Archive - Nov 2009

RANsquawk 26th November Morning Briefing - Stocks, Bonds, FX etc.

• Asian stocks, currencies rise on optimism Dubai World losses won't spread.
• Bernanke says legislation limiting Fed independence Would 'impair' economy.
• China’s stocks rose after government pledged to maintain stimulus policies next year.
• India's GDP accelerates to 7.9%, may spur stimulus withdrawal.
• Japan's Fuji denies ruling out intervention in foreign exchange markets.
• Stocks in Dubai fall the most in a year on concern Dubai World may default.

RANsquawk 30th November Morning Briefing - Stocks, Bonds, FX etc.

Global warming scam exposed as scientific fraud; Copenhagen summit approaches, Abu Dubai goes bust; financing problems spread to governments, Washington insists on Colombia 'full spectrum' base, new H1N1 bypasses adaptive immunity, Gibbs' Virology paper suggests lab origin, US mint suspends sales of Eagles, Bernanke to run his mouth on Thursday.

World trade volumes grew sharply in the third quarter of this year, data from the Dutch CPB research institute showed on Friday, in a further sign that the global economy is pulling out of crisis.

Did you hear about Citi's $8 billion dollar loan to Dubai?

A stunner to end the Black Friday news flow. It appears the race to the hyperdeflationary bottom just shifted into overdrive.

On December 3rd, senators will have to decide: will they vote with their conscience, or with Wall Street's checkbook. Bernie Sanders has made his choice: "No, I absolutely will not vote for Mr. Bernanke. He is part of the problem. He's the smartest guy in the world, why didn't he do anything to prevent us from sinking into this disaster that Wall Street caused and which he was a part of? No, I will not vote for Bernanke to stay on as chairman."

What could possibly connect Best Buy, Paul Krugman and the carry trade? The answer is is that everything is connected.

Returning briefly to the "Nothing to see here, please disperse..." theme, it seems that Dubai World is destined to throw some Sharpie-adorned, brown-cardboard placards up on the city's light fixtures and other signage to announce the pending garage sale. (And, not to be upstaged, China drops some hints with respect to her continued indulgence for debt-funded American excess).

The problem with the Greeks was ultimately their love of conflict. If anything could be said of the fall of the city-state generally it would be that more than a hundred years of effectively unending warfare (rainy season, fighting season, rainy season, fighting season, lather, rinse, repeat) finally exhausted the resources of the dominant political unit of the time. Sort of troubling in this vein is the connection (and therefore the related failure) of "direct democracy" to the identity and existence of the city-state. Direct democracy was lovely, after all, and philosophically easy to envisage, that is until, in the wake of a crumbling Alexandrian Empire, it collapsed under its own increasing weight (or the increasing weight of military spending). What was left of the polis, the central, individualistic notion that the Citizen was of great particular import, was rather directly absorbed into cosmopolis, and the importance of managerial infrastructure to keep the aqueducts clean. After all, direct democracy (and the mob rule that accompanies it) had killed Socrates, hadn't it? That Plato dedicates The Republic partly to the import of the Philosopher King years later might have been predictable.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive”...ourselves. With apologies to Sir Walter Scott.

Amusingly, no sooner than a series of commentators rushed to point out how stable and friendly Dubai is (including some local names that might surprise you) Dubai reminded everyone that there is no freedom of the press in the city-state by yanking Western papers critical of the jurisdiction off the stands.

The National Retail Federation has reported that the average Thanksgiving spend has declined from $372 in 2008 to $343 in 2009, as more shoppers sought out rock-bottom 5 am bargains: the estimated number of bargain hunters increased from 172 million to 195 million.

I am just waiting for someone on CNBC to utter the "R" word: resilient. When you hear that word, make sure you run for the exits.