Global Market Commentary, Analysis and Investments
In yesterday’s edition of The Daily Reckoning we observed, “Confident citizens do not usually buy record amounts of guns and gold.” We speculated that the simultaneous booms in gold-buying and gun-buying were probably not portents of smooth sailing ahead.
Both purchases, in their own way, are extreme responses to “everyday life.” Beaver Cleaver never bought a Colt 45. Ozzie and Harriet never stashed gold under their mattress.
[Read more...]Nothing special happened on Friday. The Dow lost 21 points. Gold gained 7, to bring it back over $1,200.
Here at The Daily Reckoning our annoying forecast is that gold will fall. So will stocks.
It's annoying because 1) both have been going up…and 2) we still think you should go with gold anyway.
[Read more...]Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheeps clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them.
The Nazarene borrows from Aesops fable, as relayed in the Gospel of Matthew (7:15-16)
Its a strange freedom indeed when the cost of attainment is freedom itself.
[Read more...]Shorting US Treasuries is a slam-dunk trade if ever there was one, our friend Paul Van Eeden wrote not long ago. I agree.
Treasury yields have been going down along the entire yield curve since 1983. This trend reached a crescendo during the crisis of 2008, when 10-year Treasury yields plunged to 2% and 90-day T-bills paid negative yields.
[Read more...]Deficits are a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, the cabin doors, covered in Foreclosure signs, followed by bailed-out bankers and incumbent Senators, begging every lowly taxpayer for alms.
Thus, we present a modest proposal: The American worker and investor has done so poorly over the last 10 years not because of easy money and rabid government spending…but because there actually wasnt enough of either.
[Read more...]At his popular New York Times blog, Paul Krugman is at it again, offering a very misleading analysis of deficit spending. Without technically lying, Krugman perpetuates the myth that Herbert Hoover insisted on budget austerity in the midst of the Great Depression. Then Krugman interprets a chart with adjectives that show his eyes can only see what his Keynesian theory will allow.
[Read more...]Here in Laguna Beach today, it feels like summer. Gentle ocean breezes struggle to keep the mercury below 80 degrees, as beachgoers of all ages struggle to avoid sunburn while basking in the sun.
The conditions on Wall Street are not so different. Freakishly pleasant trading action is luring investors into a stock market that seems inviting and serene. For more than a year, investors have been basking in the comfort of steady capital gains. The trick, of course, is to avoid getting burned.
[Read more...]Our little bull market is one year old today. Yep, thats right, just one year ago our little cherub came into the world… And my how it has grown!
Since touching a 12-year low on March 9, 2009, the Dow has bounced more than 61%. Over the same timeframe, the S&P 500 has soared 72% and the NASDAQ has jumped 84%. These eye-popping numbers could lead one to believe that all is right with the world…or at least that all is much better than it was one year ago.
[Read more...]Copyright © 2012 · Church Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in
Greece Gets Next Round of Bailouts
The euro (EUR) was removed from the boiling water this weekend, as the next phase of the bailout for Greece was approved… The reaction of the euro has been somewhat muted though, as most of the markets, being Pfennig readers, already saw the baby steps of stabilization going on, and priced in an approval… The euro has moved higher than 1.32 this morning, but, like I said, the move has been somewhat muted…
[Read more...]