Archive - 2010 - Blog entry

Come, let me walk you through the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board's latest quarterly results and show you why they caught the tail end of the monster beta wave. I warn you, I'm in a feisty mood, and don't mince my words...

Perhaps if the Bank of England, the US Treasury and the US Federal Reserve had not been surreptitiously suppressing the price of gold futures through their puppet bullion banks on Wall Street for decades, I would agree with George Soros that gold was the ultimate asset bubble. Had this been the case, gold’s price would be multiples of its current price given the low interest rate environment that exists worldwide. But since this is not the case, there currently is no greater asset bubble than the US dollar and US Treasury bonds.

While the topic du jour remains: "Just How Ugly Is The Sovereign Default Truth? How Self Delusions Prevent Recognition Of Reality" ... thought we'd mix it up a bit and take a daily & weekly look (8 charts) at everyone's favorite dead PIGS walking ~ Portugal, Italy, Greece & Spain

For good reason the G-7 held their meeting last week in one of the remotest places on the planet. No protesters, no hordes of nasty press, just good fun doing useless things with their fellow co-conspirators.

South Korea (EWY) is the “K” that should be in “BRICK.” The country where the classic “V” shaped recovery is real. The international nuclear industry was blown away by Korea Electric Power’s $20.4 billion UAE deal. Speaking volumes about the direction of the global economy. South Korea takes a quantum leap ahead in the race for competitiveness, while the US falls further to the back in the dust. One small problem: the megalomaniac who lives next door with the starving million man army. Time for a visit to the Hermit Kingdom. (EWY)

Part II of three on Econophile's take on the economy for 2010: Debt, deleveraging, and residential and commercial real estate.

Millions of “pre-retirees” aged between 55 and 64 are being unrealistic about the size of their private pensions and living in a state of denial about their finances, experts say.

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 ...