On its best days, the American judicial process is a blindfolded Lady Justice — prosecuting the truly guilty and exonerating the truly innocent. On its worst days, it is a Water Wiggle — whirling around unpredictably, without any apparent connection to guilt, innocence, Constitutionality or the proportionality of alleged crimes to one another.
[Read more...]Is Gold Washed Up?
January 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A stitch in time…
Okay… We have left 2011 behind. We are rid of it forever. It won’t come back. Never. Not even if the universe lasts a million years, we will never see it again.
Or will we? One of the intriguing discoveries of 2011 came the giant particle accelerator in Switzerland. Those clever scientists set up a race, from Geneva to a finish line in Italy, 730 kilometers away. It was a race of neutrinos against light. Who do you think won?
[Read more...]Incarcerate Corzine
December 9, 2011 By 1 Comment
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride, according to a 16th century British proverb.
Continuing that logic, if wishes were $1.2 billion of missing client assets at MF Global, the company’s former CEO, Jon Corzine, would not be a criminal. But alas, wishes are neither horses nor missing client funds…so beggars don’t ride and CEO’s that “misplace” $1.2 billion of client funds are criminals.
[Read more...]A Tight Grip the Excessive Debt Grenade
October 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Japan…wither thou goest…
The US and other developed countries continue to follow Japan.
The Dow rose 131 points yesterday. The 10-year note fell, to yield 1.9%.
Gold rose $25.
What to make of it?
Some reports tell us that Europe is getting close to a deal that will save Greece and other ‘Olive Country’ debtors. Maybe, but IMF chief Christine Lagarde says they have a $3 trillion hole to fill. That’s probably the one and only thing she is right about. The size of the problem is big…bigger than anyone realized.
[Read more...]Why There’s No Employment Growth in America’s Profit Centers
September 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The financial markets seem to have caught a runny nose. But at this point, it’s hard to say if it’s the runny nose that follows a mild allergic reaction or the one that precedes a life-threatening pneumonia.
Despite a chronic case of the sniffles, the stock and bond markets of the world have performed reasonably well for most of the last of the two years. Even though the financial markets are acutely allergic to most strains of credit distress, Dr. Bernanke’s “Liquidity Elixir” has provided an effective antidote so far.
[Read more...]Debt Is a Bummer
July 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Debt on one side of the ocean is little different from debt on the other. But most investors don’t seem to see it that way. Instead of learning from the tribulations of their cousins in Europe, they greet the news from the Old World with alarming complacency.
This is too bad. Because the European story tells us something important about the way a debt crisis works. And it gives us a “heads up” about what will happen on a much larger scale in America.
[Read more...]Government Spending and the Path to Money Printing
April 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Stocks down yesterday. Gold down. Oil down. Everything was down. The beginning of the end? Beats us. The Fed is still pumping in money. But investors are beginning to look beyond QE2.
If the economy really is recovering, they say to themselves, the Fed will be able to back off from money printing. Stocks, gold, commodities – everything should go down.
[Read more...]
The “Corzine-Dimon Syndrome”
On its best days, the American judicial process is a blindfolded Lady Justice — prosecuting the truly guilty and exonerating the truly innocent. On its worst days, it is a Water Wiggle — whirling around unpredictably, without any apparent connection to guilt, innocence, Constitutionality or the proportionality of alleged crimes to one another.
[Read more...]