The great turnaround of 2010
Today is a huge day for this country. Not only did the GOP take back a pivotal seat, but the markets are reacting fiercely and appropriately to a horde of economic data. The possibilities from here are unlimited.
Oddly, the action reminds me of my first few days as a fishing guide. There I was, a typical East Coast grad student with a vision and not much of a plan.
As I dropped my bags on the dock outside the state’s southernmost airport, I used the change in my pocket to dial my only contact in the 49th state. She did not answer. In fact her phone was disconnected.
Great… 4,000 miles from home and stranded in the rain.
I must have looked…
Who is telling the truth about China?
Baltimore — Who do you trust more, the Chinese government or the politically connected folks at the helm of Goldman Sachs?
For years, the Street has looked at any Chinese economic data with a weary eye. Without the checks and balances of a democratic government, Beijing had plenty of reasons to manipulate its growth figures.
Even though all signs point to a strong, stimulus-fueled recovery, most pundits refuse to believe the country’s tales of double-digit GDP growth.
But the folks at Goldman Sachs are taking the disbelief in a different direction. According to reports from the banking behemoth’s analysts, China likely grew by 13.1% last month.
It is a bold claim in a year when Chinese officials estimate domestic growth of a much more…
What’s stickier than a fat kid’s lunch box?
By Andrew Snyder, TodaysFinancialNews.com
Baltimore — (TFN): There is no doubt the purchase of a home is the most important investment of your life. Sure, your retirement portfolio will likely grow to eclipse the value of the house, but no other singular entitiy’s value, or the preservation thereof, is so vital to our financial wellbeing.
I had plenty of time to ponder the notion over the holiday weekend as I dealt with an unstoppable flow of water seeping into my 110-year-old basement. When my home was erected so many generations ago, its first owners were obviously ignorant to the spring that lay below or they simply had better things to worry about.
All that matters now is the temperamental water source is…
Stimulus 2.0: Give a Penny, Take a Penny
Get ready for Stimulus Version 2.0. With unemployment in double-digit territory, credit still tight and consumers refusing to part with their cash, it’s obvious Washington’s first bailout did nothing but put the nation even further in debt and give China an even larger stake of the country’s financial future.
Stimulus 2.0: Give a penny, take a penny
By Andrew Snyder, TodaysFinancialNews.com
Baltimore – (TFN): Get ready for Stimulus Version 2.0. With unemployment in double-digit territory, credit still tight and consumers refusing to part with their cash, it’s obvious Washington’s first bailout did nothing but put the nation even further in debt and give China an even larger stake of the country’s financial future.
Instead of stepping back and searching for a viable solution (if there is any), Obama is jumping right back into the stimulus game.
But of course, the word stimulus is nowhere to be found. This is a jobs program.
Sure, it contains another $50 billion for roads, bridges and water projects… just like the first version.
Sure, green energy and “weatherization” is a strategic focus… just like the first…
I’m not a sissy. Are you a sissy?
Baltimore — (TFN): It’s like pulling off a Band-Aid. We can do it quick and get the pain over with, or we can torture ourselves with slow, steady, hair-ripping pulls that make us want to gouge our eyes out in pain.
Since I first scraped my knee chasing the neighbor’s cat across the street dozens of years ago, I have been a fan of the get-it-over-fast strategy. Rip the stitches, dry the tears and move on. Dilly-dallying is for sissies and I’m no sissy.
But the nitwits in Washington beg to differ.
After the first round of trillion-dollar stimulus failed to ignite anything but tempers, Congress is hitting us with a slow, but steady stream of economy-boosting spending. They won’t call it…
What’s better than gold? Anything!
Baltimore — (TFN): One good thing about kids is they are predictable. Give them five bucks and say they’ve got just one hour to spend it or it goes into their savings account and can bet another five bucks the cash will be spent by minute 59.
It’s the same way for politicians. Give them some cash and they’ll have it spent in no time flat, even if they can’t find anything worth buying.
Take, for example, the infamous Troubled Asset Relief Program, TARP in informal nomenclature. Passing the $700 billion program was a matter of financial and economic life and death according to Washington.
They gave us the same panicky “must-have” arguments as a six-year-old in the toy aisle.
But once they got…
When will the depression be over? When the work is done.
Bill Bonner, venerable voice of reason (with a touch of doom), at The Daily Recokoning, looks long term at gold, the markets, and the end of the depression.
The end of efficient markets
Baltimore — (TFN): How efficient are the markets? It is like asking how smart is the human race We all know the answer, but few of us are willing to suck in our pride and admit there are a few dim bulbs among us.
Judging by the sudden rise in fame of Levi Johnson or Balloon Boy’s antics, the human brain is far feebler than we give credit.
And so are the markets.
If you have taken a basic finance class anytime between 1965 and the present, you have likely studied Eugene Fama and his efficient market hypothesis.
Essentially, the University of Chicago professor created a cult-like following of investors and academicians that believe markets entirely reflect all known information and instantly react to…
Oops, Did I Say That Out Loud?
A Wild and Wacky Wednesday…FOMC leave stimulus and QE in place…Will G-20 try to throw cold water on commodities? GATA receives a letter from the Fed…And Now… Today’s Pfennig
Good day… And a Thunderin’ Thursday to you! It’s Thundering and raining here, so I felt that naming today a “Thunderin’ Thursday” was bang on! We had a wild and wacky Wednesday yesterday, with the Fed Heads playing the part of the court jester… And… I want to know, right here, right now, why the media isn’t blasting Fed Head Honcho Big Ben Bernanke! I’ll tell you why they should be, in a minute…
OK… As I said, we had a wild and wacky Wednesday yesterday, as the non-dollar currencies went for a…
FOMC Week…
The dollar pushes back! FOMC plays battleship? Norges Bank meets this week…Precious metals give back too…And Now… Today’s Pfennig!
Good day… And a Marvelous Monday to you! Here we go… Starting a new week all over again… I have a blank page to start each day, and then 2 hours later… The Fabulous Pfennig! A work of art, I must say! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Well… Recall on Friday, I said that the non-dollar currencies would probably just follow whatever the stocks did, since the data cupboard was empty? Well, the non-dollar currencies didn’t even follow that theme, as stocks pretty much wallowed around in the mud all day… The dollar began to push back at the gains the other currencies had made during the…
7 Economic Mega-Trends that Affect Your Future
Our trip to Paris served as a brief distraction from the “good news” chatter that MSM floods us with. “Global confidence index holds at record high as signs recession has ended,” reads Bloomberg. Yesterday, Chairman Ben indicated that the recession is over, sending stocks and commodities higher.
And Warren Buffett came out saying he’s buying equities again. All the while, the dollar is sitting at an 11 month low, and gold touched $1006 this morning.
As I perused the underground, I came across a piece by Jeff Harding of the Daily Capitalist that I had to share. He begins by asking, “how has the playing field for our economy changed and how will those changes affect our future? The answer to these…
Pay attention to stimulating conversation
President Obama’s tough-love speech to Wall Street on Monday underlined the increasing importance of government’s role in the markets over the coming years. Whether you call it state capitalism, socialism or some other epithet, investors ha…