Gail Tverberg: Something Has Got To Break

Growing debt faster than your energy supply has hard limits. Gail Tverberg explains the tight correlation between the rates of GDP growth and growth in energy supply. For decades, energy has been becoming more costly to obtain, and instead of accepting lower GDP growth, we have been using debt to fund further energy exploration and extraction. That strategy has diminishing returns, Tverberg warns. And we are close to the moment of reckoning: "I’m afraid what it means is that at some point there’s got to be a discontinuity. Something has got to break."

The Looming Environmental Disaster In Missouri That Nobody Is Talking About

What happens when radioactive byproduct from the Manhattan Project comes into contact with an “underground fire” at a landfill? Surprisingly, no one actually knows for sure; but residents of Bridgeton, Missouri, near the West Lake and Bridgeton Landfills - just northwest of the St. Louis International Airport - may find out sooner than they’d like. For now, it’s startlingly apparent no one knows exactly what’s happening - though the smoldering below the surface doesn’t cease and floodwaters continue to rise.

More Ominous Charts For 2016

If 2015 was the year in which no investment strategy worked, 2016 is looking like the year in which all economic policies fail.

The Battle Between Manufacturing And Services

As we start the new year, there is a debate raging within the market.  No the debate isn’t whether there is weakness in the manufacturing economy, that is taken as a given, especially after Friday’s awful Chicago Purchasing Manager number of 42.9. Instead, the debate boils down to this: 'bears' believe the manufacturing economy and the service economy act in conjunction with each other – that one cannot turn, without the other; 'bulls' view each segment of the economy as relatively independent and they highlight the size of the service economy relative to the manufacturing. The answer lies in the missing cog - the 'wealth' economy.

If Companies Are Telling The Truth, Profit Margins Are About To Collapse The Most In The 21st Century

if companies are being honest about their intentions to raise wages, then US corporate profitability is about to fall off a cliff. As the chart below from JPM shows, the difference between "intentions to raise prices" less "intentions to raise wages" - a proxy for operating margins - has not been this negative in the 21st century.

Bank of America Explains How Central Banks Rigged And Manipulated The Market

"Essentially central banks, by unfairly inflating asset prices have compressed risk like a spring to unfairly tight levels. Unfortunately, the market is aware the price of risk is not correct, but they can’t fight it, and everyone is forced to crowd into the same trade. By manipulating markets they have also reduced investors’ inherent conviction by rendering fundamentals less relevant."

- Bank of America

From $500,000 To $170 Million In A Few Months: The Next "Subprime Trade" Emerges

Ever since it started making complicated bets against some leveraged ETFs, Miller’s Catalyst Macro Strategies Funds has since grown from $500,000 in assets at the start of the year to about $170 million. It achieved a more than 50 percent return this year, placing it far ahead of its competitors.