Friday, March 24, 2017
Financial Markets Russian Roulette, Central Banks, and Gold / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2017
Grab your ultra-reliable 357 magnum revolver and load the cylinder with six, not one, rounds of ammunition. Point the gun at your head if you are a member of the struggling middle-class. Imagine pulling the trigger and hoping …
Do you feel lucky?
The Six Loads of Ammunition for your 357 revolver are:
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Friday, March 24, 2017
Is Stock Market Flash Crash Postponed Until Monday? / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
Good Morning!
USD spiked higher overnight, but lost all of its gains after 3:00 am in the Premarket. It hasn’t made a new low yet but, by all appearances, may do so very soon. We will be watching the 98.70 to 99.00 support to see if it is broken.
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Friday, March 24, 2017
Stock Market Bubble and Gold / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
In January, the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke above the symbolic 20,000 for the first time ever. This development raised again concerns about the condition of the U.S. stock market - further gains could be a headwind for the gold market, but the end of the bull market would support the yellow metal. The valuations were at record highs even before the presidential elections, but Trump's rally elevated them further, as the chart below shows.
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Friday, March 24, 2017
Maps Of Past Empires That Can Tell Us About The Future / Politics / GeoPolitics
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN AND JACOB SHAPIRO : Studying history has little practical utility in averting past outcomes. We are doomed to repeat history whether we know it or not.
The value in knowing history is not that one might prevent its recurrence. Its value is that it allows you to identify those things that don’t change and that shape events… no matter the year on the calendar.
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Friday, March 24, 2017
This Single Model Explains Crude Oil Price Swings / Commodities / Crude Oil
BY JARED DILLIAN : One of the things we learned when oil collapsed a couple of years ago—something I’ve written about previously—was that there was a positive feedback loop embedded in declining oil prices.
Basic economic theory would tell you that as the price declines, so does oil supply. But the opposite turned out to be true. The rice went down, and people pumped more!
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Friday, March 24, 2017
SNP Independent Scotland's Destiny With Economic Catastrophe, the English Subsidy - IndyRef2 / Politics / Scotland
The SNP have declared there intension's for a second Scottish independence referendum barely 2 years on from the last 'once in a lifetime' referendum was as a consequence of the UK intending to LEAVE the European Union which includes exiting the EU Single Market.
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Friday, March 24, 2017
Maps That Explain Why North America Economy Will Flourish / Economics / US Economy
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : The world has seen great change since the end of the Cold War. For much of the past two millennia, political, military, and economic strength has been based in Eurasia. And, since the 1500s, mostly in Europe.
This is no longer true.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the world’s one top power has been in North America. North America is now the center of the international political system. Mainly because of the power of the United States.
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Friday, March 24, 2017
The Best Stock Market Investment Strategy Today: Be Optimistic and Short / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
BY JARED DILLIAN : For the last eight years of my life, we’ve been dealing with higher taxes and lots more regulation.
Like I’ve written about before, we’ve been dealing with these things for so long that we’ve forgotten what it was like not having to deal with them.
And if we had elected Hillary Clinton, we would have gotten even more of the same. A few months into the Trump regime, and we have started to figure out that things are going to be very different.
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Friday, March 24, 2017
Stock Market Mixed to Nominally Lower Day with Good Technicals / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
The stock market indices had a mixed to nominally lower day with pretty good technicals for a positive down day, which is bullish, but the overall look of the trend wasn’t good. The snapback began yesterday, extended this morning, and came down in a 3-wave corrective pullback. It remains to be seen whether the lows hold, and whether or not this extends to the downside, or if this is just a consolidation before we resume back up. Right now, I favor the downside, so we’ll see if that occurs.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
Stock Market VIX Cycles Set To Explode March/April 2017 – Part II / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
Back in early February 2017, we posted an article to all our members about how our analysis showed a very strong potential for larger price swings with the potential for a massive explosion in the VIX indicator based on a price cycle pattern we had been studying. Many of you may remember this article, if not Click Here to review the original.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
Is Now a Good Time to Invest in the US Housing Market? / Housing-Market / US Housing
The US housing market has maintained its subdued growth following Trump’s election to The White House. Towards the end of last year, especially in the run-in to the US presidential elections, there was what appeared to be a strong belief that Trump would be bad for the stock market if elected as president, and by extension the overall economy of the US.However, the US stock market has experienced one of the best runs in history repeatedly breaking the all-time highs from one week to the next. The housing market, on the other hand, has experienced a rather slower growth since Trump’s election, but the point is that it’s been growing, nonetheless.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
The Stock Market Is a Present-Day Version of Pavlov’s Dog / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
David Rosenberg is one of the most respected voices in the investing world. His Breakfast with Dave goes out to thousands of appreciative subscribers nearly every business morning.
Rosie is the “Data Meister.” To everyone’s surprise, Rosie turned bullish in a big way six years ago. Now he’s cautious—in a big way—as you’re about to see.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
US Budget - There’s Almost Nothing Left To Cut / Politics / Government Spending
Every politician in every campaign talks about getting rid of government fraud and waste.
If we could only cut out all of that wasted spending, we would have money either to lower taxes or to spend on something more useful.
Except there is nothing to cut that is of any meaningful consequence.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
Why The US Should Introduce VAT And Carbon Taxes Instead / Politics / Taxes
BY JOHN MAULDIN : Economists of pretty much every stripe will agree that a consumption tax has fewer negative effects than an income tax does. That’s because incentives matter.
If you want more of something, then tax it less; if you want less of something, tax it more. It’s about that simple.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
Gold Prices See Seventh Day Of Gains After Terrorist Attack In London / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
– Gold prices higher seven days in row – best gains since Brexit
– Gold spikes to three week high after terrorist attack in London
– Global stocks fell yesterday after attack in London
– Stocks resilient today and start day flat
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Stock Market Upward Reversal Or Just Quick Rebound Before Another Leg Down?? / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
Briefly: In our opinion, speculative short positions are favored (with stop-loss at 2,410, and profit target at 2,200, S&P 500 index).
Our intraday outlook is bearish, and our short-term outlook is bearish. Our medium-term outlook remains neutral, following S&P 500 index breakout above last year's all-time high:
Intraday outlook (next 24 hours): bearish
Short-term outlook (next 1-2 weeks): bearish
Medium-term outlook (next 1-3 months): neutral
Long-term outlook (next year): neutral
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Trends to Look Out For as a Modern-day Landlord / Housing-Market / Buy to Let
They say that property is always a sound investment, yet changes in the economy have led to some suggestions that life as a landlord is soon to get so much more difficult.
There is increased legislation, the markets are changing and in short, there's just a few more obstacles to contend with.
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Cutting US Income Taxes Will Blow Out The Budget / Politics / Taxes
BY JOHN MAULDIN : The cost of health care runs well over $1.1 trillion. Social Security is almost $1 trillion. Defense spending is $620 billion.
Entitlement programs for our nation’s seniors and low-income individuals and families run $550 billion. (That includes food stamps, disability, affordable housing, earned-income tax credits, childcare tax credits, and so on.)
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
Here’s Why Interstate Health Insurance Won’t Fix Obamacare / Trumpcare / Politics / Healthcare Sector
BY PATRICK WATSON : Congress has a new healthcare plan to replace Obamacare. It may go nowhere since many Republicans aren’t happy with it… and the problems it tries to solve will remain.
Worse, anything that gets past the House and Senate may not matter if insurers refuse to play in 2018. The big ones haven’t committed yet.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
China’s Biggest Limitations Determine the Future of East Asia / Politics / China
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : As we wrote about in “China’s Strategy,” East Asia is split into four parts: The Pacific archipelago, the Chinese mainland, the Korean Peninsula, and Indochina. East Asia holds the second and third largest world economies: China and Japan. The relationship between them and the US define modern East Asian geopolitics.
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