The Wall Street Journal – The Federal Reserve’s Covert Bailout of Europe America’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, is engaged in a bailout of European banks. Surprisingly, its operation is largely unnoticed here. The Fed is using what is termed a “temporary U.S. dollar liquidity swap arrangement” with the European Central Bank (ECB). There are… Continue reading How The Federal Reserve Is Bailing Out Europe
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Record use made of ECB deposit facility The amounts of cash being deposited by eurozone banks at the European Central Bank increased further on Wednesday, just days after the ECB provided unprecedented levels of liquidity in an effort to reduce tension in the financial system.… Continue reading ECB Deposits
<Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> The Big Picture (Blog) – Case Shiller: Home Prices Fell 3.4% Year-over-Year U.S. home prices fell ~1.2% respectively in October versus September, with 19 of 20 cities covered by the indices decreasing over the month. Year over year drops of the 10- and… Continue reading Home Prices Fall
<Click on chart for larger image> Reuters.com – Obama to ask for debt limit hike: Treasury official The White House plans to ask Congress by the end of the week for an increase in the government’s debt ceiling to allow the United States to pay its bills on time, according to a senior Treasury Department… Continue reading The U.S. Debt Limit
Reuters.com – U.S. says China not currency manipulator; chides Japan The U.S. Treasury again shied away from labeling China a currency manipulator on Tuesday, but it rapped the country for not moving quickly enough on exchange rate reforms. The United States also chided Japan for stepping into the currency market to stem the yen’s rise,… Continue reading Currency Manipulation
The Financial Times – Financial Amnesia’ a Factor Behind Crisis The education requirements for investment professionals in the UK do not oblige them to have “any understanding of financial history”, added Will Goodhart, chief executive of CFA UK. While the UK’s Financial Services Authority sets the framework for the Investment Management Certificate, the country’s most… Continue reading Uneducated Financial Professionals
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What To Expect In 2012 Audio Link of Conference Call Handout Webcast A transcript of the December 22, 2011 conference call.
<Click on chart for larger image> Zero Hedge (Blog) – LTRO “Bazooka” Is Epic Disaster As Banks Scramble To Redeposit “Free Carry” Cash With ECB, Lose Money On “Inverse Carry” When on Friday we penned “And This Is Where The LTRO Money Went” we said that the final nail in the “Carry Trade” theory was… Continue reading All That LTRO Money Being Safely Deposited With The ECB
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Heavy selling of gold funds as attraction wanes Gold limped towards the end of the year as investors, bruised by sharp price drops, cut their holdings of the largest bullion exchange traded fund by the most since August. Investors in the SPDR Gold Shares ETF,… Continue reading GLD Sells Some Bullion
BusinessWeek – S&P Volatility Double Average as Index Moves Least Since ’70 While the S&P 500 barely moved on a year-to-date basis, 2011 was one of the most volatile years on record. Eighty-five companies fell 20 percent or more, compared with 11 in 2010 and 15 in 2009. First Solar Inc. of Tempe, Arizona, posted… Continue reading Volatility
The Financial Times – No early Christmas for the contrarian speculator Citigroup has gone back to 1996 and analysed how stock market leaders and laggards have performed year-on-year. The momentum picks (the top dogs of the previous year) have outperformed the contrarian picks (the dogs of the previous year) 12 times out of 15. Contrarians… Continue reading Contrarian Investing