Deformations On The Dealer Lots: How The Fed’s ZIRP Is Fueling The Next Subprime Bust
On any given day, Janet Yellen is busy squinting at 19 essentially meaningless labor market graphs on her “dashboard” looking for evidence that ZIRP is working. Well, after 71 months of zero money market rates—-an unprecedented financial absurdity—-there are plenty of footprints dotting the financial landscape. But they have nothing to do with sustainable jobs. Instead, ZIRP has fueled […]
Market Commentary: FOMC Minutes Lack Inspiration, Major Averages Remain In Red
Written by Gary Afternoon trading was, again, more or less sideways and within a narrow zone except for the FOMC minutes release. The averages went up fractionally, then down and finally back up to where they were prior to the report. All in all, the minutes were somewhat of a washout relative to market expectations By […]
SP 500 And NDX Futures Daily Charts – Trust Us
Stocks were under pressure much of the day. There were more technical than fundamental reasons for the trades. Stocks are at a key juncture. The behavior of the Fed may be looked at by future historians as so bad as to be incompetent, rather than notorious, in the manner of the ‘Greenspan defense.’ After all, these […]
FOMC Minutes: Centrists Remain In Control
The FOMC minutes were not very surprising. The FOMC is not in any hurry to raise interest rates before the middle of next year at the earliest. The FOMC statement did not drop the “considerable period” phraseology to describe the time between the end of QE and the first rate hike. However, the minutes show […]
WSJ Reports: Bank Of North Dakota Outperforms Wall Street
While 49 state treasuries were submerged in red ink after the 2008 financial crash, one state’s bank outperformed all others and actually launched an economy-shifting new industry. So reports the Wall Street Journal this week, discussing the Bank of North Dakota (BND) and its striking success in the midst of a national financial collapse led by […]
E Merrimack Receives Fast Track For Pancreatic Cancer Drug
Merrimack Pharmaceuticals (MACK) reported news today that the company had received FDA Fast Track Status for its its investigational drug for Pancreatic cancer which it calls MM-398. When the FDA grants Fast Track Status it allows the company to submit parts of the NDA (New Drug Application) for approval in stages. This allows more frequent […]
Gold’s Rise Will Take A Rocket, Not The Stairs
Kitco News spoke with Peter Schiff at the Grand Cayman Liberty Forum about the gold market. They covered the gamut, from the economic fundamentals for gold’s next price rise to the Swiss gold referendum at the end of the month. Here are a few of Peter’s answers transcribed: “If [the ECB is] going to buy […]
E Bad IR Opportunities
This blog is late because of too many conference calls, but at least most of the news was good. My round-the-world summary in Monday was mostly gloomy. The problems of at least two of our shares turn out to be related to poor handling of news by their executives. While US company brass get early […]
The No. 1 Reason To Own Some Gold
Source: Wikimedia Dear Diary, Want to know the secret of success in today’s civilized world? Be civilized. More on that in one moment… First, we note that the Dow hit a new record high yesterday of 17,688, after rising 40 points. And gold is just a buck shy of the $1,200-an-ounce mark. It appears to have […]
Interview: Is The Economy Really Doing Better
In a recent interview with my friend Tom Zizka at Fox26 News, we discussed the recent election and the view by voters that the economy may not be as strong as statistical headlines suggest. During the interview Tom references a post I wrote discussing these divergences between the data and voter sentiment. “The dichotomy between the statistical […]
