Archive - Sep 2010 - Blog entry

No matter how the Obama Administration tries to spin it, employment numbers are soft and getting softer. There do not appear to be any basic economic factors that would cause employment to rise. Here is a look behind the numbers.

Both the U.S. and EU governments allege that a planned tax cut by Taiwanese government on domestic rice wine will create an unfair competition to imported whisky, cognac and brandy,and have threatened to file a WTO case against Tawian. As battle clouds are gathering at the WTO, it seems high time for some quick cross-cultural understanding....on rice wine.

Last week, the assorted regulatory freaks were busy patting themselves on the back, and our intrepid printer-in-chief himself made the rounds Thursday morning with appearance no. 2 of his Whip Deflation Now tour. Stay tuned to learn which deceased Fed Governor stated at the Sep *2002* FOMC meeting in no uncertain terms that there was in fact a housing bubble underway.

An autopsy on the Failures of the Obama administration. A major error by devoting one third of its massive $870 billion stimulus program to tax cuts, which in this environment, will get saved, not spent. Easy money is creating new bubbles around the world, especially in China (FXI) and commodities, that will only end in tears.

When did it start? When will it end?

A Chat With Steve Forbes. The crash was a failure of government. We have the most hard left president and congress in history. The Fed should pursue a strong dollar policy. The rating agencies are a cartel we should get rid of. George Bush betrayed the Republican party by abandoning its principles.

The back-to-back super-sized traffic jams near Beijing has landed China on the top spot among the cities with the world's worst traffic. While the world seems quite fixated on the length--miles and number of days--of these mega jams near Beijing, there's also a serious message--the under-capacity of China’s infrastructure.

A Labor Day rant.

We should not adopt positions or beliefs that oppose the Ponzi simply because it’s contrary to the Ponzi. Doing so just shifts the illusion of control to us, but still leaves us dancing to the Ponzi beat. Our views should be adopted only after rigorous examination and vetting. This is the only way to a truly peaceful, free and sovereign life.

Greece's exit from the eurozone would be the "worst possible option", Europe's central bank chief said at the weekend amid concerns over the debt-stricken country's ability to pull itself out of crisis. Will Greece default and will this cause yet another global crisis?

The Commitment of Traders Report is created by the CFTC – The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and is published weekly every Friday. This body gathers and publishes the open futures positions on all publicly traded US futures contracts as well as the corresponding options. The data consists of 3 main categories.

Commercial Traders – These are the bigger players in the markets, the smart money and consist of large firms that actually use the commodity being traded, includes companies like…BP in the Oil and Gas Market, Nestle in the Cocoa and Sugar market. The main function of these traders is to hedge the price of the commodity that they trade in.

The 3PAR saga finally came to a close on Sep. 2 with Dell beaten by Hewlett-Packard in an 18-day bidding war. The final price tag of 3PAR is at $33 a share, or $2.35 billion, almost twice Dell’s initial offer at $18 a share last month. So, does this acquisition make sense for HP?

A guest commentary by Martin van Dalen, a portfolio manager in the investment department of the Dutch Social Security Organization

Will the American serfs have to pony up yet again?

This is as crazy as D.C. gets.