The Financial Times – Alwaleed challenges Forbes over his billions Forbes, owned by Steve Forbes, ranks the prince as the world’s 26th richest individual, estimating in its 2013 list that his net worth had risen $2bn in the past year to $20bn. The statement from Kingdom Holding Company, the diversified investment group in which the… Continue reading Prince Alwaleed Insulted!
The Wall Street Journal – China’s Richest Man Says Capital Markets ‘Suck’ China’s richest man has a strong statement for those looking to invest: “The capital markets suck in China.” Zong Qinghou climbed his way to the top of the list of China’s wealthiest by amassing a fortune of $12.6 billion through his privately listed… Continue reading Richest Man In China: Don’t Invest In Chinese Equities
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Comment Jim Bianco was on CNBC yesterday engaged in a session of myth-busting with Rick Santelli. To view the interview, click on the image above. To view any of our recent interviews click here. CNBC – Sequester Leaves US in ‘Fantasy World’: Analysts As a deadlock continues over automatic spending cuts in the United States,… Continue reading Myth-Busting
Zero Hedge – Guest Post: Understanding Failed Policies: Wealth Effect, Wage Effect, Poverty Effect Central bankers have been counting on “the wealth effect” to lift their economies out of the post-2009 global meltdown slump. The wealth effect concept is simple: flooding the economy with credit and zero-interest money boosts the value of assets such as… Continue reading QE And The Wealth Effect
FOX Business – Proof the Fed is Juicing the Markets The backdrop here: the Federal Reserve has long been running on the racetrack of politics, a world where the closest the government will come to fiscal responsibility is former vice president Al Gore talking about a lockbox — showing the real crisis is how the… Continue reading The Federal Reserve
The Financial Times – Warning signs for US corporate bonds Could the bond boom be turning? Warning signs are flashing as investors demand higher yields even on US bonds issued by the world’s largest and safest corporate borrowers. In recent weeks, big investment grade bond issues by the likes of Philip Morris International and UnitedHealth… Continue reading Corporate Bonds
CNBC – Buffett Still Buying Stocks, Sees ‘Good Value’ Buffett has “enormous respect” for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, but thinks it will be interesting to see what happens when the Fed begins to unwind its efforts to keep interest rates very low. He said that rates near zero have pushed stocks higher than they… Continue reading Buffett Speaks
The Financial Times – Janet Yellen and the Fed’s labour market dashboard Today’s speech by Janet Yellen is a mirror of Ben Bernanke last week when it comes to the costs and risks of continued asset purchases. “At this stage, I do not see any [risks] that would cause me to advocate a curtailment of… Continue reading Yellen Discusses Federal Reserve Policy
Reuters.com – DoubleLine’s Gundlach shifts gears, now buys U.S. bonds Jeffrey Gundlach, one of the world’s leading bond fund managers, has reversed his once-bearish stance on government debt, saying he has bought “more long-term Treasuries in the last month” than in the last four years. Gundlach said he started buying benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes… Continue reading We Found The Ever Elusive Bond Bull!
Comment Last Sunday on CBS, 60 Minutes took an in-depth look at the housing bubble in China (first two videos). They also did three short web extras on Chinese housing (third, fourth and fifth videos below). CBS – 60 Minutes: Zhang Xin: China’s real estate mogul How did Zhang Xin go from working in a… Continue reading A Housing Bubble In China?
The Wall Street Journal – Michael J. Boskin: Larger Spending Cuts Would Help the Economy President Obama’s most recent prescription for economic growth—more government stimulus spending, new social programs, higher taxes on upper-income earners, subsidies for some industries and increased regulation for all of them—is likely to have the same anemic results as in his… Continue reading Spending Cuts And The U.S. Economy