Comment Last night (Sunday) Jim Bianco was on CNBC talking about the week ahead. To view the interview click on the picture above. To view any of our recent interviews click here. Many of the topics Jim touched upon in the interview were detailed in our conference call last week. (Audio Webcast Handout). The transcript… Continue reading The Week Ahead
USA Today – Economists’ outlook darkens: See 30% chance of recession The chances of the economy slipping into another recession have risen significantly, and forecasts for economic growth and job gains over the next year have been substantially downsized, according to USA TODAY’s quarterly survey of top economists. The 39 economists polled Aug. 3-11 put… Continue reading Odds Of A Recession
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Withdrawals From Stock Funds Biggest Since ’08 Investors pulled the most money from global stock funds since 2008 in the past week as the Standard & Poor’s downgrade of Treasuries and the deepening European debt crisis prompted a flight into cash and gold. Funds that buy global… Continue reading More On Equity Mutual Funds
The New York Times – GRETCHEN MORGENSON: Conventional Fed Wisdom, Defied NEWS last week that the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates near zero until mid-2013 was welcomed by many investors, but the bleak message about the economy still came through loud and clear. The Fed has spent several years trying to kick-start the economy… Continue reading The Federal Reserve
The New York Times – Low Rates May Do Little to Entice Nervous Consumers The Federal Reserve’s announcement last week that it intended to keep credit cheap for at least two more years was a clear invitation to Americans: Go out and borrow. But many economists say it will take more than low interest rates… Continue reading What Do Low Rates Means?
The Independent (UK) – Sarkozy set to clash with Merkel over euro bonds Another attempt to end the eurozone debt crisis and persuade the German chancellor Angela Merkel to accept eurozone bonds – pooling all the existing nations’ national debts – will be made by President Sarkozy at a crisis summit on Tuesday. It comes… Continue reading Merkel/Sarkozy To Meet Tomorrow
<Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Margin Calls Push Leverage Down Most in Year Borrowed money in accounts at 61 New York Stock Exchange firms has fallen 4.6 percent, the biggest drop since June 2010, according to a July 22 statement from New York-based NYSE Euronext. The… Continue reading Margin Debt
The Independent (UK) – Hedge funds make wrong calls on market mayhem Europe’s bans on short selling cast hedge funds in their usual role as shadowy bogeymen, profiting from the misfortunes of others, but some of the world’s biggest funds have taken a bath amid the wreckage, it has emerged. The biggest name to suffer… Continue reading Hedge Funds
<Click on chart for larger image> The Chicago Sun-Times – As debt crisis looms at state level, Illinois identified as a ‘sinkhole’ The report explains that Illinois has $55 billion worth of assets (defined as both financial assets, and also including state parks, for example), but less than $19.6 billion is available to pay $130.2… Continue reading Illinois
The New York Times Magazine – Can Jeremy Grantham Profit From Ecological Mayhem? Grantham, who is 72 and has what’s left of a British accent after living in Boston for more than four decades, outlined this wildly distressing assessment against a bland backdrop of chain décor and piped-in smooth jazz. He marked up his draft… Continue reading Jeremy Grantham Speaks
The Wall Street Journal – Lewis E. Lehrman: The Nixon Shock Heard ‘Round the World By severing the dollar’s convertibility to gold in 1971, the president ushered in a decade of inflation and economic stagnation On the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 13, 1971, high-ranking White House and Treasury Department officials gathered secretly in President Richard… Continue reading 40 Years Ago Today
The New York Times – Market Ills Give CNBC a Bounce Through the first two weeks of August, CNBC, a unit of NBC Universal, had on average 378,000 at-home viewers during the New York market hours of 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., up sharply from 224,000 in July. Fox Business, a unit of the News… Continue reading CNBC