Global Market Commentary, Analysis and Investments
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...]We’ve covered a lot of ground over the past few months. Not much action in the markets yesterday, so let’s stop here and take stock.
What we know so far…
First, it was clear from the get-go that there was a bubble in finance and housing. The only people who couldn’t see it were the people in finance and housing…and the feds. It reached its peak in ’05-’07…then, exploded.
[Read more...]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...]Tutto va bene…
That was what the crew told passengers on the Costa Concordia just before it sank.
And it was what the crew of the USS America — the biggest cruise ship of all — were telling passengers last week.
Tutto va bene.
Trouble was, tutto was not going as bene as they claimed. Instead, the ship is sinking.
[Read more...]We have a wintry landscape here in Baltimore…or what is left of one. But forget the weather, happy days are here again.
At least, that is what you might think from reading the newspapers. Unemployment is going down. Consumer debt is going up. Even the housing market is showing signs of improvement.
[Read more...]We went around the world last week. We wish we could say we learned something. But modern travel has been standardized…and culture and technology have been “globalized”…so that the more you travel the more you feel you never left home.
“How was your trip around the world?” asked our assistant when we got back in the office in Baltimore.
[Read more...]There is a rumor — which we started ourselves — that Captain Francesco Schettino of the Costa Concordia has been invited to join the Federal Reserve.
Obviously, in view of the recently released minutes of its meetings in 2006, the Italian ship’s captain and the Fed are meant for each other. Both are prone to error, cowardice and confusion.
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Who’s Still OK With Deficit Spending Now?
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.
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