By Charles Gates In March of 2020, an anomaly in a relatively obscure part of the U.S. Treasury bond futures market caused a major disruption in that market, which in turn prompted the U.S. Federal Reserve to put forth $5 trillion of liquidity to calm the markets. Yep, that was…

Most everyone who has grown up with Walt Disney classic films will recall the valiant Prince on his noble steed slashing his way through the Forest of Thorns to reach Maleficent’s castle and rescue Sleeping Beauty. While the transition from Libor to SOFR (or more generally from IBORs to Risk…

Author: Charles Gates High fashion and high finance may have an all too apparent connection when it comes to the new season and folks with considerable means go shopping for the latest styles in trendy boutiques. Last season’s finery may well have drifted rapidly out of style and that change…

It seems that every now and then credit derivatives arise as the public whipping boy among financial products. Most recently, the case of Windstream has been publicized as another example of evil credit derivatives in an article, “What Hedge Funds Consider a Win Is a Disaster for Everyone Else,” by…

Author: Charles Gates In the historic conversion of the world’s financial markets away from Libor as the most widely used benchmark rate for loans and derivatives, most attention in the United States has been focused on the switch from Libor to SOFR (Secured Overnight Financing Rate). The demise of Libor,…

Author: Charles Gates At the end of this past week, headlines on the financial news pages around the United States if not the world, alerted us all to a rare and unsettling event: “Treasury Market Calls Time on Fed Hikes as Curve Finally Inverts” (Bloomberg, 3/22/19) “Stocks, Bond Yields Fall…