed as collateral.

Well, in Nevada Solar City and others are no longer allowed to sponge off the mainstream power company. Solar City packed up and left. Same state where the Tesla plant is being built, Lol. So, bottom line, you (Musk) can't come into Nevada and try to screw people with Solar City while building Tesla. JMO.

The Fed only cares about the banks. It could have saved the middle class, but refused to do so by keeping interbank lending alive. It refused to buy paper in the commercial paper market that funded real estate. It refused to stop mark to market from being applied. In short, the Fed does evil at every turn, almost. It allowed the mispricing of risk for MBSs to proceed, and then crashed everything on the back end far more than was necessary.

The BOJ is out of options, unless the cowardly Japanese central bankers go with this: www.talkmarkets.com/.../responsibly-expand-the-monetary-base-before-it-is-too-late

Bonds are influenced by massive demand as collateral in derivatives markets, so it is hard to tell if it is an accurate measure anymore. Vix could be better.

Japan has not done enough. Time for debt free helicopter money, Jesse: www.talkmarkets.com/.../responsibly-expand-the-monetary-base-before-it-is-too-late As far as China is concerned, they will have to devalue, looks like.

It is funny that the Fed watches inflation, but then doesn't get to its target. In the meantime NGDP is slowing and surely the Fed has a plan for all this potential economic fallout. Or maybe it doesn't have a plan.

I hope they aren't. The disruption, economically, would be catastrophic. You think we are stuck in negative rates and negative bonds now. Wait til oil is destroyed as an industry. Also, likely world war could be the result. Musk has also said, twice, that manually driven cars should be banned. So, electric cars are a vehicle, so to speak, for the introduction of the self driving car. That is a danger to the freedom of all of us.

You have a fascinating take on Lithium scarcity.