The Atlantic – Gold Was a Horrible Investment from 1500 to 1965 Why has gold been such an abysmal investment, if you can even call it that? Well, gold doesn’t have any earnings; it doesn’t pay out any dividends; and it costs money to store. As Paul Krugman points out, it’s only worth piling money… Continue reading The History Of Gold
The Wall Street Journal – U.S. Overtakes China For the first time since 2001, the U.S. knocked China out of first place in an annual survey of executives rating favorable places for foreign direct investment. The U.S. narrowly outscored China in the survey by consulting firm A.T. Kearney of executives from 302 companies world-wide. China… Continue reading Invest In America!
<Click on chart for larger image> MarketWatch.com – Worst is yet to come Commentary: There is still too much bullishness Bad news: The bottom of the decline that began one month ago has not yet been seen. That, at least, is the conclusion that emerges from a contrarian analysis of stock market sentiment. Simply put:… Continue reading Still Too Much Bullishness For This To Be The Bottom
The Onion (satire) – Markets In Turmoil As Price Of Money Skyrockets To $90 A Dollar After fluctuating wildly this morning between $1 and $35, the price of money spiked to an unprecedented $90 a dollar in afternoon trading, plunging international financial markets into chaos. “Wall Street erupted into absolute pandemonium once the price of… Continue reading The Price Of Money Skyrockets!
Money Boo Boo The Daily Show with Jon StewartGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook The Daily Show with Jon StewartGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook
The Financial Times – Fed fights back against ‘feral hogs’ A top US central banker on Monday warned the “feral hogs” of financial markets against trying to force the Federal Reserve to shelve plans to slow its bond buying, as yields on US Treasuries climbed to their highest level since August 2011. Richard Fisher, president… Continue reading The Federal Reserve Speaks
The Telegraph (UK) – The Bernanke Fed is playing with deflationary fire I hope the Fed knows what it is doing. It has chosen to tighten monetary policy even though core PCE inflation is actually lower right now than it was when the Fed previously thought it dangerous enough to launch further QE. America is… Continue reading The Federal Reserve And Deflation
Bloomberg.com – Walking Back Bernanke Wished on Too Much Information: Currencies Fed officials have said that greater public understanding renders their actions more potent because the economy is affected by expectations about future policy. The central bank introduced a 2 percent inflation goal and started holding press conferences after every other meeting of the Federal… Continue reading What Was Bernanke Thinking?
Reuters.com – Cash hard to raise as Fed jars credit markets Prospective borrowers ranging from U.S. companies to county governments on Monday shelved a raft of deals to raise new capital or refinance debt as a suddenly uncertain interest rate environment dented demand. In the municipal bond market, half a dozen deals aimed at raising… Continue reading Credit Markets
The New York Times – Exit From the Bond Market Is Turning Into a Stampede Wall Street never thought it would be this bad. Over the last two months, and particularly over the last two weeks, investors have been exiting their bond investments with unexpected ferocity, moves that continued through Monday. A bond sell-off has… Continue reading Bond Hate
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – PBoC in fresh bid to calm Chinese markets China’s central bank has pledged to guide interest rates to a “reasonable range”, giving rattled investors hope the country’s cash crunch could be nearing an end. The central bank had taken a hard line in its statement,… Continue reading PBoC Tries To Calm Chinese Markets
The Wall Street Journal – Some Unemployed Keep Losing Ground The trouble is that the pace is still far too slow to fill quickly the huge hole created by the recession. Even if the rate of hiring doubled, it would take more than three years to get employment back to its prerecession level, after adjusting… Continue reading The Job Market Is Recovering Too Slowly