We should give thanks and lament TBTF banks consumption of them and their businesses. It has contributed to lower growth and less small businesses.

I know a lot of young people who would see that as a positive not a negative given they can hardly afford to live let alone buy a house in this bizzaro economy spawned by the central bank screwing with capitalism. Sometimes bad things are actually goodness in disguise.

Debt is the Whale in the room not an elephant. The weird thing is that low rates do 2 things. As we all know it encourages undue amounts of debt and lowers savings, but even worse it decreases the amount of money generated by savings, thus adding to further credit erosion and weakening spending further.

This is the mess the central banks have gotten us in which is the same as Japan got into. We now have mass asset inflation which means unaffordable housing, a close to dead economy, artificial money production through the central bank (QE), and mass debt. As the British would say, a fine mess. It is exactly that type of mess they hoped to get out of by exiting the EU. Economically speaking they are not our friends. They are running away from the planned economy socialist ideas that are destroying America and Europe disguised as capitalism. It is far from it.

100% expected since the Federal Reserve indicated weakness in further rate increases and the US government looks to boost military spending without major cuts or revenue increases. If Trump wanted a weak dollar, he is liable to get his wish, in spades if the economy weakens next year or if a trade war erupts between the US and China and/or Europe.

Sadly the longer the trend goes on the more people pile on and ignore the risk. There is risk and most people in the market are risking more than they are willing to loose. That said, they may not loose anytime soon, however, that is not the point. Risk reward is fundamental to turning out ok in the market long term.

Grim for everyone not just retirees. Sadly, job growth is not strong and wage growth is weak as well. Compounded with housing inflation everyone is in trouble whether they realize it or not.

Sadly housing and medical costs are eating everyone alive as growth doesn't occur. Add education and its debt in and you get a sick picture. Unless something is done, our standard of living is about to go down dramatically. This manipulated upturn has destroyed the middle class and now the US dollar is declining which will make things more expensive. Already the profit margin in most businesses are dropping meaning less jobs not more in the future.

It's not a nothing burger. It shows a gradual move out of growth and to safer areas of the market as growth isn't accelerating right now.

Despite calls for a meltdown, such things don't happen without a catalyst. Although I don't see the market rising at a breakneck speed as growth is still lackluster, I don't see anything causing a 50-75% crash right now. The Fed's rate hikes slow things further but it is not likely to cause a crash because it enables them to lower rates back down if something happens.

This is the main reason why they should have done thing long ago. It is not safe to be so close to zero rates this long in a cycle. Will the cycle end. Most certainly. Will it be bad when it ends, most likely. Do you see it happening in the next 3 months, no.

Sadly with suppressed rates you see everyone chasing yield despite the risk, which the author is correct that it is big in EM debt. Stay away.