The stock market has now been up for ten straight days. Many on Wall Street are singing “Happy Days Are Here Again.” For them, that is probably the case. They finally have something to sell that will bring the rubes back into the markets. We are not in Kansas anymore. Fear is ebbing and greed is coming back. Those on [...]
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standard Hope and Crosby Never Went to Zimbabwe
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby made a series of movies together entitled “Road to …”. The first, made in 1940, was “The Road to Singapore.” The series was successful and included destinations such as Bali, Zanzibar, Rio, and Morocco. In all, I believe seven different movies were made over about a twelve year period ending in the early 1950s. Were [...]
standard Playing Financial Chicken In Your Golden Years
My generation, born during or near post World War II, has been quite fortunate. Those of us lucky to have been born in the US during this period hit a sweet spot of both place and history. The economy thrived, standards of living soared and many avoided the numerous wars that dominated the Twentieth Century. Today, the future does not [...]
standard Look Out For Falling Stocks
Markets make no sense. They literally have lost touch with reality. Divergences between fundamentals, confidence and the valuation of markets are large. These divergences cannot last for long. A convergence will occur. The question is how this convergence occurs and how quickly? My opinion is that there will be little improvement in confidence and fundamentals. If true, then that means that [...]
standard Happy Days Are Gone Again
The joy of Friday's Dow close over 14,000 should be taken with a grain of salt and huge amounts of caution. Peter Schiff can always be counted on to rain on Washington's parades and also Wall Street's. Here is Mr. Schiff's take on why you should not be impressed with Dow 14,000 and why you should be concerned: The media [...]
standard A Madoff Market
Fantasy is fun while it lasts. But reality eventually intercedes and interferes with even the mildest fantasy. Those way out in fantasy land are especially vulnerable to disappointment. So it is for those betting on the stock market and an economic recovery. More Bad Information There is no economic recovery despite all the media and Washington bravado. Just another sign is [...]
standard Stocks Due For Downdraft?
Equity investors (stocks) should be very cautious. This week could be a bad one for stocks. Both the ECB and the Fed disappointed by not announcing new liquidity measures. There is no good news in economies, any economies. Why stocks have remained where they are is likely a belief in additional liquidity to drive them. With the current economic situation [...]
standard How Government Steals Your Wealth
Most readers know that I favor hard assets as opposed to paper assets. By hard assets I mean precious metals, land and things that will hurt you if you drop them on your foot. Paper assets are stocks and bonds. My position regarding hard versus soft assets is a recent one. Up until probably 2001, I had never owned gold [...]
standard Gold Stocks Vs. Gold
As anyone interested in gold knows, gold has risen for 11 consecutive years. Where it goes from here, time will ultimately determine. Readers of this blog know I think it still has a long way to run, determinable primarily by the Federal Reserve’s continued mismanagement of the money supply. More perplexing has been the performance of gold stocks. For the [...]
standard Stock Market No Place For Pros
There is, or should be, a great deal of unease with regard to our non-recovery. The average investor has had a nice recovery in the stock market, but the sophisticated investors recognize that recent results are likely much ado about nothing. As the Wall Street Journal reported in an article entitled You Hear That? It’s Quiet…Too Quiet: For many, this year’s [...]
standard The Stock Market in Perspective
On the roller coaster that we call the stock market, it is easy to miss the forest for the trees. Volatile short-term moves are especially pronounced in today’s economic environment. But do they have any meaning in the larger scheme of things? The following chart provides a big picture of the stock market. More important, it provides the picture in [...]
standard Yesterday’s Stock Market Rally Courtesy of Government Ponzi
Yesterday was a big day in the stock market! The Central Banks of the world came to the rescue of Europe, at least that is what you are supposed to believe. In reality, nothing positive happened yesterday unless you were long the stock or commodities markets. The actions of the Central Banks signal how desperate the situation is. Nothing was done [...]