Since we spoke last Monday, how has your life changed? If it hasn’t changed, what did you do different to make it change? It can be as simple as reading a self-help book. US Debt and Iceland The USA has the rare privilege of holding the world’s reserve currency. If investors don’t buy all the [...]
A few issues back I wrote to you about “chaos-stan”, referring to the area of the world that is in turmoil today, and the area that we should be paying particularly close attention to. My number one concern was Pakistan, a nuclear nation that is not friendly to the US and its interests. It should [...]
Global interest rates are rising in anticipation of inflationary pressures ahead. There are two major non-participants in this story. The first is Japan, which is adding liquidity to counter the economic devastation in the wake of last month’s earthquake/tsunami/nuclear event. Strong aftershocks are still occurring and the nuclear situation is far from being contained. The [...]
The news has been dominated by events in Egypt where the populous is trying to oust strongman Hosni Mubarak. This follows the ouster of Tunisian strongman Ben Ali. It’s wonderful to see these regimes topple. But, it’s not so good for the US or Europe. While Cairo burns, oil prices move higher, and security fears [...]
The big drama last week was the tax deal. Looks like we have another two years of the same tax regime. The markets should have rallied sharply on the news, but they didn’t. As with most “sure things” the market had already priced in the high probability of the status quo continuing. All major indices [...]
Spreading Some Market Cheer I hope that you all enjoyed your holidays. Apparently you were in a good mood if the latest retail sales numbers are accurate. Of course the comparisons were to rather dismal numbers last year and even more dismal numbers from the year before. But, what is encouraging is the trend. And, [...]
There is a disturbing trend developing. As the US Dollar craters against so many currencies around the world, and as US economic, fiscal and monetary policy has completely unclear consequences; the US Government is embarking on a stronger and stronger campaign to limit your financial rights. **Sponsor** Did The Government Really Do This? How would [...]
Omaha Beach that is. I just returned from a trip to France. On the flight over I sat next to a veteran of the Omaha Beach War. He was stationed in Germany at the time. We got to talking and he laid bare his views about where he though the US was headed. It’s a [...]
The last quarter ended with a whimper. Stock indices had their worst quarter in four years and the worst August since 2001. Despite the rally last week where we saw the indices tack on 2.5% in one day, it’s been a miserable year for stocks. Gold on the other hand is approaching news lifetime highs [...]
Was it really a surprise that the US Federal Reserve decided to pursue a course of greater easing of monetary supply at its meeting last week? The market certainly was caught by surprise, which in itself is surprising considering that nothing the Fed does these days is really a surprise to begin with. Bernanke, the [...]
That is a question that has been floating around for a few weeks now. Are we headed for the same type of deflationary cycle that has gripped Japan for more than 20 years now? I certainly hope not and I don’t think we are. But, we may suffer a mini Japan before this is all [...]
There may not be too many lines as famous as that one uttered by RNC Chairman Michael Steele and made even more famous by Sarah Palin during her debates with Joe Biden, US Vice President. That line will become even more famous should Palin throw her name in the ring for the 2012 Presidential campaign. [...]
The 10-year Treasury bond hovered around 4% recently, and the 30-year bond is trading within a couple-dozen basis points of 5%. What inflation? A year ago, people were flocking to the safety of negative returns on short term paper to get out of the stock market. Worse, many locked themselves into 10 and 30-year bonds [...]
