Zero Hedge (Blog) – Ratigan And Fleckenstein Explain The Fed’s Role In Recent Food Price Ignited Revolutions For over a year now, Zero Hedge has been predicting that in its foolhardy attempt of “inflation or bust”, the Fed’s actions would sooner or later lead to mass rioting and possible revolutions as a result of surging… Continue reading Food Inflation & Egypt
The Financial Times – Beware Dr Copper’s broad message of health Are record copper prices the result of a supply or a demand shock? For many unsophisticated investors the question is rather academic. Whether it is supply or demand at play the result is the same: higher prices. Indeed, copper has set a string of… Continue reading Supply & Demand In The Copper Market
Bloomberg.com – S&P 500 Beating Estimates for Sales by Most Since 2006 More U.S. companies are exceeding sales forecasts than any time in four years, helping extend the biggest stock-market rally since 1936. Caterpillar Inc. and United Parcel Service Inc., barometers for the economy because of their building and delivery businesses, are among the 72… Continue reading Are Companies Now Gaming Revenue Estimates?
Barron’s – Randall W. Forsyth: Bernanke Takes Credit for Stocks’ Rally, Disavows Commodities’ Rise Monetary policy boosts assets, but food prices are raised by emerging economies, Fed chief tells DC press group. Ron Paul’s questions may be tougher. Proving Lincoln’s adage you can fool some of the people all of the time, Bernanke asserted to… Continue reading The Federal Reserve and Inflation
Bloomberg.com – Fed Spends 40% on Benchmark Treasuries as Newest Proves Cheapest The Federal Reserve’s Treasury purchases already have succeeded in driving investors to junk bonds and stocks. Now, policy makers are focusing on benchmark government securities, helping contain rising yields that set rates on everything from corporate debt to mortgages. More than 40 percent… Continue reading What Does The Federal Reserve Buy?
<Click on chart for larger image> Comment See our comments on Friday detailing how Bernanke’s analysis of the Egyptian pound and food inflation was factually wrong. Arab News – Egypt chaos hikes food prices in Kingdom Egyptian protests in its second week has triggered a severe price hike on vegetables and fruits coming from that… Continue reading Egypt
Bloomberg.com – Investors’ $102 Billion Metals Wager Shows Bull Market Intact The five analysts ranked by Bloomberg as the most accurate over two years expect silver to rise as much as 23 percent before the end of 2011 and gold 20 percent, the median of their estimates show. UBS AG predicts the strongest industrial demand… Continue reading Betting On Metals
<Click on chart for larger image> Stateline – Food stamp rolls reach historic levels Nationwide, one in seven Americans currently receives help from the government to put food on the table. All but 14 states saw double-digit spikes in the number of people getting food stamps over the one-year period that ended in November 2010.… Continue reading Food Stamps, The Great Recession Soup Lines
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Wall St looks to boost market in US muni CDS Mounting concerns about the health of cash-strapped states such as California and Illinois has already resulted in increased trading of credit default swap (CDS) contracts on US municipal debt – the derivatives that increase in… Continue reading Munis
The Financial Times – Wolfgang Münchau: Europe planning to solve the wrong crisis So you think the crisis is over? Some of Europe’s political leaders have always framed the eurozone’s year-long upheaval as an attack by Anglo-Saxon speculators. If that is your view, you can relax. The speculators are moving in the opposite direction. The… Continue reading Europe
The Economist – America’s housing market: Suspended animation Falling prices and rising foreclosures cause a policy quagmire When Barack Obama first unveiled the Home Affordable Modification Programme (HAMP) in March 2009, the hope was to modify 3m-4m mortgages by subsidising payment reductions through the Troubled Asset Relief Programme (TARP), a bail-out fund. But by the… Continue reading Housing