Eurodollar University

Five major developments in the credit crisis/bust. BlackRock, JP Morgan, Blue Owl, Apollo and another big run on a big fund. Private credit didn't go anywhere, the situation keeps escalating and each one of these represents more significant confirmation of the shift toward toxic waste status. From asset valuations to more losses at big names, the behavior has radically changed.  Eurodollar Univers...

McDonald’s CEO says the consumer environment is certainly not improving and may be getting a little worse after the company reported better than expected past results. Those mainly before the gas prices jumped. Jumping over to big ticket items like appliances, Whirlpool, the company that employs the Maytag Man, it compared the current consumer climate to  – not joking – 2008-09 as the cracks of de...

The stock market was not happy with HSBC. The banking giant reported what should have been a small nothing, a $400mm loss on a loan to an Irish entity with a name that sounds like a Star Wars droid. AGF WHCO 1-A5. But that $400mm loan and loss ended up pulling back the curtain a little more on the current credit crisis. As did the comments from Apollo’s CEO, where he used the words “contagion” and...

According to the Energy Information Administration, the national average price for gasoline was $4.26 per gallon at the end of April and it was largely stable throughout last month. Not good. Certainly painful. But wholesale gas price has exploded higher in recent weeks and that means retail gas prices are about to do the same thing. The wholesale cost points to a nationwide pump price of $5. Not...

We know how central bankers are just itching to raise policy rates and all over the world, led primarily by those in Europe. The hawkishness is already spreading. Just today, an official from South Korea’s central bank said, hey, oil prices up we need to think about some hikes, too. But what are the markets pricing? It’s not what you’d think.  What do the curves look like for now but also beyond t...

Will this week’s economic data be enough to keep central bankers from chasing oil prices with rate hikes? Europe was barely positive. Canada bounced back but that’s two up and two down over the last year. Mexico, which, keep in mind, is a proxy for the US, big time contraction. And the US itself missed with weakness all over consumers. All that before the full energy shock weighs in. Eurodollar Un...

Thanks to Monarch for partnering with me! Start your free trial and get 50% off your first year of total money clarity using my link https://monarchmoney.yt.link/8CnCd5q or code euro50 for 50% Off Monarch Core tier. The Japanese government, working through the Bank of Japan, just set $35 billion on fire. Then flushed it down the toilet. And if that wasn’t enough, officials in Tokyo are talking abo...

We know when Walmart or Dollar General are doing well, those are not good signs for the health of the consumer economy, particularly when it’s higher income shoppers suddenly appearing in bigger numbers. But when that hard hit traffic starts spilling over to the local pawn shops, it’s a whole other level. Canaries and coalmines. Here’s the thing. We’re not only seeing that happen, the data backs t...

European banks just told the ECB they are tightening lending standards by the most since 2023. At the same time, the pick up in loan demand they’re seeing is due to heightened liquidity pressures as the energy shock has especially corporate borrowers in Europe on edge. This is why despite knowing the ECB is very likely to raise its policy rates at some point, probably not tomorrow but very likely...

A week ago, the UAE said it was in consultation with the US government trying to arrange a dollar swap line. Since then, Treasury Secretary Bessent told Congress MANY allies were, too, and not just those in the Middle East. Just hours ago, huge news as the UAE says it’s outright leaving OPEC. There is big stuff going on behind the scenes because the energy shock is indeed a dollar shock and much b...

Interest rates going up. Oil prices big problem. The stock market kept soaring, but even though the S&P 500 gained 20% that year more stocks in the index ended 1999 down than up. There are some similarities between now and '99 and one of those is how far companies will go to make sure they aren’t one of those on the outside looking in. CEOs today are all over AI hype, but they’re lying to you...

Back in April 2020, oil prices went negative after the futures market underestimated just how much demand had collapsed, causing chaos as market participants scrambled to unload their oil. Here in April 2026, the oil futures market is in danger of something similar but in the opposite direction. Certain market participants just may be underestimating how much supply has collapsed. Worrying that mi...

Underscoring the global nature of private credit and the credit cycle, one of India’s biggest borrowers has announced it will be delaying principal and interest payments on one of its biggest junk bonds. And who are the primary owners of said bonds? Private credit funds like Cerberus and regulated institutions like Deutsche Bank. The specific bonds in question aren’t going to bring down either one...

The global economy is being set right up for a brutal summer, according to the latest incoming data. Manufacturing is up right now, but the faster it goes today the worse it is going to be in the coming months. Services, the majority of the economy, are starting to get crushed – Europe, for example, it just set a 62-month low. This is the same general setup as last year which fed right into job lo...

European consumer sentiment is in "free fall", in the European govt's own words. DHL’s CEO warned the world is heading for a quote tipping point – in other words, the race against time. Economic sentiment just crashed. Unemployment in places like Scandinavia has jumped while in the UK job losses have returned alongside the appearance of one of the worse labor market outcomes, the dropout.  Eurodol...

Countries REALLY don't want to go to DC and ask for a dollar swap line. One nation just did (according to WSJ) and it is one of the most critical redistribution centers in the eurodollar system. While the usual suspects go on about "dedollarization" and petroyuans, over here in the real world the consequences from lack of oil flow include a shortfall of dollars as much as oil. Eurodollar Universit...

Interest rates in China’s bond market are aggressively declining, more at the short-term maturities. It’s a classic bond bull case, which means it isn’t bullish. The question is where this is coming from. Inside the country or outside? As if that wasn’t the only big signal, the Chinese government just did something that will have you shaking your head where it comes to consumer spending and retail...

Banks are taking more steps to distance themselves from the growing private credit bust. They’re revaluing private credit assets that have been pledged to them as security for financing banks have provided to these shadow banks. I told you when JPM did it a month ago there would be others. Insurance companies are now really getting dragged into this mess, too, a double dose of Stage 2. Eurodollar...

The good news is the IRS is reporting about a 10% rise in average income tax refunds. However, the initial data is showing most Americans are just not spending the windfall. Understandably, they’re either saving the money or more often paying down debt. Those are certainly positive in their own way, helping struggling taxpayers repair their own fiscal balance sheets after years of limited income g...

The IMF is getting nervous. Nervous to the point its chief economist just said the world is already drifting toward their newly minted adverse scenario. What does that mean? It means a collision course with the point of no return. And that point of no return is much closer than you’d think given how the world was in bad shape before the energy shock showed up. The difference between fragile and re...

You know who can’t stop talking about the private credit bust? The big bankers. Jamie Dimon is constantly in the media almost too happy to share his negative thoughts. Recently Goldman Sach’s David Solomon reminded everyone the credit cycle has not been repealed. But you know who hasn’t said a word? Life insurance execs. The companies that write retirement annuities. 2008 was about big banks. 2026...

Chinese banks are now trapped which is why China has finally entered an era of full-blown extend and pretend. It’s been on the edge of it for some time, but recent data and information out of the country show the banking sector has crossed that threshold into the low-rate trap which has squeezed profitability and left banks to bleed cash. So, more grim lending and credit data from China’s central...

With talks between the US and Iran falling apart, there will be renewed focus this week on the Strait of Hormuz, getting it open and restoring traffic. Nearly all the focus so far as been on the energy part of the trade equation, the amount crude oil being able to transit the bottleneck. But there is another key set of commodities that are likewise being held back, and most people don’t realize ju...

Repo fails spiked to more than $415 billion. Treasury bill prices are jumping. Prices. US bank dealers are using their record government bond holdings at the same time foreigners are deploying huge amounts of their reserves of the same instruments. Treasuries bonds are all over the shadows and it has nothing do with interest rates or the Fed, except the Fed is providing a lot of the data. What doe...

Target is throwing in the towel on its previous losing strategy. Like many businesses, it tried to raise prices only to find its customers going elsewhere, largely to Walmart. Now Target is slashing its prices including on the towel it just threw in. The retail giant simply has no other choice given the sudden change in consumer behavior we’re seeing across the economic landscape.    Eurodollar Un...