Archive - Feb 2010 - Blog entry

In a CNBC interview on Feb. 10, Marc Faber went out on a limb saying ALL governments will eventually default, including the United States. From all indications, this is a fairly plausible scenario.

January 2010 MKC Global Report

Toyota has been slammed by the perfect storm. Dozens of deaths, thousands of accidents, and a worldwide recall of 9 million vehicles. What happened to the serial killer of American car companies. Toyota has not turned into GM overnight.

Hundreds of pension experts are to meet in Edinburgh next month to discuss the challenges facing the pension market. Proposals call for pensions to take a greater role in demanding a crackdown on excessive bank bonuses. Pensions are also putting pressure on hedge funds to lower fees. Are pensions tightening the screws, or just screwing around?

It is beyond a hallucinogenic-induced pipe dream to even consider that the Eurozone will come out of this attempt at replicating the US "extend and pretend" policy intact and unscathed. The US won't even get away with it, and we have the world's reserve currency printing press in our basement running with an ink-based inter-cooled, twin-turbo supercharger strapped on that will make those German engineers green with envy, not to mention green with splattered Greenback printer ink as the presses go berserk!

[1] S&P 500 Futures (ES) continuous contract Daily ~ 05:05. [2] ES 514229 share ~ 05:11. [3] ESH10 1-minute ~ 05:10. [4] ESH10 1-minute ~ 05:19. [5] ESH10 1-minute ~ 05:32. [6] ESH10 - Block Buys / Sells of 50+ ~ 05:35. [7] ESH10 Matrix ~ 05:35. [8] ESH10 1-minute ~ 05:57. [9] ESH10 1-minute ~ 07:27. [10] ESH10 1-minte ~ 07:43 [11] ESH10 Matrix ~ 07:44. [12] ESH10 - Block Buys / Sells of 50+ ~ 07:44. [13] ESH10 1-minute ~ 07:59 ... Price action this morning is within a channel that has shifted lower to 1068.75 on the up and 1062.25 on the down with 1072.75 and 1078 serving as upside extensions while any break of 1058.75 would likely test the 1051 - 54 weekly pivot

Bank Edition for Wednesday ~ 12 daily / weekly technical profiles of : Bank of America (BAC); Citigroup (C); Goldman Sachs (GS); JP Morgan Chase (JPM); Morgan Stanley (MS) & Ultrashort Financials (SKF)

And it may be having interesting effects on the economy and business ...

Having lost a Motion to Dismiss the plaintiff’s case based on a lack of standing, and also under a failure to state a claim, as well as subsequently losing a motion to obtain a certificate of appealability for an interlocutory appeal, Mr. Geithner now faces the possibility of a deposition as well as discovery in a case that perhaps was seen as a big “nothingburger”, until just a few weeks ago.

This is the first report of a series of 3 reports on the state of the economy as we enter 2010. Part II will appear Wednesday, and Part III will be posted on Thursday. Econophile, as usual, has a different take.

A story of some folks who stumbled and why. This story could be Greece or Spain in a year or two.

Greece just implemented pension reforms in an attempt to shore up its public finances and others will follow suit...

At our firm we frequently receive calls from clients and readers asking about the likelihood of the passage by the Congress in Washington of reform legislation regarding over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, financial regulation and/or mortgage securitization. Our answer is small to none given the political trends and the state of the lobbies in Washington, most specifically the large bank lobby that protects the Sell Side monopoly in OTC derivatives and securities. The fact that Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) is still apparently not comfortable with the entirely watered down House proposal to reform OTC derivatives, for example, tells you all you need to know. Stick a fork in it.

The rug may about to be pulled out from under the market. The onslaught of contradictory news coming out of Washington is wearing the market down. An exclusive interview with Andrew Horowitz of The Disciplined Investor.

The levered assets of the banks in many Euro-sovereign nations easily outstrip those nations' GDP's. So when the nations' banks get in trouble from bad banking practices (and a very large swath have), the nations themselves are helpless in attempting to truly save the banks (and instead only institute a bait and switch wherein private default risk/insolvency potential is swapped for public manifestations of the same).