Archive - Jul 2011 - Blog entry

The Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) announced that it recorded an investment return of 14.5% for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011 (fiscal year 2011)....

Since last update in March 2011, quite a lot has happened. The global news empire is in trouble, Euro zone problems escalated, US Debt ceiling issues are still on the table and generally the earnings have surprised on the upside. With all of these grey swans and uncertainty, the markets have responded quite well to the price levels charted earlier in March 2011 issue. Regardless of how the news on TV may appear to be, market sentiment is not at extremes, as can be seen via AAII sentiment readings.

It doesn’t matter what terms the President offers. It’s that simple. Boehner can’t deliver the votes...That's why Boehner is always crying--Alan Grayson

Given the ridiculous number of rumors (and ridiculousness of some of the rumors) related to the US and EU debt talks that are circling the financial community, I thought it best that we confront the realities these two economies face. 

You know, it's downright frightening how clearly this was able to be anticipated well over a year ago, yet it appears as if the EU politicking behind the bailout bonanza STILL leads down the road to perdition.

"While we are sympathetic to the desire to avoid wasteful and duplicative litigation, the source of the unnecessary proceedings in this case was not an overly wooden application of the rules, but US Bank's failure to abide by them."

I call super B.S.

The debt ceiling debate that has dominated the headlines over the past month has been thoroughly infused with a string of unfortunate misconceptions and a number of blatant deceptions. As a result, the entire process has been mostly hot air. While a recitation of all the errors would be better attempted by a novelist rather than a weekly columnist, I’ll offer my short list. 

The The more disturbing jobs numbers are coming from the long-term unemployment.  A year after the official end of the recession, more than two million Americans have been out of work for 99 weeks or longer.  Some call the long-term unemployment the newest form of workforce discrimination as employers tend to favor job candidates already have a job.  

I guess it shouldn't be surprising that Congress isn't succeeding in helping the American people, given that most politicians: (1) Think like pimps; (2) Live in an entirely different world from the rest of us; and (3) Actually share personality traits with serial murderers ...

Considering how enormous the U.S. debt load currently is (roughly $14.5 Tn), higher interest rates would add a crippling burden to an already high burden.

Are you putting yourself first? If not , read this and share some stock recommendations with your fellow ZH members...

I crunch inflation numbers. It doesn't work.

"I'll not have you tampering with this delicate user interface!

What is worse is that it looks like the pace of layoffs is going to keep increasing.