Business Insider – REPORT: TODAY COULD BE THE DAY FOR MASS EUROZONE DOWNGRADES BY S&P Just breaking from Dow Jones. S&P could deliver several Eurozone downgrades sometime today. This is of course the rumor that comes over and over and over again, but this time it’s from very reputable source, and it also jibes with… Continue reading European Downgrades Coming Today?
<Click on graphic for larger image> Time – Warren Buffett Is on a Radical Track Warren Buffett believes in making money. He believes in fairness. He believes in the ability of government to make people’s lives better. But most of all, he believes in luck. “I’ve had all this good fortune,” Buffett says. “It starts… Continue reading Buffett Is Bullish, Again
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Obama Starts Clock for Congress to Vote on Raising Federal Debt Ceiling President Barack Obama asked Congress for another $1.2 trillion in government borrowing authority, the third and final request under an August deal with lawmakers that averted a U.S. default. The president’s notification to congressional leaders… Continue reading More On The Debt Ceiling
Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: An Upside-Down Recovery Goes Back to Square One The U.S. recession may have ended in June 2009, according to the official arbiter of the business cycle. But by all signs, the recovery is just beginning. Expected fourth-quarter growth of 3 percent to 3.5 percent is already being dismissed as another flash… Continue reading The Economy
The Wall Street Journal – Little Alarm Shown at Fed At Dawn of Housing Bust In his second meeting as chairman of the Federal Reserve in May 2006, Ben Bernanke heard a Fed governor warn about the nation’s mortgage market. But Mr. Bernanke described the cooling of the housing boom as a “healthy thing.” “So… Continue reading The Federal Reserve Gets Housing Wrong
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Italian two-year debt yields fall below 5% Italy successfully sold about €4.75bn of bonds on Friday, capping a relatively strong week for European government short-dated debt auctions as investor sentiment towards the eurozone shows signs of improvement. In Friday’s auction, Italy sold €3bn of benchmark… Continue reading Italy
<Click on graphic for larger image> The Economist – Daily chart: The Big Mac index Burgernomics shows Switzerland has the most overvalued currency THE ECONOMIST’s Big Mac index is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity: in the long run, exchange rates should adjust to equal the price of a basket of goods and services… Continue reading The Big Mac Index
Comment Yesterday Jim Bianco was on Bloomberg radio with Tom Keene. To listen to the interview click here. Many of the topics discussed in the interview will also be discussed in our conference call today. To register for the conference call click here. For the handout, click here. TOM KEENE, BLOOMBERG SURVEILLANCE HOST: With a… Continue reading Manager Performance And High Correlation In The Markets
The Wall Street Journal – German Economy Heads Downward “This is not a usual downswing,” said Jörg Krämer, chief economist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. The current slowdown isn’t registering yet with ordinary Germans. The number of Germans who have a job is at an all-time high, wages are rising, and household spending remains solid. Consequently… Continue reading Europe
MSN Money – Fed risks inflation with talk of QE3 With the eurozone crisis threatening to pull down the US economy, some members of the Federal Reserve are discussing another round of quantitative easing. We’ve got problems. A number of structural issues — from Europe’s woes to the federal debt problem to stagnant job growth… Continue reading The Federal Reserve Is Still Divided
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Wall St rally confounds bets against recovery A “stealth” rally in stocks that has propelled Wall Street to a five-month high and the S&P 500 to within touching distance of 1,300 has wrong-footed defensive investors. Confounding a risk-averse consensus among analysts, the 11.3 per cent… Continue reading The Stock Market Rally