Weekly Economic and Market Review
GM sold shares to the public last week some of which were previously owned by….the public. Anyone lucky or well connected enough to be allocated shares in the IPO was able to book a near 10% profit almost immediately while the less fortunate previous owners – that would be you and me – took a .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
Is there a bubble in bond land? That’s become the hot question of the moment with everyone from Jeremy Siegel (yes) to Randall Forsyth at Barrons (no) offering an opinion. I was even quoted in an article this week at CNN Money concerning the present state of the bond market. Goodness knows, if reporters are .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
The economic reports last week continued the trend of reports showing a drop off in growth. Worse actually since several of last week’s reports were just plain bad and indicated outright contraction rather than just a reduction in growth. The market held up fairly well until Friday as good earnings offset bad data, but by .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
The economic data continued its mixed performance last week with little in the way of surprises. The recovery is definitely slowing and that is quite disappointing considering that it hasn’t been a robust one anyway. The housing market is in tax credit hangover hell and the jobs market is downright dismal but manufacturing continues to .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
For the last few months it seems I have written the same thing every week – the economic data was better than expected with the exception of housing and jobs. Well, last week – at least for now – that changed; the economic data was still better than expected – which seems nearly impossible after so many .. read more
The Beginning of the End of Easing
The Federal Reserve raised the Discount Rate Thursday evening after the close of New York trading and the Tout TV crew immediately shifted into Oh My God! mode. Maria Bartiromo was in a tizzy trying to figure out what it all meant (as if there was any chance of that), the S&P futures traded down .. read more
The Illusion of Progress
If all you do is read headlines, it would seem that the US is making steady progress toward solving some of the most pressing issues of the day. President Obama went to Copenhagen last week and came away with an agreement which calls for developed nations to provide $30 billion to help developing nations deal .. read more
Nattering Nabobs
One of the most interesting debates in economic and investing circles today concerns the mental state of investors. Are they overly optimistic about the state of the economy, buying stocks with no regard for the risks? Or are they still so shell shocked that they’re willing to pay Uncle Sam to hold their money in T Bills? Stocks .. read more
