Global Market Commentary, Analysis and Investments
[Originally published on February 6, 2009]
For the last several months, the sordid tales of greed and deception issuing from Wall Street have read like the story line from a riveting suspense thriller. But the most recent tales are so unbelievably gruesome that they resemble the story line from a documentary about Jeffrey Dahmer or John Wayne Gacy…or some other serial killer.
[Read more...]Reporting from Buenos Aires, Argentina…
“…it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…”
~ C. Dickens, 1859.
When we hear people talk about the “tale of two economies,” we expect to find them referring to the Wall Street vs. Main Street match up. An important one, to be sure. Or maybe they’re comparing the economies of two different countries or regions; one healthy, the other moribund. The “developed vs. developing” comparison, for example, is a common one. Or maybe it’s private vs. public, that raging debate between the forces of capitalistic enterprise and socialistic control. The main problem with the latter being, as history has shown, that you eventually run out of the former.
[Read more...]The single most important development affecting the global economy over the past decade has been the creation of $7 trillion worth of paper money by central banks in developing countries. This explosion of money creation drove up the price of stocks, bonds and commodities – and drove down yields – all around the planet. It caused the Fed to lose control over interest rates and over the economy. In short, this new money (along with the US trade deficit which played a role in its creation) caused the global economic bubble that imploded in 2008.
[Read more...]This had nothing to do with the so-called “Trickle Down� theory. This was “Gush Up.� In Bush/Obama economics, the richest and biggest that had lost billions through bad investments, or were in danger of going bust, had to be rescued. If the Über-Rich weren't saved, there would be nothing left to trickle down to the population below. By government decree, those taxpayers who had never felt any trickle to begin with, now had to finance the failed financiers.
[Read more...]This week, manufacturing and transportation executives met at a Reuters Summit in Chicago to discuss ongoing problems in the sector and the economy. They also reflected on the frighteningly lightening fast 1,000 point drop and rebound in the Dow that was likely caused by algorithm-driven trading.
[Read more...]President Obama is proposing a new bill to establish a permanent bailout fund. The bill proposes that this fund, run by unelected bureaucrats, will have the power to decide if banks and financial companies are in trouble and will have the authority to step in before problems become too bad.
The natural question is why the newly established fund should be any better than all the federal institutions we already have — none of which detected the last crises in time.
[Read more...]In a recent Bloomberg interview, Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone — who coined many of Goldman’s most derogatory epithets — has let loose even more scathing comments not unlike this one below from the 3:00 minute mark…
[Read more...]Unable to find a correct approach to financial regulation… because for regulation there rarely is… Congress is looking to regulate simply for the sake of doing something.
Unfortunately, combining additional, new regulation with even less strategic thinking is unlikely to diffuse the next financial meltdown.
[Read more...]Copyright © 2009 - Present · All Rights Reserved · Gold Stocks Today · Contact Us
Pinstriped Psychopaths
[Originally published on July 8, 2005]
Some psychopaths occupy a prison cell. Others occupy a corner office. Both are dangerous.
Psychopaths possess a profound lack of empathy. They use other people callously and remorselessly for their own ends. Psychopathic CEOs are no different. By advancing their own interests, with little regard for the agony they might inflict on others, they jeopardize the welfare of employees and investors alike.
[Read more...]