Business Insider – ECRI Says We’re In A Recession, But They’re Own Indicators Say We’re Not ECRI posts its proprietary indicators on one-week delayed basis to the general public, but ECRI’s Lakshman Achuthan has switched focus to his company’s version of the Big Four Economic Indicators I’ve been tracking for the past several months. See, for… Continue reading ECRI Continues To Ignore Its Own Indicator
Watch The Untouchables Preview on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE. Frontline – WHY HAVE WALL STREET’S LEADERS ESCAPED PROSECUTION FOR FRAUD RELATED TO THE SALE OF TOXIC MORTGAGES? More than four years since the financial crisis, not one senior Wall Street executive has faced criminal prosecution for fraud. Are Wall Street executives “too big to… Continue reading Tonight On TV – Too Big To Jail
The Telegraph (UK) – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Revolutionary Japan is suddenly the centre of world affairs So Japan may not slide into genteel oblivion after all. To the surprise of the Japanese people, their country is smack in the middle of two riveting dramas that threaten to upturn the global strategic landscape in short order. Huge… Continue reading Japan
PR Newswire – Economists Expect 2012 Housing Momentum To Carry Into 2013 Panel of 105 Forecasters Predicts Where Case-Shiller Index Will Stand in Five Years; Majority Say Potential Changes to Mortgage Interest Deduction Will Negatively Affect High-End Home Values A nationwide panel of more than 100 professional forecasters expects home prices to rise 3.1 percent… Continue reading Housing’s Effect On GDP
Comment In the video above, Jim Grant states a very non-consensus view that the debt ceiling should be lowered (by a symbolic $1). Jim argues that there needs to be a check on government borrowing and since the U.S dollar is a fiat currency (back by nothing other than the promise of the U.S. government),… Continue reading What Purpose Does The Debt Ceiling Serve?
Reuters – Analysis: Preparing for the unthinkable: Could markets handle a U.S. default? Squabbling in Washington over the debt ceiling is again raising the specter that the United States may be forced to delay payments on its debt. While the stigma of a default would be damaging enough to investor sentiment, the chaos from a… Continue reading Does The U.S. Have To Default?
MarketWatch – ‘Animal spirits’ in full stride: investor appetite for risk rises to 9-year high, survey finds If you don’t want to sort through the dozens of individual year-ahead outlooks from individual investors and economists, Bank of America Merrill Lynch has saved you the trouble by surveying 254 fund managers who oversee $754 billion of… Continue reading Too Much Stock Market Optimism?
<Click on chart for larger image> Dow Jones – Goldman Sachs Strategist: Oil Price Could Reach $150/Bbl in Summer The price of oil could reach as much as $150 per barrel this summer, Goldman Sachs chief commodities strategist Jeff Currie said Thursday. At this year’s global strategy conference in Frankfurt, Mr. Currie that he thinks… Continue reading $150 Oil Again?
CNBC.COM – What Will It Take to Get the Fed to Stop Easing? With no apparent signs that the Federal Reserve’s aggressive stimulus is causing harm, the measures likely will continue despite persistent signs of economic recovery. The debate over monetary policy may be a case, then, over not what Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke worries… Continue reading When Will The Federal Reserve Stop?
Reuters – Big inflows continue into U.S.-based stock mutual funds -Lipper Investors in U.S.-based funds pumped $3.75 billion into stock mutual funds in the latest week, a continuation of the prior week’s massive inflow and suggesting a trend of retail investors putting money back to work in the stock market, data from Thomson Reuters’ Lipper… Continue reading Equity Inflows Slow This Week
The Telegraph (UK) – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: A new Gold Standard is being born The world is moving step by step towards a de facto Gold Standard, without any meetings of G20 leaders to announce the idea or bless the project. Some readers will already have seen the GFMS Gold Survey for 2012 which reported that… Continue reading A New Gold Standard?