Archive - Aug 13, 2015 - Story

The last time former Goldman employee and then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson bailed out the hedge fund known as Goldman Sachs, and its closest peers (but not its biggest fixed income competitor Lehman Brothers of course), even the traditionally confused American public pushed back on the structure of the bailout which converted the Goldman holding company into an FDIC-insured company, which led many to ask: just where are Goldman's deposits? The answer, of course, was nowhere, so perhaps in anticipation of the logical pushback against its second, upcoming bailout which would see the taxpayer-backed depositor insurance company once again provide trillions in cash to banks as well as the glorified hedge funds such as Goldman, the firm moments ago decided to do something it has never done before: become an actual bank with checking accounts and such.

Everyone knows the disparity between CEO pay and worker pay is vast in America. Now, the SEC is set to require companies to publish how much more their executives make than their employees. According to Bloomberg, at least one of these 11 CEOs "may have some explaining to do."

It doesn't get more flagrant than this: the full HFT criminal monty exposed for all to see.

The Fed is rapidly coming to realize they are caught in a "liquidity trap." The problem is they have been betting on a "one trick pony" that by increasing the "wealth effect" it will ultimately lead to a return of consumer confidence and a fostering of economic growth? Currently, there is little real evidence of success.

Best. Correction. Ever... from The LA Times...

As Brazil struggles to cope with the worst stagflationary nightmare in a decade while simultaneously staring down twin deficits, embattled President Dilma Rousseff is now the country's most unpopular democratically elected president since a military dictatorship ended in 1985. On the economic front, the situation is pretty much intractable, and while the political situation is equally desperate, there's always the impeachment option.

For the first time since March 2009, the front-month WTI crude futures contract has traded with a $41 handle. As it draws ever nearer the 2009 lows, we are reminded of the ominous warnings that DoubleLine's Jeff Gundlach issued in January. - "I hope it does not go to $40 because then something is very, very wrong with the world, not just the economy. The geopolitical consequences could be – to put it bluntly – terrifying."

"... the first explosion was followed by an even more powerful explosion, followed by a shock wave that caused live trees to bend, many leaves and branches have fallen, the whole sky was lit with raging fires.. the whole thing was like a Hollywood disaster movie."

New lows in Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, and Thailand... but apart from that - Fed rate hikes and Yuan devaluation are irrelevant?

Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir to discuss options for Syria’s future. At the post-meeting press conference, Russia's top diplomat let his real feelings for the Saudis slip.

Rather than rely on the same signals everyone else has, accredit yourself. Don't rely on the declining value of credentialing signals: demonstrate you have the skills.

As Bernie Sanders moves ahead of Hillary in one poll, we thought it ironic that the wave of socialism is showing up in American consumer confidence data...

Presented with little comment, aside to say - seriously!!! What do the 'smart' equity algos know that credit and commodity professionals do not?

The ratio of hires to job openings has been steadily falling.  The analysts the WSJ cited all felt that the growing number of job openings was a bullish sign, and that employers can’t find workers to fill the jobs they are offering because workers don’t have the skills employers need. However, The Journal failed to mention the other cause - that the jobs being offered are so crappy and so low paying, nobody wants to take them. More troubling though is the rise in layoffs, just as we saw in 2007...just before stocks turned down.