Monday, November 09, 2020

How Financial Markets Compare to Roulette / Personal_Finance / Gambling

By: Dylan_Moran

Monday, November 09, 2020

Is Fed Chairman Powell the Real Election Winner? / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: MoneyMetals

As President Donald Trump continues to insist that he will be the winner of the election after all the legitimate votes are counted and the illegitimate ones thrown out, at least one publication has declared a different winner. Not Joe Biden, but Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell.

The Wall Street periodical Barron’s argued Powell has become a more important figure for markets than whoever occupies the White House. 

Even as the presidential election outcome has been beset by uncertainty all week, Wall Street didn’t panic.  Quite the opposite.  Stocks surged on expectations for divided government and gridlock – and four more years of Fed stimulus.

Monday, November 09, 2020

Americans Are Buying Homes Sight Unseen: Here’s Why / Housing-Market / US Housing

By: Stephen_McBride

Lester Knispel bought the $1.5 million white-columned house on the second fairway. His Porsche is now parked in the garage. And family pictures hang in the living room.

But Lester and his wife have never set foot inside their new country club home! They live in California, and didn’t want to visit Florida during the lockdowns.

So instead they toured the five-bedroom mansion virtually, bought it, and then shipped the car and furniture soon after. “I never thought I’d buy something like this, sight unseen” Knispel told the Wall Street Journal.

Monday, November 09, 2020

Canada’s Warming Arctic – Gepolitical Implications / Politics / Climate Change

By: Richard_Mills

Canada’s identity is inextricably tied to the United States, and Canadians share much with their American neighbors, including popular culture, tourism, and the world’s longest undefended border. The amount of trade between the United States and Canada, an estimated $718.4 billion in 2019, is bested only by the sum total of goods and services exchanged between the US and China. Hundreds of Canadian businesses rely on goods and services produced state-side, and vice versa, making the supply chains between the two countries inextricable.

American news and politics is widely covered by Canadian media, not only for its public interest but because the influence of our southern neighbor is so pervasive, in political and economic life. As a former prime minister put it, “Living next to the US is like sleeping next to an elephant.”

Yet Canada has another identity, or rather, a different aspect of the same personality – one that is decidedly northern in geography and character. Above all, pun intended, Canada is an Arctic nation.

What defines the Canadian Arctic? The question appears easy at first blush. Tapping our collective imagination, which is all we have as most have never been there, most Canadians would answer, “everything north of the tree line” or more astutely, “territory that lies within the Arctic Circle.” Both are correct, yet vague.

Monday, November 09, 2020

Will Coronavirus Second Wave Boost Gold Price? / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2020

By: Arkadiusz_Sieron

Brace yourselves, winter is coming! This is what Ned Stark in the Game of Thrones told his people to prepare them for the leaner times he saw coming. While one of the biggest threats in GOT were the White Walkers, in our reality, the pandemic is again the greatest danger. As the chart below shows, the second wave of the coronavirus infections is no longer a mere possibility – it’s happening all over the Europe and in the United States (although in the latter country, we could also say about one big wave or three waves). In particular, in France, Italy, Spain, the UK, and in the US, the number of daily new confirmed Covid-19 case per million people has soared much higher than the levels recorded in the spring. And we’ve just entered autumn, with winter yet to arrive.

Sunday, November 08, 2020

What to Make of an “Irrational” Stock Market / Stock-Markets / Investing 2020

By: John_Mauldin

Justin Spittler : We’re also smack dab in the middle of earnings season. This is when companies tell the world how their business is doing. They reveal how much their sales grew and if they turned a profit.

Good quarterly results, as I’m sure you know, can cause a stock to race higher. Bad earnings, on the other hand, can send a stock into a tailspin. In fact, it’s quite common for a stock to move 20%, 30%, or even 40% in a day based on earnings.

More importantly, earnings can set the tone for a stock going forward. They can dictate a stock’s trajectory for weeks, months, or even years. But here’s the thing. Not all good earnings ignite powerful rallies. Sometimes, companies crush earnings and barely move or even fall on the news. We’ve been seeing this play out a lot recently.

Sunday, November 08, 2020

Why the Market's "Faith in the Fed" May Be Dwindling Fast / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2020

By: EWI

A chart that could be "a proxy for the market's faith in the Fed" shows "a classic loss of momentum"

Legendary financier John Pierpont Morgan was -- for all practical purposes -- a one-man central bank before the Fed came into existence in 1913.

During the financial panic of 1907, the banking titan used his influence to provide bailouts for faltering financial institutions. And, back in 1895, he had actually loaned the federal government money during another crisis.

Sunday, November 08, 2020

Get Ready for a Post-Election ‘Fed Wave’ of Inflation / Stock-Markets / Quantitative Easing

By: MoneyMetals

As accusations of voting irregularities mount, President Donald Trump’s legal team is descending on Pennsylvania and Georgia as well as multiple battleground states that have been called by media outlets for Joe Biden.

It will be an uphill battle for Trump to get to 270 electoral votes. As of this writing on Thursday morning, the final outcome of the presidential election remains uncertain.

One thing that is now certain: Voters denied Democrats the “blue wave” many pollsters and pundits had been forecasting.

Sunday, November 08, 2020

Best Ryzen Zen 3 CPU for Gaming and Productivity - 5600x, 5800x, 5900x, 5950x vs 10900k, 10600k / Personal_Finance / Computing

By: HGR

What are the best processors in terms of performance and value for money in November 2020 following release of AMD Zen 3 5000 series processors. Given the huge leap in performance can Intel even compete at any level? And if Zen 3 is the clear winner, then which are the best Zen 3 processors for Gaming and Productivity work?

Sunday, November 08, 2020

How to Fast Tame and Bond With Your Budgie, Fly to Your Hand / Personal_Finance / Animals & Pets

By: N_Walayat

How to tame your budgie in just 3 to 5 days! Teach your budgie to step up. Tame your budgie to fly to your hand or arm. Train your budgie to eat from your hand. Follow these steps for a happy, healthy, friendly budgie!

Saturday, November 07, 2020

Trump Concedes Election Defeat After MSM Call Pennsylvania for Joe Biden Winner of US Election 2020 / ElectionOracle / US Presidential Election 2020

By: N_Walayat

President Trump has graciously conceded election defeat after the mainstream establishment media called the US election for Vice President Biden earlier today after declaring Pennsylvania's 20 electoral college votes for Biden.

Friday, November 06, 2020

THE STOCK MARKET BIG PICTURE / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2020

By: Nadeem_Walayat

Will the November 3rd election earthquake trigger a stock market Tsunami or just a few inconsequential waves lapping on the market shore?  Here we stand just a few days away from the US presidential election with the liberal MSM in a state of electoral fever as their preferred candidate is way ahead on the polls looking set to win, just as their favoured candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016 was way head of the polls so unlike 2016 there is an edge to the frenzy of their activity given the awareness that the polls tend to be wrong, skewed against conservative voters and opinions. However, 2020 is even more chaotic than 2016, as this year there is the backdrop of the chinese virus raging across the US and especially in many US swing states that is contributing towards new cases of infection soaring to new plandemic highs with deaths already having broken above 230,000! Near double all of the US lives lost in all of the wars since 194 that acts as a continuing noose around the US economy, though that has so far not been enough to full fill that which the perma stock market doom merchants have been proclaiming for a more than a decade, an end to the stocks bull market.

Friday, November 06, 2020

Trump or Biden - USA is Still Going Bananas / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2020

By: Gary_Tanashian

You see, it’s not a Trump thing. It’s an ‘America is so hopelessly indebted (as are other developed economies) that they have no choice now’ thing.

However the election shakes out – most likely Democrat president and congress, Republican senate – the stock market is cheering two things in my opinion. It is cheering US dollar compromising fiscal stimulus (Fed prints, politicians spend) and the coming of more US dollar compromising monetary policy (Fed prints, Fed monetizes bonds AKA debt, Fed screws with any other esoteric tool it can get its hands on in the age of MMT TMM, AKA Total Market Manipulation).

Friday, November 06, 2020

It Has Been Decided: Silver Is Going Much Higher / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2020

By: Hubert_Moolman

The currency markets have just announced what is coming for silver. This was explained in my previous article.

The USD/ZAR ratio has now broken down. This sets silver up to finish the year with a very strong rally:

Friday, November 06, 2020

Magic Words That Spell More Money for You / Personal_Finance / Debt & Loans

By: Justin_Weinger

Friday, November 06, 2020

Betting Markets Declare Biden Wins US Presidential Election 2020, Helped by CNN Propaganda / ElectionOracle / US Presidential Election 2020

By: N_Walayat

US election night proved to be a nail biting event, one of Biden taking an early lead that within hours evaporated where by Midnight US time it looked as though Trump could pull off another election miracle like 2016 with a lot of glum faces on the Democrats propaganda network channel CNN, whose presenters spent subsequent hours trying to ignore the stream of bad news by repeating the mantra that there are a lot of Democrat votes to come in later (mail in ballots) after election night is over as if they were party to inside information?

Thursday, November 05, 2020

Betting Markets Call it for Biden Election Win, the Next President of the United States! / ElectionOracle / US Presidential Election 2020

By: Nadeem_Walayat

US election night proved to be a nail biting event, one of Biden taking an early lead that within hours evaporated where by Midnight US time it looked as though Trump could pull off another election miracle like 2016 with a lot of glum faces on the Democrats propaganda network channel CNN, whose presenters spent subsequent hours trying to ignore the stream of bad news by repeating the mantra that there are a lot of Democrat votes to come in later (mail in ballots) after election night is over as if they were party to inside information?

Thursday, November 05, 2020

Is Gold the Only US Election Winner? / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2020

By: Arkadiusz_Sieron

The elections are behind us. However, the official results are still not definite. What does it mean for gold prices?

Ladies and Gentlemen, the new President of the United States is… still unknown! The election results are not available, as some states are still counting the votes. The race is very balanced, with few states remaining too close to call. At the moment of writing this report, Joe Biden leads the White House race with 253 electoral votes, while Donald Trump has 213 electoral votes. So, Biden is more likely to become the new POTUS . However, with those few states officially still undecided, Trump could still win. Hopefully, we will get some of the results later today, but it might even take several days to count the ballots in some locations.

Thursday, November 05, 2020

Trump's Unilateralism, China's Multilateralism and the Real COVID-19 / Politics / Pandemic

By: Dan_Steinbock

New estimates on actual COVID-19 cases in 2020 highlight the stark differences between the Trump administration’s unilateral stance, and China’s multilateral approach to overcoming the pandemic challenge.

The failed containment of the COVID-19 pandemic is about to result in 50 million cumulative confirmed cases and more than 1.2 million deaths around the world.

Worse, the official figures are only a tip of the iceberg. Some 10 percent of the world population may already have had the new coronavirus, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Consider the implications: That translates to 780 million people – almost 20 times the official total. The global stakes are far higher than currently acknowledged.

Thursday, November 05, 2020

Money Management, Financial Literacy and Investments for Beginners / Personal_Finance / Financial Education

By: Sumeet_Manhas

Money management is so fundamentally important you would think everyone would take care to make sure they were fiscally responsible. However this is absolutely not the case. It makes sense to learn how to manage your money from an early age and certainly teaching children to look after money early on responsibly will reap great benefits in their later lives.

Of course as you get older you will have more to worry about than just your pocket money. There will be rent or a mortgage, credit cards, pension plans, bills, several bank accounts possibly, an IRA or an ISA if you are in the UK. All these things can seem daunting and if they are not managed properly can go from feeling like you are swimming against the current to a much worse feeling of drowning.