Retirement Income? A Tough Place To Be In A Low Interest Rate Envirenment

| April 30, 2011

From The Wall Street Journal….Retirement annuities, may not be such a good idea after all, especially now.  Read on! Turmoil in the stock market. Paltry interest rates at the bank. What are the newly retired to do? Many are taking a look at buying a fixed annuity instead.  These products let you swap a lump […]

The Real World We Live In….

| April 28, 2011

Reality check for the government talking heads……are things really as good as they think.  From Reuters: An April 20-23 Gallup survey of 1,013 U.S. adults found that only 27 percent said the economy is growing. 29 percent said the economy is in a depression and 26 percent said it is in a recession, with another […]

McDonalds Has Over One Million Applicants For Minimum Wage Part-Time Jobs

| April 28, 2011

What’s wrong with this picture….McDonalds has one million new job applications which is two and a half times more applications then it has total workers employed by its company owned stores!  Geez….  Bloomberg: McDonald’s and its franchisees hired 62,000 people in the U.S. after receiving more than one million applications, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company said today […]

One Million (Probably More) Exhaust Jobless Benefits

| April 28, 2011

Nothing to worry about for now…as long as all these recently subsidy-free individuals aren’t paying their mortgage and the banks aren’t enforcing payment….all is well, sort of…. but eventually that roof will go away!  It’s probably worse, that’s because the government has so many seasonal adjustments now days that it tends to make things seem better then they really […]

Wal Mart CEO: “Shoppers Are Running Out Of Money”…. There Is “No Sign Of A Recovery”

| April 28, 2011

A sign of the (hard) times……..despite what the government portends! The head of Wal-Mart’s U.S. operations warned Wednesday talking to USA Today….”Wal-Mart’s core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried. “We’re seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure,” […]

Q1 GDP Prints At 1.8% Misses Consensus OF 2.0%, Falls Sharply From 3.1% In Q4, Initial Claims Surge

| April 28, 2011

The U.S. economy grew at a slower pace than forecast, surprising many in the first quarter as government spending declined by the most since 1983.  Gross National Product prints 1.8% down from consensus of 2.0% which had multiple negative revisions. Economists were unanimous by a record amount, in a poll….. that things were going to be dynamically better and […]

Interesting Tid Bit

| April 27, 2011

For the first time since the Great Depression, households are receiving more income from the government than they are paying the government in taxes. The combination of more cash from various programs, called transfer payments, and lower taxes has been a double-barreled boost to consumers’ buying power, while also blowing a hole in the deficit. […]

Are We Going To Have A “Restructuring Credit Event” Here!

| April 26, 2011

Rather important to say the least, because what happens here may spread like wild fire across the European continent……another fuse looking for a match! In London on Tuesday, UBS’s City office asked the decisions committee of the International Swaps & Derivatives Association to say whether the Irish government’s new Credit Institutions Act signals a “restructuring […]

Deutsche Bank Ranks U.S. Sovereign Risk

| April 26, 2011

Deutsche Bank ranks the U.S. government as the world’s fourth riskiest sovereign borrower, behind Greece, Ireland and Portugal, and just ahead of Italy.

More Basic Math 101

| April 25, 2011

Low interest rates are here forever….or it’s game over!  Realistically speaking, we all know interest rates can’t stay low forever, so…..it’s just a matter of time. With ultra low interest rates, the U.S. interest expense is $440 billion this year or 3% of GDP. If government borrowing rates were to rise a mere 2%, interest expense […]

Math 101

| April 25, 2011

If one was running a corporation….the blue line should be above the red line.  Basic math 101. Average tax receipts over the last half century are about 17% of GDP and spending about 20%. Any reasonable plan would attempt to return to those norms. The partisan budget approach focuses on central themes. From the political […]

The Wealth Effect For The Rich Vs. Negative Wealth Effect For Everyone Else!

| April 25, 2011

“The Wealth Effect” — combined with low taxes on capital has concentrated American wealth into the hands of the richest 1%. Seven percent of income flows to the top 0.1 %. Meanwhile, tax receipts in general are the lowest as a percentage of GDP in a half century.

Poverty And Distress Rolls Down The Highway

| April 25, 2011

American poverty and distress, such as food stamp recipients are headed for an all time high!  

The Story Of North America And South America…

| April 25, 2011

The story of the America’s…..From Art Cashin on the floor of The New York Stock Exchange On this day in the year 1507 A.D., an enterprising author published a hit book.  While he was not the John Grisham of his day, he did hope to benefit from two recent events of interest to move his […]

Real Estate Heads Into Deeper Waters

| April 24, 2011

From this weeks Barron’s……………Mark Hanson points out, banks and servicers are back with a vengeance and cutting asking prices sharply “to blow out distressed inventory.” Other price depressants he cites include unfavorable demographics, soaring energy costs and a broken mortgage market. The chart below is from Yale economist Robert Shiller, and it plots an index (called […]

Jim Sinclair…Gold Is Locked And Loaded For $1,650 And Higher

| April 24, 2011

We’ll say it again….Jim Sinclair is probably the best Gold trader ever! Jim Sinclair’s Commentary Consider for a moment what things would have looked like if QE did not exist in the US as well as other major Western financial systems. What would this so called recovery look like? Now think how things will look […]

Cumberland Advisors…. FDIC & Fed: More Questions Than Answers

| April 24, 2011

David Kotak out with his latest opinion of how things are….normally David has more answers then questions!  Hmm….. Cumberland Advisors FDIC & Fed: more questions than answers April 23, 2011 We thank readers for their kind words about Scylla and Charybdis (www.cumber.com).  We also thank friends Dennis Gartman, John Mauldin and Barry Ritholtz for sharing the […]

Jim Grant Explains Why QE3 Is Coming

| April 21, 2011

Jim Grant ranks in the top tear of analysts covering interest rates…..right at the top of the list with Bill Gross, the founder of PIMCO (the worlds largest bond manager). From his latest Grant’s Interest Rate Observer: “Almost 30% of the respondents to a poll conducted by UBS a few weeks back said they anticipate a […]

Six Dollar Gasoline Could Be Just Around The Corner

| April 21, 2011

$6 Gas? Could happen sooner then you think if the dollar gets weaker and we have one large storm in the Gulf of Mexico!  2012 to 2014 will be hard years.  Batten down the hatches, you’ve been warned. April 20, 2011 By Jeff Cox, Staff Writer A dollar plumbing three-year lows is hitting Americans squarely in the gas […]

Business Current And Future General Activity Indexes Surprise Eonomists…Head South

| April 21, 2011

Trouble dead ahead….remember, we’re (supposedly) in an economic recovery? www.ingerletter.com

S&P Cuts Ratings To Negative For Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, The Federal Home Loan And Farm Credit

| April 20, 2011

This just in from S&P, which does a follow up to its earlier U.S. outlook warning, and revises its GSE and FHLB outlook to negative.  Let’s remember that this is happening in an economic (supposed) recovery. NEW YORK (Standard & Poor’s) April 20, 2011–Standard & Poor’s Ratings  Services said today that it revised its outlooks on […]

Jim Sinclair Interview Covering The World Economy And Gold

| April 20, 2011

An excellent review of the world economic picture and the future of Gold By Ron Hera April 15, 2011 ©2011 Hera Research, LLC The Hera Research Newsletter (HRN) is pleased to present an in-depth interview with Jim Sinclair, Chairman and CEO of Tanzanian Royalty Exploration and founder of Jim Sinclair’s MineSet, which hosts his gold commentary […]

Let’s Be Honest, State Revenue Models Are In Ruins

| April 19, 2011

States see biggest revenue drop in 60 years…In a sign of the sluggish economy’s devastating impact, state government revenue across the country dropped by nearly one third in 2009 – the sharpest decline in 60 years, the Census Bureau said in a new report.  Expectations are for 2010 show improvement, but 2011 isn’t going to […]

NYSE Margin Debt Surges, Net Speculator Leverage Second Highest Ever

| April 19, 2011

This is the second highest net leverage ever seen on on the NYSE,  and only a freckle away from a new record….Words to the wise, be prepared is not just a boy scout motto. The NYSE has released its monthly margin debt update for March. Not surprisingly, with EVERYONE chasing nothing but levered beta, margin […]

Stratfor: China And The End Of The Deng Dynasty

| April 19, 2011

  China and the End of the Deng Dynasty By Jennifer Richmond and Matthew Gertken | April 19, 2011 Beijing has become noticeably more anxious than usual in recent months, launching one of the more high-profile security campaigns to suppress political dissent since the aftermath of Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. Journalists, bloggers, artists, Christians […]

S&P Cuts U.S. Ratings Outlook to Negative

| April 18, 2011

History shows it’s all forgotten by the next day……maybe this time will be different! A stark warning from S&P about the U.S. government’s fiscal problems stoked concern on Wall Street and in Washington on Monday,  intensifying political divisions concerning the growing deficits. House of Representatives Republican leader Eric Cantor on Monday called the Standard & Poor’s downgrade […]

WikiLeaks Reports Secret U.S. Funding For Syrian Opposition

| April 18, 2011

No surprise here….The U.S. seems to have its fingers in every pie!   From the Associated Press April 17, 2011   WASHINGTON—The State Department has been secretly financing opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the Washington Post reported, citing previously undisclosed diplomatic documents provided to the newspaper by the WikiLeaks website. One of the outfits […]

A Gold Tipping Point….We’ll Know Soon Enough! Gold Is An Under Owned Investment….

| April 17, 2011

Hmm….The University of  Texas whose $19.9 billion in assets ranked it second only behind Harvard University’s endowment as of August, added about $500 million in gold investments to an existing stake last year, and took delivery of almost $1 billion in gold bullion….”storing the bars in a New York vault, according to the fund’s board.” said Bruce Zimmerman, […]

To Big To Fail, And To Big To Regulate

| April 17, 2011

Goldman makes their own rules!  Goldman broke the law and lied.   Eliot Spitzer: ” If they don’t prosecute, shame on them. If they don’t, the Attorney General should resign if he can’t bring this case.” Goldman is back in the spotlight following Carl Levin’s concluding report, referring Goldman Sachs to the same law enforcement authorities that are […]

E*Trade Baby…..I Want My Mommy, I Just Blew My Wadd!

| April 15, 2011

Yep, Let this be a lesson to you….cry baby! www.zerohedge.com

Harsh Words Out Of The White House

| April 15, 2011

President Obama has interesting but harsh words out of the White House…..Let’s look at his record,  looks like the old saying, do as I say, not as I do! “Failure by Congress to raise the U.S. debt limit “could plunge the world economy back into recession,” President Barack Obama declared Friday, and he acknowledged that he […]

Banks Face $3.6 Trillion ‘Wall’ of Debt According To The IMF

| April 14, 2011

Say what, how much did the IMF say….yep, pushing 4 trillion dollars, looks like another piece of dynamite looking for a match!!    For 2011, Japan and the United States face the largest public debt rollovers of any advanced economy at 56 percent and 29 percent of gross domestic product, respectively. It repeated its warning that the United […]

Interesting Tid Bits….Why We’re A Broke Society

| April 12, 2011

There are now 6.4 million fewer jobs in America than there were when the recession began, but the government says the recession is long gone…….. Total home mortgage debt in the United States is now 5 times larger than it was 20 years ago…..so we’re talking 5 times larger than 1991 folks! Wow, and people wonder why we’re […]

Inflation Component Breakdown Since 2000

| April 12, 2011

Ah, This is easy to understand, energy and college expenses are top inflation runners since 2000. Courtesy of the excellent dshort.com, here is a chart of inflation from 2000 to Q1 2011. In a low-inflation decade, tuition has more than doubled. This is the acme of unsustainability. Students loans are the only sector of credit which […]

A Bum Deal………

| April 12, 2011

We’re not surprised! Commentary Magazine reports that the “Budget Deal”, won after so much theatrics, soap opera, and Razzie nominations, may in fact collapse shortly. “The big news today is that the $38.5 billion in budget cuts announced with such fanfare on Friday night mostly aren’t real. A good deal of it involves money from […]

Joke(s) Of The Day

| April 12, 2011

Here are some Smart Blonde jokes……enjoy! DISNEYLAND Two blonds were going to Disneyland . They were driving on the Interstate when they saw the sign that said Disneyland LEFT. They started crying and turned around and went home. FLORIDA Or MOON Two blonds living in Oklahoma were sitting on a bench talking, and one blond […]

“Spent Fuel Pools In U.S. Are A Potential Timebomb”

| April 11, 2011

Nuclear Whistleblower: “Spent Fuel Pools in U.S. are a potential timebomb, situation can get worse than Chernobyl”….So here in is the problem, will any government in the world be honest about nuclear power plant problems until it’s to late!  This is just one of the many reasons to say no to nuclear power solutions! Interview by Tuur Demeester […]

Fukushima Accident Assessment Officially Raised To Maximum Level 7

| April 11, 2011

Just for the record…..level 7!  And now we are getting unconfirmed reports that radiation content in Hawaii milk is orders of magnitude greater than Federal Drinking water limits. While one can bicker over the exact number, it is certain that as long as Fukushima continues to billow radioactive smoke, steam and/or water, cumulative radiation levels, both […]

Demographics…My Dear Watson!

| April 10, 2011

Here is why things are broken for baby boomers, and unlikely to get a lot better any time soon! The interesting thing about the post-war baby boom and our guns-and-butter generation isn’t what happened during or as a result of this population tidal wave, but what didn’t happen:  the birth rate in America abruptly fell […]

Why Education Matters In The Job Market

| April 9, 2011

From Chapter 4 Of The Book Endgame: What it shows is that employment is very skewed, as is income. This was as of the end of 2009, but the principle is the same. The clear problem in the United States is this: If the highly skilled have 2.5 percent unemployment, how do you reduce that? […]

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