Slatin: While homes (first, second or third) are an important part of portfolios, they are very different as investments than targeted asset-class investing.
The new sanctions, targeting assets of four Venezuelan governors allied with Mr. Maduro, come atop crippling American sanctions issued late last month against the state oil company, known as PDVSA, a crucial source of revenue for the Maduro government.
PLA tacticians know that a successful strike against a moving US aircraft carrier requires advanced space-based targeting assets and an ability to penetrate the US ballistic missile defence umbrella.
Interest rates of zero meant that central banks took to targeting asset prices – stocks and bonds – to boost spending.
The Bank of Japan said it would target asset purchases of 80 trillion yen a year, or $734 billion, up from a previous range of ¥60 trillion to ¥70 trillion.
This is part of the broader discussion about how monetary policy officials should target asset prices, which "can be destabilizing in themselves", as Mr Hamilton puts it.
"Each time he denies that he's targeting asset prices, he highlights the fact that equity prices are central to monetary policy at the moment," said Rory Robertson, an economist at Macquarie Bank in New York.
But the price indices targeted by the ECB and the Bank of England have no role for housing at all.Although they do not target asset prices, central banks still have to take their effects on the economy into account.
Second, the very same people who accuse the Fed of having been too loose then accuse it now of targeting asset prices, trying to boost the stock market rather than focusing on the real economy.
