Search

Newsclips

Learning From Economists’ Bad Predictions

August 22, 2013

Bloomberg.com – Economists Need to Admit When They’re Wrong Several years ago, most people took the financial catastrophe of 2008 as definitive proof of profound errors in economic thinking. Some academic economists even lamented the discipline’s failure. After three decades of exuberant celebration of the wonderful efficiency and inherent stability of modern markets, all supposedly… Continue reading Learning From Economists’ Bad Predictions

Newsclips

Inflation As A Cure-All

August 22, 2013

Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: Ivory Tower Types Fall for Bigger Inflation Fix Folks who have a vivid recollection of the Great Inflation of the 1970s must wonder why anyone would wish even a trace of that upon future generations. Yet that seems to be the risk some economists are willing to take. The idea that… Continue reading Inflation As A Cure-All

---

Newsclips

Earnings

August 22, 2013

MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – Could Corporate Earnings Be Near a Peak? Is corporate America about to suffer a serious squeeze? Wall Street is far from discounting a significant earnings reversal but some of the equity market’s recent wobbly performance might reflect a touch of nervousness. And there are reasons to believe that corporate profits will… Continue reading Earnings

Newsclips

Goldman’s Mini Flash Crash

August 22, 2013

Bloomberg.com – Options Market Suffers Biggest Disruption Since April When Scott Maidel of Russell Investments answered the phone 20 minutes after the start of U.S. equity trading on Aug. 20, there was a Goldman Sachs (GS) Group Inc. employee on the line with a request: stop sending orders for stock options. Confusion was sweeping trading… Continue reading Goldman’s Mini Flash Crash

---

Newsclips

Cartoons

August 22, 2013

The “alternative” FOMC minutes word cloud

Charts of the Week

Charts of the Week

August 21, 2013

Charts of the Week Topics Covered This Week Include: Do Mortgage Rates Matter To Existing Home Sales? Weekly Mutual Fund Flows Update, Bond To Cash Continues Bonds Do Collapse During Bull Markets Stock Market Correlations – Has The Stock Picker’s Market Returned? How The Fed Changed Forecasting The Stock Market Who Sold In June?  The… Continue reading Charts of the Week

---

Newsclips

Stock Market Correlations – Has The Stock Picker’s Market Returned?

August 21, 2013

MoneyShow.com – The Good News About Correlation At this time of the year in 2011 and 2012, the next-nearest CBOE implied correlation indexes were quoted at 68.17 and 72.96. Those numbers don’t mean much intuitively, but in 2007 and 2008, the mean value of the January 2009 index was 49. Just as traders often think… Continue reading Stock Market Correlations – Has The Stock Picker’s Market Returned?

Newsclips

The FOMC Minutes Will Be Released Today

August 21, 2013

<Click on chart for larger image> MoneyBeat – Fed May Be More Cautious on Tapering Paying too much attention to the minutes of July’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting, to be released well after Europe’s markets have closed Wednesday, could be a mistake. Instead of rising on expectations that the minutes will hint at the… Continue reading The FOMC Minutes Will Be Released Today

---

Newsclips

Uncertainty In The Markets

August 21, 2013

The Financial Times – Mohamed El-Erian:Prepare now for tricky times ahead Don’t wait for autumn to reposition portfolios as uncertainty will trigger volatility August is usually considered a bad month for implementing major changes to investment strategies. With so many traders on holiday and with volumes at seasonally subdued levels, liquidity can be quite patchy.… Continue reading Uncertainty In The Markets

Newsclips

Today’s Installment In The Yellen/Summers Death-Match

August 21, 2013

The Washington Post – Neil Irwin:  Why the White House is uneasy with picking Janet Yellen as Fed chair So what does that have to do with how Obama’s advisers might view her? They are big on the team player concept, people diving in together to sort through the hard and messy challenges they face.… Continue reading Today’s Installment In The Yellen/Summers Death-Match

---

Newsclips

The Federal Reserve And The Sub-Par Job Market

August 21, 2013

The Financial Times – Why has the Fed given up on America’s unemployed? The costs of pushing a bit too far to cut the number without a job are small, says Adam Posen Complaints about public officials’ short time horizons are well rehearsed: the gripe is usually that too many activist policies result from pandering… Continue reading The Federal Reserve And The Sub-Par Job Market

Newsclips

Leveraged ETFs

August 21, 2013

MoneyBeat – Leveraged ETFs, the Flash Crash, and 1987 Leveraged ETFs date back only to 2006, and have only about $20 billion in total assets. The key here, though, is what’s called rebalancing, which these funds typically do on a daily basis. Because these funds promise a certain multiple over the underlying exchange it’s tracking,… Continue reading Leveraged ETFs