The Wall Street Journal – Beware of Professors Bearing ETFs When little-known SummerHaven Investment Management LLC launched its first commodity exchange-traded fund last month, it relied heavily on Yale University’s Geert Rouwenhorst, one of the academics best known for popularizing commodity futures as a long-term investment alongside stocks and bonds. Prof. Rouwenhorst, whose scholarship serves… Continue reading Professors And ETFs
The Financial Times – Wolfgang Münchau: A eurozone banking crisis left unresolved Two years after the fall of Lehman Brothers, and a massive bank bail-out agreed by European governments, the eurozone’s financial sector is still fragile. As we have seen in recent weeks, the Irish banking sector is insolvent, and there are questions about the… Continue reading Eurozone Banks
The Wall Street Journal – U.S. Treasurys Ripening for Another Rally The downturn in the Treasury market is likely a short-term phenomenon, with plenty of catalysts for a bond-market rally lurking just around the corner. Triggers that could take Treasury yields, which move inversely to prices, back down to their recent lows include a stagnant… Continue reading Bond Rally or Bond Bubble?
The New York Times – At Goldman, Partners Are Made, and Unmade This fall, in a secretive process, some 100 executives will be chosen to receive this golden ticket, bestowing rich pay packages and an inside track to the top jobs at the company. What few outside Goldman know is that this ticket can also… Continue reading Goldman Sachs
The Wall Street Journal – STEVEN GJERSTAD AND VERNON L. SMITH: Why We’re in for a Long, Hard Economic Slog Evidence from 14 U.S. recessions shows that the economy doesn’t recover until housing recovers. Our study of all the postwar recessions and the Great Depression leads to the following empirical proposition: If there is no… Continue reading More Scary Talk
Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: Economic Docs Find Remedy Amid Bubble Rubble Even the most casual observer of the events of the last five years — the housing bubble, the bust and the digging-out process — would be struck by the similarities between the policies that got us into this mess and the prescriptions for getting… Continue reading What Have We Learned?
None Today
Bloomberg.com – Junk Bonds `Best Bet’ as Issuance Nears 2009 Record Level: Credit Markets Global high-yield bond sales are poised to exceed 2009’s record issuance as the riskiest companies take advantage of plunging borrowing costs and investor demand for greater returns to refinance debt. Ally Financial Inc., the lender previously known as GMAC Inc., and… Continue reading Junk Bonds
<Click on chart for larger image> Barron’s – No Bull: The Public Won’t Come to Market Persistently low volume shows investors still shun equities, leaving stocks range-bound. THE LACK OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION in the equity markets has become a constant source of concern for the bulls. Much has been said and written about outflows from… Continue reading Low Volume
The Financial Times – Trichet calls for tougher euro rules Eurozone members that break the region’s rules on public finances should be excluded temporarily from Europe’s political decision-making, the president of the European Central Bank has proposed. The controversial suggestion by Jean-Claude Trichet, in an interview with the Financial Times, would be part of a… Continue reading Trichet Says
The Wall Street Journal – Speculators Sweet on Sugar, Cotton Soft Commodities Soar on Price Bets; Drought in Brazil, Floods in Pakistan Cotton futures this week hit a 15-year high of 93.85 cents, bolstered in large part by the huge amounts of fund buying. In August, commodity funds increased long positions by a staggering 83.5%,… Continue reading Cotton
The Wall Street Journal – Treasurys and the Danger of Short-Term Debt More than 60% of U.S. debt is set to mature within the next three years. You’ve probably heard that the federal government is facing budget deficits that are larger as a percentage of GDP than at any time since World War II. But… Continue reading Treasury Issuance