Global Market Commentary, Analysis and Investments
China is falling apart.
Bond yields are falling.
Copper is sinking.
Oil is sliding.
US stocks, too, slipped all last week.
Even gold…that old stalwart friend…turned its back on us last week, closing the week at $1,585.
Oh, dear, dear reader…everything is giving way. What can we hold fast to?
[Read more...]The worst quarter for stocks since the first quarter of 2009 sent me back to the dusty archives of finance. Amid old tomes, I searched for what I might learn from the dark markets of years past.
I found a collection of articles called The Great Crash and Beyond. They date from 1979, put together on the 50th anniversary of the crash of 1929. Only a handful of years before, the market fell by half (1973-74). Inside, I find writers reflecting on the mosaic of Wall Street history and the continuity of markets across the time.
[Read more...]Wall Street did no damage yesterday. It left peoples' money where it found it…as The Street took off for Labor Day. But the financial press didn't stop…and neither did we at The Daily Reckoning.
The most amazing thing is that the people who are supposedly the most able thinkers seem unwilling to do any thinking. So many well-educated, smart economists spend their lives trying to understand what is going on. So few really seem to care.
[Read more...]It's always a little tricky to know exactly what an economic recovery looks like. But it's usually pretty easy to know what it doesn't look like…and it doesn't look anything like the chart below:
It's summertime…and the livin' is still easy here in France.
But the children are all gone. The house is quiet. Our office – usually a hive of activity when the children and their friends are here, checking email…searching for cheap tickets…or just hanging out – is as dead as a tomb. The only sign of life is the clicking of computer keys as your editor prepares his Daily Reckoning.
[Read more...]
When Cash is King: Investing with Risk on the Downside
China is falling apart.
Bond yields are falling.
Copper is sinking.
Oil is sliding.
US stocks, too, slipped all last week.
Even gold…that old stalwart friend…turned its back on us last week, closing the week at $1,585.
Oh, dear, dear reader…everything is giving way. What can we hold fast to?
[Read more...]