Friday, October 23, 2015
Another Government Ponzi Scheme Starts to Crack - Do You Depend on It? / Politics / Government Spending
By: Casey_Research
By Nick Giambruno
Government employees get to do a lot of things that would land an ordinary citizen in prison.
For example, it’s legal for them to threaten and commit offensive, rather than defensive, violence. They can take property from others without their consent. They spy on anyone’s email and bank accounts whenever they please. They go into trillions of dollars in debt and then stick the unborn with the bill. They counterfeit the currency. They lie with misleading statistics and use accounting wizardry no business could get away. And this just scratches the surface…
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Friday, October 23, 2015
Pictures for the Pope Francis and Progressives / Politics / Social Issues
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."
Friday, October 23, 2015
Retirees: I Did Not Buy IBM to Sell, It’s About The Dividend Income Stupid / Companies / Dividends
By: Charles_Carnevale
There are many investing strategies and principles that retired investors can utilize to reduce the risk associated with investing in equities (stocks) for their retirement portfolios. Choosing to invest in the highest quality stocks your mind can conceive sits at the top of the list. There are many components that investors can analyze and examine to determine whether a company is high quality or not.
The primary determinant of high quality is superior financial strength. Financially strong companies possess the staying power and resources to weather the occasional bad storms that will inevitably occur. Every business will on occasion face challenges and difficulties. Meeting those challenges requires a strong balance sheet and an adaptive and competent management team to guide the company across troubled waters.
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Friday, October 23, 2015
Stock Market SPX 78.6% Retracement / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
SPX appears to have made a 78.6% retracement of its decline from May 20 to August 24. Here are some points of interest. It will have re-entered its trading band at 2063.98 and closed this morning’s gap up beneath 2050.00. These would be considered aggressive short entries. The lower trendline of the small Diagonal formation is at 2030.00 at present.
Friday, October 23, 2015
Silver’s Deep Undervaluation / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015
By: Zeal_LLC
Silver is finally showing some signs of life after suffering a dark year. The epically-bearish sentiment that bludgeoned this metal to major secular lows is cracking, with a strong rebound rally now underway. And this recent buying is likely just the earliest vanguard, as silver remains deeply undervalued relative to its primary driver gold. Silver will need an utterly massive upleg to fully mean revert to normal levels.
Silver has been out of favor for a long time, the last few years. And 2015 didn’t give beleaguered silver investors much hope. By late August, July’s extreme gold-futures shorting attack had dragged silver down to a major 6.0-year secular low. Down 9.9% year-to-date at that dark nadir, silver was left for dead by traders. The despair was real, as it certainly felt like silver was doomed to keep grinding lower forever.
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Friday, October 23, 2015
ECB Putting Federal Reserve in a Bad Spot / Interest-Rates / ECB Interest Rates
By: EconMatters
ECB Policy Press Conference
Friday, October 23, 2015
Coventry Building Society’s Poppy Fixed Rate Bond 2.35% for 3 Years / Personal_Finance / Savings Accounts
By: MoneyFacts
Coventry Building Society has re-launched its popular Poppy Bond, which pays a fixed yearly rate of 2.35% until 31.12.18 (2.33% gross, 2.36% AER monthly). The account has a minimum opening investment of just £1 but any additions will need to be made within 14 days of the account opening or before closure of the issue, whichever is later. A donation equating to 0.15% of the total invested balance will be paid to The Royal British Legion by the society.
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Friday, October 23, 2015
GBP/USD Tests Last Week's High / Currencies / British Pound
By: Nadia_Simmons
Earlier today, official data showed that British retail sales increased by 1.9% in the previous month, beating forecasts for a gain of 0.3%. Additionally, year-on-year, retail sales rose by 6.5% in September, above expectations for a 4.8% gain. On top of that, core retail sales (without automobile sales) jumped 1.7% last month also beating forecasts for a 0.3% increase. Thanks to these bullish numbers GBP/USD rebounded sharply and climbed to the last week's high. Will we see higher values of the exchange rate in the coming days?
Friday, October 23, 2015
Bye, Bye Euro / Currencies / Euro
By: Dan_Norcini
So how does it fell Mr. Euro to get smacked upside the head by your supposed caretaker?
Mario Draghi must be taking lessons from the Bank of Japan because this is one of the best verbal whoopin’s I have seen put on a currency.
Mario yanked the rug out hard; so hard, that the basement is now evident.
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Friday, October 23, 2015
Why Stocks are About to Get DEMOLISHED / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015
By: EWI
Dear Investor,
You hear the abstract terms floating around the financial media -- devaluation, disinflation, low inflation, even negative inflation (whatever the heck that is!). Make no mistake about it; these terms refer to but one monetary force: deflation.
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Friday, October 23, 2015
Europe Admits QE Has Failed, Promises More Of It / Interest-Rates / Quantitative Easing
By: John_Rubino
New Age monetary policy has begun to resemble the form of insanity in which a patient repeats the same behavior while expecting a different outcome.
Throughout the developed world, interest rates are at record lows and central banks continue to pump out newly-created currency. Yet growth remains tepid, inflation is nonexistent and debt of every type continues to mount. And instead of recognizing that somewhere in their guiding theory lurks a fatal flaw, governments and central banks just keep upping the ante. Today it was Europe, where central banks have been expanding their balance sheets (i.e. running the printing presses) aggressively…
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Friday, October 23, 2015
The Seven Biggest Lies Told and Believed about Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015
By: MoneyMetals
Guy Christopher writes: It’s hard to say which lie about gold is the biggest whopper.
Many widely held beliefs about gold are lies – propaganda hammered home to have us believe the only true measure of wealth is government-issued debt.
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Thursday, October 22, 2015
Silver Prices and The Fiduciary Standard Of Care / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015
By: Dr_Jeff_Lewis
Once again we get to continue along this discussion of how the price of silver is truly formed in the market as we see it today.
The reason for that is so that you can have as a resource the ability to go to a whole set of information that shows you what's really happening in real time, rather than going out and feeling disconnected or disintegrated and looking weak correlations that have no connection to anything.
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Thursday, October 22, 2015
11 Days to U.S. Government Shutdown Crisis... What Investors Should Know / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2015
By: Investment_U
Sean Brodrick writes: America is on a collision course with a crippling crisis. One that could start as early as November 3 - just 11 days from now.
Importantly, the last time this happened, the market started selling off hard eight days before the actual crisis. So I want to make you aware of both the looming risks... and the potential profit opportunities.
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Thursday, October 22, 2015
Employment Is Nothing Like Slavery / Politics / Employment
By: MISES
Julian Adorney writes: What is necessary to take away a man’s freedom? For many progressives, nothing more then a bad workplace. Amazon takes ongoing heat for its work environment, with opponents like Business Insider calling it a “slave camp.”
But this comparison mistakes the fundamental nature of coercion.
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Thursday, October 22, 2015
It’s Not Time to Sell the German DAX / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015
By: Sol_Palha
He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away. -
Raymond HullAgain, the talking heads are claiming that there is a pattern that overtly implies that the Dow tends to follow the DAX. When the markets were free or had some elements of freedom in them, one could give some credence to these patterns, but today where fraud and manipulation are the order of the day....... Such patterns have to be taken with a jar of salt. By maintaining an ultra-low interest environment for an unusually lengthy period of time, the Fed has fostered an environment that rewards speculators and destroys savers. Nothing could be more insane, but this is the predicament most people find themselves facing today.
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Thursday, October 22, 2015
Reshuffling the Deck in the Mideast / Politics / Middle East
By: John_Browne
The U.S. presence in the Middle East, which for years provided some control over one of the world's most volatile regions, appears to have dissolved into chaos. By removing Saddam Hussein from power, the U.S. removed his tyrannical but stabilizing hand from the powder keg that always existed in the poorly designed nation state of Iraq. Rather than attempting to repair the damage, President Obama appears intent on leaving what he terms "a quagmire." Predictably, chaos has emerged, not just in Iraq, but in Syria as well. The rapidly changing political landscape is pushing major regional players like Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to drastically reshuffle their assumptions and allegiances.
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Notes from the Asylum / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2015
By: John_Mauldin
By Jared Dillian
First, a shameless plug. Please follow me on Twitter.
Now on to today’s topic. You probably heard that Dreamy McDreamerson is the new Canadian prime minister, opening a can of Canadian whoop-ass on Harper. Here is the crux of it.
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Thursday, October 22, 2015
SPX is Higher, But May Not Survive the Day / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
SPX Premarket is higher in a minute-retracement at 8:45, but may not survive until the open. Caterpillar shares tumbled as its revenues plunge 19%. There is a blitz of earnings reports today and it is difficult to say how it may close.
Will bad news finally be bad news?
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Thursday, October 22, 2015
Stocks Bullish but Bond Bull Market is Over / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2015
By: John_Mauldin
I generally send out two letters a week. The letter that arrives in your inbox over the weekend is Thoughts from the Frontline and is written by me. The second letter, which is called Outside the Box, generally comes in the middle of the week and is an article or essay written by someone else that I think merits your time. Quite often I disagree with the sentiment or analysis being expressed, but I find the writer makes me think about alternatives to my personally favored presuppositions. It is always good to listen to the other side of the story, especially when we are talking economics and finance and our investment portfolios!