Spiegel Online (Germany) – Profiteering: Crisis Has Saved Germany 40 Billion Euros Germany has profited from the euro crisis to the tune of 41 billion euros in reduced interest payments. Strong demand for its debt has cut yields and made it cheaper for Germany to borrow. Meanwhile, the crisis has only cost Germany a mere… Continue reading Germany Wins!
The Wall Street Journal – Seth Lipsky: Ben Bernanke’s Anger and the AIG Case The Federal Reserve took over the company and wiped out the shareholders. Was this legal? Or even constitutional? Sometime in the next few weeks—if Judge Thomas Wheeler of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims gets his way—Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke… Continue reading Will Ben Have To Talk?
Bloomberg.com – David J. Lynch: Obama Focuses on Risk of New Bubble Undermining Broad Recovery President Barack Obama, who took office amid the collapse of the last financial bubble, wants to make sure his economic recovery doesn’t generate the next one. Obama this month spoke four times in five days of the need to avoid… Continue reading Obama’s Worry About Artificial Bubbles Continues
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Comment On Friday Jim was on Bloomberg TV with Anthony Crescenzi, a portfolio manager at Pacific Investment Management Co. and Peter Tchir, founder of TF Market Advisors, talking about the outlook for Europe’s economy and their investment strategies. In the discussion Jim was not ready to call the recession in Europe over and says it… Continue reading Time To Invest In Europe?
Comment Below is this week’s list of legal challenges for JP Morgan: The New York Times – Hiring in China By JPMorgan Under Scrutiny Federal authorities have opened a bribery investigation into whether JPMorgan Chase hired the children of powerful Chinese officials to help the bank win lucrative business in the booming nation, according to… Continue reading JP Morgan’s Billions In Fines and Legal Costs, Weekly Update
Zero Hedge – Larry Summers’ Fed Chair Odds Surge Again, Cross 70%; Yellen In The Dust Guess what comes next in the numbered sequence: 30.0%, 60.0%, 66.666%? If you said 71.4%, or 2/5, which just happens to be Larry Summers’ latest Fed Chairmanship odds according to Paddy Power, you are correct. Janet Yellen, who was… Continue reading Will Summers Get The Job? Is He Hurting The Bond Market?
Barron’s – Randall W. Forsyth: Ben’s Ultimate Driving Machine The possibility of less quantitative easing sends the market off the high road. That the equity market shudders on the prospect of a taper—beginning possibly as soon as the Sept. 17-18 meeting of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee—isn’t surprising. Wilshire Associates reckons that a cool… Continue reading September Taper Coming?
<Click on chart for larger image> CNBC – Jeff Cox: Can ETFs really cause the next stock market crash? Those exchange-traded funds that use leverage to double and triple returns on stock market moves could cause the next big market crash, according to the Federal Reserve. A paper called “Are Leveraged and Inverse ETFs the… Continue reading ETFs
Reuters – U.S. asks reversal of ruling Bernanke must testify in AIG lawsuit The U.S. Justice Department on Friday asked an appeals court to reverse a judge’s ruling last month that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke must testify in a lawsuit about American International Group Inc’s (AIG.N) 2008 bailout. Bernanke cannot be forced to sit… Continue reading Preventing Ben From Talking
The Financial Times – Risk on/risk off correlations are fading fast But there has been a barrage of recent evidence that markets may be entering a new and more complicated era, where large asset classes no longer move predictably in lock-step depending on the prevailing mood of optimism or pessimism over the global economy. In… Continue reading Correlations
MarketWatch – Mark Hulbert: Stocks as overvalued now as at 2007 high Valuation model with good record flashing “sell” Here’s yet another reason to be worried about the stock market: A valuation model with an impressive record says that stocks are as overvalued today as they were at the 2007 stock market peak. he model… Continue reading Stock Market Valuation