Global Market Commentary, Analysis and Investments
Sign of the Times, Part 1: Federal bailout spending now exceeds the inflation-adjusted cost of World War II, according to our friends at the Independent Institute.
Senior Fellow William Shugart says World War II cost $3.6 trillion, but the bailouts now top $4 trillion. That’s actual money out of the taxpayer’s pocket, as opposed to the $12.8 trillion “lent, spent or guaranteed� figure you run across from time to time, a chunk of which might eventually be repaid.
[Read more...]As the Labor Day holiday ended, so did the stock market’s holiday from underlying economic trends. Last week, the stock market was all about “better than expected.� On the first day this new week, however, the market was all about “worse than hoped.�
Last week, for example, the stock market celebrated a loss of 54,000 jobs in August because the private sector added 67,000 jobs. Interpretation: the private sector is recovering. Earlier in the week, some “better than expected� reports on manufacturing and consumer sentiment inspired investors to add a few hundred points to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
[Read more...]Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be…
Simple words of wisdom – let it be
The Dow lost 107 points on its first day of trading after Labor Day. Gold rose to within $3 of its all-time high.
What do you make of it, dear reader?
Watch the bonds… We could be seeing the first crack in the bond market. But it seems too early to us. It seems more likely that the bond market will stretch this out…bringing more and more hapless investors on board before finally sinking.
[Read more...]I was surprised when Mike Burk of Alpha Investment Management wrote that “Some of the NYSE breadth indicators look pretty good, but that is from strength in fixed income which makes up about half of the issues traded on the NYSE. Fixed income looks like a bubble.�
Well, being an admittedly stupid guy who just wants effortless and instantaneous satisfaction of every desire, I am, as such, not really into the “nuts and bolts� of things.
[Read more...]You just can’t keep a good economy down. At least, that’s what you think upon reading the headlines this weekend.
“Fears of double-dip recession recede,� was the headline in The Financial Times.
Why the receding fear?
The private sector created 235,000 new jobs in the past three months, the paper explained.
[Read more...]Just two business days after our post titled “The War on Small Business,� The Washington Post publishes an article headlined, “Small Businesses Feel Squeezed by Obama Policies.�
[Read more...]“I think Marx was basically right. History is largely a class struggle,� said another friend last night.
“Back in the 18th century, people wondered how society could function without divinely-appointed kings to hold things together. But then came the American Revolution and the French Revolution…and then they booted out Napoleon…and turned kings and queens into celebrities. The ruling classes realized they had to find a way to keep a lid on the public.
[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.
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Burning the Economic Toast
Even though I have been drinking so that my speech is slurred after testing some crazy idea that I could drink away my utter horror at the death and dying of the US dollar and economy, history is, on the other hand, being made crystal clear that when a country is so idiotic as to ignore its own Constitutional requirement that money be only made of silver and gold (so as to prevent its over-issuance and thus prevent inflation, The Worst Of All Evils (TWOAE)), and then to compound that stupidity and perfidy by unbelievable over-production of the ridiculously-preferred fiat currency by the foul Federal Reserve mindlessly printing too, too much of it, for too, too long, distorting the economy into an ugly, cancerous, government-centric abomination, that country and its currency are soon toast, which is an unfortunate metaphor because I like toast.
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