Monthly Archives: September 2012

Tactical Update

By |2012-09-16T19:57:51-04:00September 16th, 2012|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets, Stocks|

Prior to the Federal Reserve’s policy decision on Thursday we took some preemptive action.  Here are our thoughts on the economic backdrop, possible paths for the economy and implications of the Fed’s actions announced on the 13th. At his speech in Jackson Hole, Ben Bernanke signaled likely policy intervention forth coming from this past week’s FOMC meeting.  Anticipation of this [...]

Wile E. Coyote Monetary Policy

By |2012-09-16T20:08:14-04:00September 16th, 2012|Commodities, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets, Stocks|

Remember those Road Runner cartoons when you were kid? The hapless Coyote chased the Road Runner, laying trap after trap for him which all failed in some spectacular fashion with the Coyote inevitably bearing the brunt of the destruction. In almost every episode there came a time when the Coyote found himself rushing toward a cliff, the edge of which [...]

A Closer Look: Commodities

By |2012-09-16T19:50:18-04:00September 16th, 2012|Commodities|

This past week was a big week for commodities. Immediately following the announcement of the Federal Reserve's 3rd quantitative easing program, commodities, especially precious metals, shot up as the value of the US Dollar crumbled. Apparently the only path to economic growth and eventually full employment is by continuously printing money, because the Fed's $40 billion-a-month program to buy assets [...]

Thinking Things Over: Bernanke Casts a Vote for Obama

By |2012-09-16T17:28:19-04:00September 16th, 2012|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Thinking Things Over    September 16, 2012 Volume II, Number 31:  Bernanke Casts a Vote for Obama                                                                                                                    John L. Chapman, Ph.D.     Washington, D.C. “Reason…teaches all Mankind, who would but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his Life, Health, Liberty, or Possessions. [And what best promotes this?] …[A] standing Rule to live by, common to [...]

Distorted Hayekian Triangle Reality

By |2012-09-14T23:53:18-04:00September 13th, 2012|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Taxes/Fiscal Policy|

In 1935 Friedrich A. Hayek presented the following diagram of the productive stages of an economy's production.   The insights drawn from this depiction of an efficiently allocated economy form the basis of Austrian Business Cycle Theory. A voluntary decrease in consumption and commensurate increase in savings lowers the slope of the hypotenuse, thus the real rate of [...]

A Closer Look: World Markets

By |2012-09-09T19:46:56-04:00September 9th, 2012|Markets|

The S&P 500 hit its highest levels since 2008, thanks in large part to the ECB's unlimited bond buying plan and the expectation of further easing from the Federal Reserve. The index is comfortably above both its 50-day moving average and its 200-day MA, but might be a bit oversold in the very short-term. The S&P 500 has returned 13.67% [...]

Judgment at Karlsruhe

By |2012-09-09T16:30:34-04:00September 9th, 2012|Currencies, Economy|

By Brian Cronin: Before starting on the issues this week, let me take a moment to observe that next Tuesday is the 11th anniversary of 9/11. That fateful day, also a Tuesday, saw close to 3,000 souls lost. 88% of them were Americans with the remaining 12% foreign nationals coming from over 90 countries. I was working in New York [...]

Central Planners To The Rescue

By |2012-09-09T16:25:10-04:00September 9th, 2012|Commodities, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

The US stock market rose 2% last week based primarily on the perceived wisdom of various central economic planners around the world. Mario Draghi announced a new bond buying program in Europe designed specifically to circumvent the verdict of the market and prop up the governments of the peripheral countries. There are conditions which the beggar countries must meet before [...]

Facebook

By |2012-09-06T11:02:27-04:00September 5th, 2012|Stocks|

I have to call this out.  Representing this move as an intelligent, strategic corporate decision looks, from the other guys point of view, like you're spitting in his face.  Via Reuters: Facebook has crystallized its blunder of an initial public offering with a stock buyback. Mark Zuckerberg’s social network will essentially cut its outstanding share count by about 101 million, [...]

History Repeats Itself Because No One Was Listening The First Time

By |2012-09-04T15:41:59-04:00September 4th, 2012|Markets|

File these under Joe Calhoun’s “everything has already happened” theme. In doing research for last Friday’s RealClearMarkets column I happened to read the Republican Party Platform. I was mostly interested in the Gold Commission/hard money initiatives, but some of the other “planks” offered a very telling glimpse into the party’s positions:  They [The Democratic Administration] have debauched our money [...]

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