Problems with Capitalism?
Mark Gilbert has an article at Bloomberg in which he blames capitalism for the orgy of credit of the last decade: Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) — Any banker, trader or investor asked to invent the perfect market environment for creating wealth beyond the wildest dreams of avarice would come up with conditions akin to those of .. read more
What Bad Jobs Market?
WASHINGTON — The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly last week for a fourth-straight week, suggesting that a resilient labor market at the start of the year might keep the U.S. economy from sliding into recession. Initial claims for jobless benefits fell 1,000 to 301,000 after seasonal adjustments in .. read more
Bear Market Rally?
What was that 600 point swing in the Dow yesterday all about? I suspect a large portion of the rally from the lows was due to short covering, but does that matter? Maybe, maybe not. I have been following markets for a long time (25 years or so) and I don’t put much faith in .. read more
Not Too Bad
Well, that wasn’t too painful. The selloff in world markets of the last two days arrived on Wall Street this morning but after a 400+ point selloff at the open the market spent most of the day moving off those lows. The Fed cut this morning could have been timed better – I would have .. read more
Are we There Yet?
The stock market continued its relentless 2008 decline yesterday and I got a lot of calls from worried clients. Our clients are a pretty level headed group but they are subject to the same emotions as the general investing public. I’ve been doing this for a long time and when the worriers start calling, we .. read more
Agent of Change
Mark Steyn has a funny and insightful editorial in the OC Register: This past week’s issue of the Economist has a heart-rending vignette from one of the most ruthlessly capitalist industries on the planet: “In 2006 EMI, the world’s fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top .. read more
The Fed Fiddles
The US economy is slowing and many economists and most of the public believe we are either already in a recession or will be soon. I have said previously and still believe that we won’t get a recession from the bursting of the housing bubble. I must admit that my conviction about that has been .. read more
Down Express
It looks like the economic slowdown is starting to affect the credit card companies. Yesterday Capital One set aside $1.9 billion to cover bad loans in the 4th quarter. The bad loans come from the credit card division as well as the mortgage division. After the close yesterday, American Express announced that it was taking .. read more
