I had to laugh yesterday when the New York traders came in and didn’t sell the currencies right away… I said to myself, “Self, maybe the ‘big boys’ read the Pfennig and now know that I’ve uncovered their ‘game,’ so they have to lay low for a while!” HA! Whatever the case, the currencies held their gains most of the day, and even added on in some cases.
[Read more...]Creating More Debt to Solve the Crisis
February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Readers who expect an early end to this Great Correction are going to be disappointed. There is no sign of it reaching its conclusion anytime soon. Just the contrary…there’s no end in sight.
The Great Correction seems to be going along just as you’d expect. Or, just as we’d expect.
[Read more...]Goldman Sachs is Probably Not a “Buy”
January 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“I don’t know much about the stock market,” says Matt Taibbi, the witty critic of Goldman Sachs and other financial atrocities, “but when the O’Neills of the world start telling me what a great investment opportunity the American stock market is, I start getting the urge to buy canned food.”
[Read more...]Trends that Won’t End
January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
U.S. taxpayers have lost $133 billion from TARP — the abominable acronym inflicted on us by former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson — a new report out this morning shows.
We begin another week pulled in two directions: In one direction lie unresolved failures in policy… and the mayhem it has wrought in the financial system. In the other lie breakthroughs in energy and biotechnology.
[Read more...]How Ben Bernanke Rationalizes “Exceptionally Low” Interest Rates
January 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Anything happen in the markets yesterday? To tell the truth, we forgot to check. Let’s have a look now, then…
Dow up by 80-something points. A barrel of the world’s currently-preferred energy sits pretty at $100, on the nose. Nothing much, in other words.
Ooh…but here’s something: “Gold extends post-Fed rally to 6-week high.” MarketWatch has the story…
[Read more...]Gentlemen, Start Your Printing Presses!
January 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Whoops!…Oh dear!…It looks like Ben fell off the wagon again!
Such a shame. He had been doing so well ever since he put that bottle of “Old Q.E.” back on the shelf last June… and got sober. But a few weeks back, he tripped up on his 12-step program and started nipping at the bottle again. Slowly at first… then to excess.
[Read more...]Of Bankers and Ship Captains
January 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Will no one rise to the defense of Captain Francesco Schettino? No? Then we will!
The poor man is calumnied as a pusillanimous incompetent. Just because he hit a rock. Heck, anyone with a ship that big could hit a rock. And the rock wasn’t s’posed to be there!
This incompetence charge is completely baseless. He had even tested almost the exact same route under almost the exact same conditions back in August. He sailed through the straits without a scratch. It was perfectly reasonable for him to conclude that the passage was safe. Perhaps someone put the rock there, just to catch him out.
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Banking on Your Phone
America has lagged behind much of the world in terms of digital wallets. Elsewhere, people routinely use phones instead of credit cards. There are several reasons for this.
Partly, it is because North America saw mobile phones so early. When other regions finally rolled out mobile phones, infrastructures were more modern. The larger reason, however, is that there is so much at stake.
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