<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Brussels escalates Euribor investigation European regulators seized documents from several big banks in London and France this week after being tipped off by one of the banks caught up in the worldwide probe of interbank lending that it had uncovered potential problems connected to the… Continue reading Euro-LIE-bor
MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – Gold: Here’s Why It Could Get to $2000 Soon Gold and silver prices are falling again today, which you might expect in a market that seems to be pricing in some hope of an imminent magic solution to all of the eurozone’s problems. Trouble is, gold has been falling lately no… Continue reading Gold
The Wall Street Journal – Alan Blinder: How to Clean Up the Housing Mess Why the failure? Three formidable barriers have stood between us and success—and still do. The first is money. Given the huge magnitude of the aggregate gap between house values and mortgage balances, a comprehensive anti-foreclosure solution requires hundreds of billions of… Continue reading Fixing The Housing Market
The Wall Street Journal –Ron Paul: Blame the Fed for the Financial Crisis The great contribution of the Austrian school of economics to economic theory was in its description of this business cycle: the process of booms and busts, and their origins in monetary intervention by the government in cooperation with the banking system. Yet… Continue reading Blame Bernanke
MarketWatch – We need more inflation We could get out of this depression a lot faster if the Federal Reserve weren’t so busy fighting the battles of the 1970s. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll be stuck in a low-growth, high-unemployment economy for many more years, but there is a way out of our troubles if… Continue reading Bring On More Inflation
CNBC.com – Economists Almost Always Expect Interest Rates To Rise The latest note from James Bianco points out that Bloomberg’s monthly survey of economists almost always forecasts high rates for 10-year Treasurys in the next six months. Since 2002, Bloomberg has been asking economists where they think interest rates will be six months into the… Continue reading Permabears Unite
The Wall Street Journal – A Call to Pull Reins on Rapid-Fire Trade Thomas Peterffy, chief executive of Interactive Brokers Group Inc., says computer-driven high-speed trading firms have made the market less efficient—and less safe. While a number of Wall Street traders would agree, this argument may seem surprising coming from the 67-year-old Mr. Petterfy:… Continue reading The Creator Of Computer Trading Rails Against High Frequency Trading
Conference Call Presentation/Charts of the Week Audio Webcast Topics Covered This Week Include: Summary/Conclusion Stock Correlations At An Eighty Year High! Does A Crisis Mean A 13-Digit Gov’t Central Bank Solution? A Range Bound Stock Market A Look At Credit When Will The Bond Bears Be Right? Do They Even Know Stocks Beat Bonds? Do… Continue reading Conference Call Presentation/Charts of the Week
The Guardian (UK) – France and Germany ready to agree €2tn euro rescue fund France and Germany have reached agreement to boost the eurozone’s rescue fund to €2tn (£1.75tn) as part of a “comprehensive plan” to resolve the sovereign debt crisis, which this weekend’s summit should endorse, EU diplomats said. The growing confidence that a… Continue reading Europe’s ‘Save The World’ Plan
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – China Reduced Its Holdings of U.S. Treasuries by Most on Record in August China, the largest-foreign lender to the U.S., reduced its holdings of Treasuries in August by the most in at least a decade as the stripping of America’s AAA credit rating by Standard & Poor’s… Continue reading China Sells U.S. Treasuries
Bloomberg.com – Cooperman ‘Wouldn’t Be Caught Dead’ Owning U.S. Treasuries Leon Cooperman, the chairman of hedge fund Omega Advisors Inc., said investors should avoid Treasuries after yields dropped to record lows. Rates on 10-year Treasuries fell to 1.67 percent on Sept. 23. Cooperman said that given tax rates and inflation, he’s unwilling to accept the… Continue reading Stocks vs. Bonds