As Chris was telling you (and by the way, Thanks Chris!) the past couple of days…the markets are in a mood to take it out on the dollar… But not every non-dollar asset has seen the consecutive green lights that bring one to “rally town”. For instance, this morning, the euro (EUR), is seeing some weakness as economists are marking down their previous forecasts for global growth, which would hurt German exports… Yes, the Chicken Littles are out in force, claiming the sky is falling, the sky is falling, all over the world. So, that brings the worry warts to buy dollars… Strange, eh?
[Read more...]Perpetual Investor Confidence
June 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Yesterday, the Dow rose 109 points. Gold went up $4. The 10-year US note is still trading below 3% yield and oil is still below $95.
So, what’s new? The markets seem still to be wondering…waiting…watching to see what happens – just as we are.
The Greek premier won a confidence vote in parliament. That seemed to give investors some confidence. The idea is that if the Greeks can act like they know what they’re doing, the rest of Europe can give them some more money.
[Read more...]US Consumer Confidence Plunges
March 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment
March has been a very volatile month for the currencies and commodities, including gold and silver. But, on the last day of the month, they are stronger than they were at the beginning of the month…
Front and center this morning, we saw that Eurozone inflation moved well above the European Central Bank’s (ECB) ceiling target of 2%, printing at 2.6% for March, and increase from February’s printing of 2.4%… The 2.6% inflation rate is the fastest move in inflation since October of 2008, and, for those of you keeping score at home, March’s 2.6% inflation rate marks the fourth consecutive month of inflation exceeding the ceiling target.
[Read more...]Personal Spending Outpaces Income
August 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Well, the happy morning for the commodity currencies turned sour on the day, as the risk assets all got slapped around by the markets. The risk assets went sour after the personal income/spending data printed…
Say it ain't so, Joe!
Is this a case of “here we go again??
Here's the skinny of what I'm talking about… Yesterday, personal income printed at 0.2 less than personal spending! So… Are we back to spending more than we make? I sure hope not… But, that sure seems to be the bill of fare here. I have to say that I'm not surprised that the US consumer continues to spend during the recession and labor depression that we have, for this is the main reason I've said that this will be the difference between Japan's multi-year deflation, and the US… However, I am surprised at how strong that spending is…
[Read more...]On Deleveraging, the Collapse of the Dollar and Rise of a ‘Lost Decade’
August 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The Daily Bell recently caught up with Bill Bonner while at the Agora Financial Investment Symposium in Vancouver, BC. Their exclusive interview with the Daily Reckoning founder can be found below…
[Read more...]Consumer Confidence Data Affects the Euro
July 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Yesterday morning I told you that the euro (EUR) had broken above 1.30, and I would check it to see how long it remained there… Well, this time it was more than 10 minutes, and the euro rose to 1.3040… But then the rug was pulled from under the single unit, and back below 1.30 it went… In fact, it fell to just above 1.29, before turning around once again and heading higher, eventually ending the day at 1.30.
[Read more...]US Debt Crisis Reverting to the Mean
July 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Being an economist must be the most amusing job in the world. It's a laugh a minute. So many foolish pretensions, so many claptrap theories, so much pomposity and vanity…
We used to enjoy reading Thomas L. Friedman in The New York Times. Whenever he wrote about anything even remotely connected to economics we were assured a good chuckle. But he's moved on to geo-politics. Israel this… Palestine that… It's probably just as funny, but it's not our field. The only thing we know about the subject is that it shouldn't exist.
[Read more...]Recovery Flops!
June 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment
In the reign of Emperor Zhao, in 81 BC, 60 Confucian scholars were asked to consider the effect of government meddling in the economy. The Middle Kingdom was in a fix. Mongol raiders were pressing it from the East; the government was going broke. Taking the advice of Sang Hongyang, the feds of that era had put in place various state monopolies and price controls. The result?
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Why the US Dollar is (for Now) Still in Demand
Cash is king.
Ai yi yi…
Last week was the worst for investors in 3 years. Even gold melted down, as we thought it eventually would.
The only things to go up were US Treasury debt and the dollar. As expected, the Great Correction is doing its work.
So far, the stock market has held up as well as it has. But now it seems to be selling off. And gold is selling off too.
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