Submited by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Off vacationing in Crete so I will keep it short and sweet. Noticed stocks got hammered again on Tuesday. I would be buying those dips, especially on solars (LDK and YGE). A few pension articles for you. The Toronto Star reports that pension panic subsiding. The Financial […]
Read more...Even though the Baltic Dry Index, which measures freight rates rates for bulk transport, is well off its lows, other indicators of shipping activity are less encouraging. Containers shipment, which handles higher value added goods, is still falling and is expected to remain low in 2010. From the Los Angeles Times (hat tip DoctoRx): Trade […]
Read more...Wow, I never thought I’d see the day when a company made a frontal assault on Microsoft’s core business. Google goes where the DOJ failed to penetrate (more accurately, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson managed to steal defeat from the jaws of victory by making some remarks between the decision and the sentencing phase of the […]
Read more...Rob Parenteau, CFA, serves as an economic and investment strategy consultant at MacroStrategy Edge, and edits the monthly Richebacher Letter. He also serves as a research associate at the Levy Economics Institute. The Austrian School works with a world where money and finance can have repercussions on the real economy, primarily through the effects of […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. Laura Tyson, an advisor to President Barack Obama, said in a speech to day in the lead up to the –8 conference that the ground work for a potential second stimulus bill must be laid now. To be sure, the G-8 leaders are expected to recommend continued policy […]
Read more...Climate change is shrinking sheep BBC The laser that can halt blindness and offer hope for millions Mail Online NiMH Batteries, Chevron Patents and the Future of Plug-in Hybrid Cars SEA (hat tip John D) How useless is a Chocolate Teapot? Kitchen Science Experiments (hat tip reader Munch Paulson). A follow up to a weekend […]
Read more...An article in the Financial Times give a useful recap of what happened to the financial bugbear of days gone by, namely, the SIV, or structured investment vehicle. Henry Paulson’s failed plan to rescue these not-so-of-balance-sheet entities was front page news for most of the fourth quarter 2007. By the sound of it then, if […]
Read more...While oil is a finite resource, focusing on the long term can blind one to near-term dynamics. There has been surprisingly little mention in the mainstream media of how large the current oil surplus is. The collective view seems to be that this will take care of itself in short order. But that may be […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. As you all know, Yves has been swamped writing her book, a work we all await with anticipation. So I have stepped into the breach to add my voice to hers on this site from time to time. This week I will also try to help pick up […]
Read more...Coffee ‘may reverse Alzheimer’s’ BBC. A high dose, I might add. From predator to plant in one gulp Byte Sized Biology Obama reaches the limit of a friendly tone Clive Crook, Financial Times Binyam Mohamed launches legal fight to stop US destroying torture images Guardian Taibbi’s Scream: Stop the political system that lets Goldman Sachs […]
Read more...Goldman and Barclays are out touting old structured credit technology, apparently collateralized debt obligations, and claim they have been tamed and repurposed and are now virtuous. I am skeptical of these assertions, and welcome informed reader comment. CDOs in particular were leverage on leverage vehicles, and indeed, that seems again to be the reason for […]
Read more...It looks like I am being proven wrong on this one. I was of the view that the GM bankruptcy could get bogged down in court, since it had many more parties who could protest the use of section 363 to expedite asset sales than Chrysler did, some of whom also appeared to have better […]
Read more...In case you haven’t figured it out, Ed’s post on Sweden highlights an important and troubling development. It seems that central banks have locked themselves into “if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail” behavior with the move to negative rates. Since they are best able to dispense […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. In the clearest signal yet that we are still in a potentially devastating global deflationary spiral, The Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank and the world’s oldest central bank, has effectively cut interest rates to minus 0.25% and has started a program of quantitative easing a.k.a printing money. These are […]
Read more...Submitted by Richard Smith: This is the Black Swan gospel according to Triana. Taleb endorses it in a characteristically incendiary and intemperate foreword. He does come out all guns blazing, and you just have to go with that. Or chuck a glass of water over him, if he’s in range, I suppose. A quick recap […]
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