Archive - 2013 - Blog entry

The last time prices reached only $95 a barrel WTI the Whitehouse started talking up the SPR release only six months ago.  Now that gas prices are higher than ever for this time of year and set to go higher, and we haven`t heard a single mention of the SPRs? 

It’s curious, isn’t it?  So-called “paper gold” (a futures contract) has a price that is not only very close to physical gold, but it remains locked to it.  This is despite the fact that “paper gold” is reviled in the gold community.  Why?  What is this mysterious force that binds them tightly together?

Back to square one. Spain is in the spotlight once again with data unsettling enough to shatter the Euro’s 4 month rally against the dollar. Record unemployment coupled with depressing growth data and political woes paint Spain to look like a sinking ship.

Break the markets to save themselves...

The magnitude of the euro's slide on Monday is typically not asscoiated with one-day events.  The market may be cautious ahead of the ECB meeting on Thursday, but we expect this pullback in the euro will prove to be a new buying opportunity.  We anticiapte the euro holds above $1.34.  We note that Spanish yields have been rising in aboslute terms and relative to Germany for the better part of three weeks.  This has been happening as the euro rose.  The main driver of the fx market is the portfolio shift associated with the realization that EMU will be here tomorrow and the next day and the passibe tightening of euro area monetary conditions.  At the same time the Federal Reserve has renewed its commitment to buy $85 bln of long-term assets for months to come.  

Thanks, Bernanke and Holder!

Despite the Pretense that the U.S. and Israel Are Not Intervening In Syria’s Civil War, They Are Both At War With Syria

Our favorite Super EURO Heroes have returned!

Here are eight considerations that will shape the captial markets in the week ahead.  

More and more in fashion lately in the financial world is companies taking huge write-downs of some flopped acquisitions....

As everyone gets caught up in the euphoria of an ever rising S&P, remember that once upon a time, in a land far, far away, the economy was driven by goods produced and services provided instead of the amount of excess reserves banks can use to bid up market prices with.

Updated SOPA Bowl set with a halftime show that won't be beaten...

When only a few dozen claim they understand how an economic system works we have crossed over from examining and describing a complex economic entity and into a religious cult based solely upon faith and belief.

Collectively, the world’s Central Banks have pumped over $10 trillion into the financial system since 2007. This money printing has resulted in a massive expansion of Central Bank balance sheets, spread inflation into the system, and done nothing to address the key solvency issues that lead up to the great crisis.

I argue that Abe is lucky, but now needs to be smart. I made a proposal a few years ago that Japan should return a quarter of its reserves to the Japanese people. The proposal is more compelling now than then. The objections by BOJ officials can be overcome by the Abe government. Reserves are for a rainy day and it is continuing to rain in Tokyo.