Subsidizing Higher Education Is Not Creating Widespread External Benefits

The 'Blame Game' In Private Credit Begins Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance This morning I warned (again) this wasn’t a normal market in private credit. It was a liquidity event. And today it’s becoming something else too. According to the Financial Times, the SEC is now questioning whether Egan-Jones, a small but deeply embedded credit rating agency in private credit, can “consistently produce credit ratings with integrity.” That’s not a routine inquiry. That’s the regulator openly wondering whether one of the key cogs in the machine was ever doing its job properly in the first place....

Futures Drop As Oil, Yields Rise On Relentless War Headline Ping-Pong Futures are lower but well off session lows, as overnight headlines induced another bout of aggressive choppiness: those headlines include strikes on Iranian gas facilities, Saudi and UAE considering entering the war, Iranian lawmaker ruling out US negotiations, and then reports of Iran / Egypt discussions on the region pointing toward mediation.As of 8:00am ET, S&P futures were down 0.2%, but moves are staggered jittery and extremely illiquid, and swung earlier between gains and losses. Nasdaq futures are down...

G-7 Leaders Reject SPR Release Plan, But 'Stand Ready' After Initial Jawbone Efforts Fade Update (1055ET): G-7 finance ministers used headlines in Asia, including calls for a meeting to discuss an SPR release, as a purely performative attempt to calm chaotic energy markets. Now that the emergency meeting is over, the group of leaders failed to agree on releasing crude supplies. Those headlines briefly hit Brent down from around $119/bbl to near $100, but once again, it appears to have been little more than a circus act as world leaders stare directly...