The juxtaposition could not be more fitting with all that is transpiring at this moment in economic history. On Monday, the headlines were filled with, Black Friday Fizzles as Sales Tumble 11% and ‘Black Friday’ Fades as Weekend Retail Sinks 11%. Then the “employment” report comes out and now the headlines are, More Jobs and Higher Wages: U.S. Recovery Starts [...]
The explanation given for the increase in participation at the reverse repo “window” in mid-April was taxes. In other words, the payment of quarterly and annual estimates and billings reduced the need for the federal government to borrow. Since the variability in borrowing amounts is taken up in t-bills, the relative scarcity of on-the-run t-bills has left the market somewhat [...]
Well, 2013 is in the books and it was a stellar year for anyone who had the moxy to ignore all the rules we've been taught about investing. Diversification? Didn't need it last year. All you had to do was buy US stocks, the more speculative the better, and let it ride. Bonds to reduce risk? Nope, that didn't work [...]
Consumer confidence is at multi-year highs while personal income and wage levels for April were declining on a nominal basis. Without the boost of 0.2% “deflation”, disposable personal income actually declined 0.1% on a nominal basis. Personal spending fell 0.2% on a nominal basis. The internals of the nominal decline related to three separate items – farm proprietor’s income fell [...]
Back in November I wrote a weekly commentary that I called Looking For Silver Linings. The market had been taking a beating in the post election period and I wasn't feeling particularly good about my forecasting skills. I had written a commentary just two weeks before arguing that the election really didn't matter that much and my Republican friends were [...]
American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. That's the title of the recently passed legislation to avoid the so called "fiscal cliff". I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It isn't a true oxymoron since that term is generally reserved for things that are surprisingly true and paradoxical but it certainly fits the more common, modern usage of the term [...]
I was on the road last week and between meetings I spent more time than usual watching CNBC. I no longer wonder why their ratings are down. They have a lot of hours to fill obviously and right now they are concentrating, seemingly exclusively, on the fiscal cliff negotiations. Last Tuesday, they interviewed a stock broker from Charlotte, NC who [...]
John Templeton, one of the greatest investors of all time, said that investors should buy at the point of maximum pessimism. Nothing illustrates the adage of something being easy to say and hard to do more than that statement. It is of course at the point of maximum pessimism that our natural psychological barrier to executing that strategy is greatest. [...]
The market adage “sell in May and go away,” worked well this year for about one month. However, the end of May during an election year has often been a good time to buy stocks. (Good Time In The Election Cycle, Crossing Wall Street) Maybe not this year.... “This crisis has not even started. It will take an extremely long time to reach its [...]
Austere: adj; markedly simple or unadorned The G-8 met this weekend at Camp David to address the failure of austerity in promoting economic growth, specifically in Europe where it has allegedly been practiced. Of course, austerity, as modernly defined by a certain segment of the economics profession, has nothing at all to do with the definition from Merriam-Webster cited above. [...]
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