Friday, October 30, 2015

Apple Clever Business Strategy—But Is It Clever Enough? / Companies / Apple

By: John_Mauldin

Back when I was in business school, the PC manufacturers were go-go football stocks. Bull market, dude.

There was Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, and Gateway, which used to sell its computers in a Holstein cow-pattern box. Apple was making Macs but had a much smaller market share than it does today.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

The Constitution’s Big Lie / Politics / US Politics

By: Antonius_Aquinas

One of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated upon Americans at the time of its telling and which is still trumpeted to this very day is the notion that the U.S. Constitution contains within its framework mechanisms which limit its power. The “separation of powers,” where power is distributed among the three branches – legislative, executive, judicial – is supposedly the primary check on the federal government’s aggrandizement.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Financial Markets are a Game / Stock-Markets / Market Manipulation

By: EconMatters

Forget about Market Multiples: Totally Meaningless Sell-Side Crap

Thursday, October 29, 2015

ONS UK Population Immigration Panic, Forecast 10 Million Increase / Politics / Immigration

By: Nadeem_Walayat

The ONS is belatedly waking up to Britain's population explosion by forecasting a 15% rise in the UK population from 64.6 million (mid 2014) to 74.3 million by 2039 (25 years time), approx 70% of which will be due to continuing out of control immigration from predominantly eastern europe as 7 million more economic migrants will seek to jump on board Britain's benefits gravy train (in work and out of work benefits) that typically can amount to more than X5 those receivable in eastern europe.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

The Fed Just Whacked Corporate Earnings / Companies / Corporate Earnings

By: John_Rubino

The markets seemed to like what the Fed had to say yesterday, including the part about definitely, for sure, no kidding around this time raising interest rates in December. Especially elated were currency traders, who bid the US dollar up on the news.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

FOMC Word Play Kicks Off a Correction That Was Coming Anyway in Gold, May Soon Come in Stocks / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2015

By: Gary_Tanashian

What They Said

“In determining whether it will be appropriate to raise the target range at its next meeting, the Committee will assess progress–both realized and expected–toward its objectives of maximum employment and 2 percent inflation. This assessment will take into account a wide range of information, including measures of labor market conditions, indicators of inflation pressures and inflation expectations, and readings on financial and international developments.”

Thursday, October 29, 2015

US Regulators Mandate Next Stage Of Textbook Financial Repression / Stock-Markets / Government Intervention

By: Dan_Amerman

With comparatively little fanfare, Fidelity Investments has announced that 100% of their $115 billion Cash Reserves fund, the world's largest money fund, will be invested in US government debt by December 1st of 2015. It is expected that many other money fund companies will also change their policies and invest only in US government and agency securities, because of a change in regulations that will occur in 2016.

Since 2010 the US government has been implementing a textbook example of Financial Repression, when it comes to using private savings to control and even effectively pay down the size of the national debt. Far from slowing down or ending this process, these new policies will expand by many millions the number of people who will effectively be forced to fund the purchase of government debt at artificially low interest rates. 

Thursday, October 29, 2015

London Property Bubble Set To Burst – UBS and Deutsche Warn / Housing-Market / UK Housing

By: GoldCore

The London property market is being increasingly recognised as a bubble and now even leading international banks are warning that the bubble may be set to burst.

Today, UBS has warned that London’s property market is “frothing” and last week Deutsche Bank were the property party pooper “calling time” on the London property “party.”  

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Gold Analogue: Then and Now / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: DeviantInvestor

1970s:  Gold rallied from about $35 in 1970 to nearly $200 in December 1974, and then fell to about $100 in August 1976.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

The Financialization of the Economy / Economics / Economic Theory

By: John_Mauldin

Roger Bootle once wrote:

The whole of economic life is a mixture of creative and distributive activities. Some of what we ‘‘earn’’ derives from what is created out of nothing and adds to the total available for all to enjoy. But some of it merely takes what would otherwise be available to others and therefore comes at their expense.

Successful societies maximise the creative and minimise the distributive. Societies where everyone can achieve gains only at the expense of others are by definition impoverished. They are also usually intensely violent….

Much of what goes on in financial markets belongs at the distributive end. The gains to one party reflect the losses to another, and the fees and charges racked up are paid by Joe Public, since even if he is not directly involved in the deals, he is indirectly through costs and charges for goods and services.

The genius of the great speculative investors is to see what others do not, or to see it earlier. This is a skill. But so is the ability to stand on tip toe, balancing on one leg, while holding a pot of tea above your head, without spillage. But I am not convinced of the social worth of such a skill.

This distinction between creative and distributive goes some way to explain why the financial sector has become so big in relation to gross domestic product – and why those working in it get paid so much.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

The Chartology of The Currency Wars …What If ! / Currencies / Forex Trading

By: Rambus_Chartology

It finally looks like a major inflection point is getting very close to resolving itself in many different areas of the markets. The US dollar is the key driver of this inflection point which is starting to breakout from a nearly eight month bullish falling wedge consolidation pattern. This afternoon the US dollar began a strong rally that is somewhat unusual during the afternoon hours unless it is Fed Day where anything goes . The daily chart below now shows today’s bar clearly above the top rail of the bullish falling wedge. It’s still possible that we could see a backtest to the top rail at 97.12 before the next impulse move up begins in earnest.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

The Small-Cap Biotech Stocks Bull Market / Companies / BioTech

By: TLSReport

SeeThruEquity's Ajay Tandon and Jay Albany are riding the biotech bull by harnessing the huge upside potential of micro-cap companies working in multiple subsectors, particularly in the rapidly advancing cancer immunotherapy sector. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Tandon and Albany toss the names of several companies into the arena for investors' consideration.

The Life Sciences Report: Given the current healthcare market, how does the future look for small-cap biotechs versus large-cap companies?

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Sea Change in the Fed Swamps Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: Dan_Norcini

WOW! I know no other way of saying it than to say that the Fed took everyone by surprise. I certainly did not expect this Fed, this timid FOMC, to sound such a hawkish note.

As dovish as Draghi and the ECB sounded last week, the Fed sounded hawkish this week. Talk about a sea change in attitude!

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Does Market Timing Work? / InvestorEducation / Learn to Trade

By: Sol_Palha

Anything I've ever done that ultimately was worthwhile... initially scared me to death. ~ Betty Bender

Many individuals and experts state that market timing is impossible. The answer to this question is yes and no. We all know there are seasons in a year and we know roughly when winter, summer, fall, and spring will begin. No one can predict the exact time the one season will transition into the next. The same rationale applies to market timing. If you are trying to predict the exact market turning points, then you might get it right once or twice, but overall your record will be dismal, it is an exercise in futility for the most part and best reserved for those who seem to have a deep desire to take on large losses. Market timing is like waiting for a change in the season.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

After the Pope's Message on Economics, Why is he all Smiles? / Politics / Religion

By: Steve_H_Hanke

In September, Pope Francis visited the United States, where he addressed the U.S. Congress. His address, while nuanced, hit on social justice themes. The Pope’s remarks were well received by left-of-center politicians who embrace progressive policies. When the Pope left the U.S., he traveled to Latin America, where he spoke in his native Spanish and was more direct. While in Bolivia, Pope Francis had this to say: “Let us not be afraid to say it: we want change, real change, structural change,” the Pope said, decrying a system that “has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature.”

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

“Ignore The Noise” & Focus On The Fact That Central Banks “Remain Extremely Accommodative / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2015

By: GoldCore

The primary focus this week is again on the “all powerful” Fed. If the Fed leans toward a rate hike in December, gold could come under pressure again in the short term. However, if it leans toward raising rates next year, then gold would be expected to eke out further gains.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Stock Market Flat Until the Fed Announcement? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015

By: Anthony_Cherniawski

Good Morning!

The SPX Premarket is marginally higher this morning. It doesn’t Appear that much is going to happen until the 2 pm Fed Announcement. A year ago the market would have been tracking higher going into the Fed Announcement.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

U.S. Economy On the Precipice of Deflation / Economics / Deflation

By: EWI

Weakest economic recovery in seven decades gets weaker

Most people extrapolate present trends into the future. But yesterday's trend can look like day vs. night when tomorrow arrives.

Almost no one expected deflation when the December 2007 Elliott Wave Theorist said:

Inflation has raged, but deflation is next.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

George Osborne Capitulates Following Working and Child Tax Credits Cuts Defeat / Politics / UK Tax & Budget

By: Nadeem_Walayat

Britain's un-elected House of Lords has forced George Osborne to effectively capitulate on the scale and time table of £4.4 billion in cuts to the tax credits system that were due to be introduced from April 2016. The Working and Child Tax Credits monster is a legacy of the last Labour government that had grown out of control over a decade of attempting to bribe an ever increasing number of low paid workers to vote Labour as the budget had mushroomed from an annual cost of £1 billion to £32 billion that first the Coalition and now the Conservative governments have been attempting to get to grips with, and so far failing abysmally to do so.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Falling Wedge Formation Pointing to Higher Gold Price / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: Mario_Innecco

Technical analysis has always been a difficult craft to perform as evolving formations sometimes point to certain outcomes but not always do we get these outcomes. Since the great financial crisis of 2008 and the intervention of all major Western central banks in capital markets via their policy of quantitative easing and zero interest rates it has become even more difficult to use technical analysis tools to try and predict market action. With that in mind here is what we think the technical tea leaves are telling us about the gold price.