Category Archive: Entertainment
Antipodeans Sink, While USD Treads Water
The US dollar remains within recent ranges against the euro, yen and sterling. The antipodean currencies have been pushed lower, and that is where the movement is today. The main impetus is from a downgrade in the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s inflation expectations, and momentum players selling the Aussie on the break of $0.8600. Players […]
Global Business Confidence Collapses To Post-Lehman Lows
As we noted here, despite record high stock prices and talking-heads imploring investors to believe CEOs are confident, they are not (consider the clear indication of a lack of economic confidence from tumbling capex and soaring buybacks), That is further confirmed today as Markit’s survey of over 6000 firms showed optimism falling sharply in October, dropping to the lowest seen since […]
Avoiding Too Much Risk Can Be Dangerous
Although it may seem that you can’t go wrong if you don’t take a risk, this is not always true. Sometimes, you can end up actually losing by being too safe. The concept of risk refers to the potential loss incurred by any move that you take. Therefore, if you never take a risk, in […]
EC Are Real Estate ETF Yields Still A Bargain?
This year’s winner in the alternative investment space is—wait for it—real estate. Among exchange traded funds (ETFs) that invest in real estate investment trusts (REITs), those employing leverage have zoomed to the upside; even non-leveraged funds, cranking out more pedestrian gains, have outgunned stocks and bonds. (See Table 1.) Click on picture to enlarge REITs […]
Australian Dollar Loses Steam From Surprise China Rate Cut
One thing about a trading range is that it gives both bulls and bears a lot of trading opportunities. The latest disturbance of equilibrium in the Australian dollar (NYSEARCA:FXA) was the surprise rate cut from China’s central bank. At the time, it helped the Australian dollar surge against all major currencies. At the time of […]
Why Crony Capitalism Will Be Hard To Uproot: Interview Of David Stockman
Interview Of David Stockman By Henry Bonner at Sprott Global Ronald Reagan and David Stockman David Stockman was elected to Congress at age 29 back in 1976; he was an avid student of Austrian economics and supported a gold-backed money system and a balanced budget. He later joined the Reagan administration as Budget Chief, where […]
EU Mandarins Want To “Break Up Google” – Commissar Oettinger Strikes Again
A Fount of Bad Ideas We have previously reported on the EU’s new digital commissar Mr. Oettinger, who has recently announced he wants to make an EU case against Google a “model case” for the EU’s approach to large companies serving the inter-tubes. Naturally, the entire convocation of busybodies in Brussels is all for this bizarre […]
The Gold Price And Geopolitics
Gold remains in a tough spot. The gold price was beaten down hard this year and it fell through its 1,180 USD technical support level not too long ago. That triggered a lot of sell orders and could put further downward pressure on the yellow precious metal. Some analysts are amazed by the beating that […]
Ferguson – What Did You Expect? A Real Jury Decision? The System Is Not Designed That Way
Unfortunately, this is as expected as the Missouri grand jury decided not to indict a white police officer over the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager in August. I have explained that this need not even be racist because the grand jury system has become a joke. The government only needs to present whatever […]
Monetary Policy When The Spyglass Is Smudged: A Look At Gauging Economic Slack
by Early Elias, Helen Irvin, and Oscar Jorda – FRBSF Economic Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco An accurate measure of economic slack is key to properly calibrating monetary policy. Two traditional gauges of slack have become harder to interpret since the Great Recession: the gap between output and its potential level, and the […]
