What does today’s stock rally equal in past markets? About half as much.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) reached 12,045.68, up 490.05 points from yesterday’s close. Adjusting for the market’s volatility in 2011, the gain is equal to about 240 points in the first nine years of the last decade, Bloomberg data show.
Europe’s sovereign debt crisis has fueled some of the biggest stock swings ever during the last four months. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has mo... (more)
About a month ago, I posted in regard to what I called “the euthanasia of the saver.” This comment had to do with the fact that nominal interest rates in the United States for financial investments such as bank certificates of deposit and bank savings accounts—the kinds of investments traditionally employed by retired persons and small savers, who wish to gain income without exposing their funds to great risk of ca... (more)
Dr. Marc Faber back in Zurich Switzerland and in the university of Zurich where he studied economics he tells how he got influenced by the Austrian economics in the Zurich University : "well if I could go back in life I I will definitely study again economics , what I have noticed in life is if you are a ... (more)
While Tea Partiers have been venting their spleens about the $700 billion in TARP money that congress threw at the banks in order to keep the modern financial system from collapsing, Bloomberg went to court to obtain documents to shed light on how much dough the Federal Reserve really provided the banks during the 2008 meltdown.
The banks and the Fed fought against revealing this information all the way to the Supreme Court. The 29,000 pages reveal “Banks worldwide earned an es... (more)
On the Monday, November 28 edition of the Alex Jones Show, Alex talks with investment broker, author and CEO and chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital Inc., Peter Schiff. Peter will talk about the MF Global swindle and the secret trillions in bailouts showered on the bankers by the Federal Reserve.
Central banks across five continents are undertaking the broadest reduction in borrowing costs since 2009 to avert a global economic slump stemming from Europe's sovereign-debt turmoil.
The U.S., the U.K. and nine other nations, along with the European Central Bank, have bolstered monetary stimulus in the past three months. Six more countries, including Mexico and Sweden, probably will cut benchmark interest r... (more)
SocGen has released its much anticipated Multi Asset Portfolio Scenario/Strategy guide titled simply enough "Patience: bad news will become good news" where, as the insightful can guess, the French bank makes the simple case that the worse things get, the stronger the response by global central banks will be. Here is the key quote for those worried that : "A major liquidity crisis should not occur this time, as we think we are on the eve of major QE in the UK, US and (a ... (more)
The biggest bond dealers in the U.S. say the Federal Reserve is poised to start a new round of stimulus, injecting more money into the economy by purchasing mortgage securities instead of Treasuries.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his fellow policy makers, who bought $2.3 trillion of Treasury and mortgage-related bonds between 2008 and June, will start another program next quarter, 16 of the 21 primary dealers of U.S. government securities that trade with the central bank said i... (more)
With fiscal time bombs ticking in both Europe and the United States, the pertinent question for now seems to be which will explode first. For much of the past few months, it looked as if Europe was set to blow. But Angela Merkel’s refusal to support a Federal Reserve-style bailout of European sovereigns, as well as her recent statement the she had no Hank Paulson-style fiscal bazooka in her handbag, has lowered the heat. In contrast, the utter failure of the Congressional Super Committee in the ... (more)
Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s move to expand price controls this week sparked panic purchases by consumers, leading to shortages of everything from coffee to toilet paper.
People are buying more than they need to stock their homes and resell the products at a profit in the black market, Food Minister Carlos Osorio said yesterday on state television. The authorities are visiting stores to ensure the availability of regulated products, he said. ... (more)
The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing.
The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were h... (more)
L: Doug, we've had a lot of requests from younger readers asking for advice on how they should tackle the world, starting out amidst a crisis. We've also had questions from older readers asking what you might do differently if you were 21 again -- or if you were suddenly unemployed and had to start from scratch. What do you think? Can you stroke your long, white beard and give us some practical guru wisdom for today's world?
Gold traders are more bullish after investors accumulated the biggest-ever hoard of the metal, with Europe’s deepening debt crisis driving them to protect their wealth with this year’s second-best performing commodity.
Eighteen of 26 surveyed by Bloomberg expect bullion to rise next week. Holdings in exchange-traded products backed by gold reached a record 2,350.8 metric tons on Nov. 23, now valued at $127.6 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Hedge funds and other s... (more)
A troubling agreement among divergent ideological strains in America has emerged over the years: China’s growing wealth is a problem worthy of a political solution.
It is a focus of anger and frustration that unifies much of the left--unionists, opponents of free trade and corporations, agitators for regulatory harmonization, consumer “advocates” demonizing the Yellow Peril for its supposedly “predatory” trade practices.
On the right, too, most factions are home to ... (more)
Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom and Doom report, yesterday reiterated his criticism of money printing practices, which he believes will continue in the US, Europe and elsewhere, causing bubbles such as those seen in the Chinese real-estate market.
“A third wave of quantitative easing by the US Federal Reserve is just a matter of time,” said Faber, a contrarian investor who has been referred to as “Doctor Doom” for a number of years.
The United States is drowning in a sea of red ink from coast to coast and most Americans have absolutely no idea what is about to happen. Hopefully you have started to prepare for the coming U.S. financial crisis. If not, hopefully this article will be a wake up call for you. Right now, governments all over Europe are on the verge of financial implosion. Most Americans aren't paying much attention to that, but they should be, because what is happening to Greece and Italy right now will event... (more)
It's doubtful whether anyone opposes President Obama's health care law more than Ron Paul, but the Texas congressman said Wednesday that the sweeping legislation is not socialized medicine — contrary to claims made by his fellow presidential contenders Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain.
Instead, Mr. Paul called the Affordable Care Act “corporate medicine leading toward fascism,” insisting that his definition was much worse.
“It's not socialized medicine, but it's cha... (more)
Noting the economy’s "bumpy ride" over the past few years, the segment spotlights one "sure thing" in these tough times: Taxi medallions. Due to the high price, most drivers must take out loans to own them, giving the lender a security interest — or "mortgage"... (more)
A destructive myth has wrapped itself around laissez-faire capitalism. It is the erroneous notion that the free market harms the "vulnerable" within society; specifically, it is said to harm women and children by cruelly exploiting their labor. The opposite is true. Laissez-faire capitalism offers the one element that the vulnerable need most to survive and to advance: choice. The most liberating choice individuals can have is the ability to support themselves and not be dependent upon anyone el... (more)
Ellen Brown, who is an attorney, has written an article about what she calls "An Economic Bill of Rights". I will argue that her case is totally wrong. It is totally permeated with factual and conceptual errors.
Even without my showing precisely how her financial analysis is in error, we can understand that she is propounding nonsense by looking at her pie-in-the-sky conclusion: ... (more)
The Treasury Department dramatically boosted its estimate of losses from its $85 billion auto industry bailout by more than $9 billion in the face of General Motors Co.'s steep stock decline.
In its monthly report to Congress, the Treasury Department now says it expects to lose $23.6 billion, up from its previous estimate of $14.33 billion.
The Treasury now pegs the cost of the bailout of GM, Chrysler Group LLC and the auto finance companies at $79.6 billion. It no ... (more)
No, you didn’t hear them actually say it. In fact, Bernanke says quite clearly “no” – gold is not money. But their actions speak much louder than words. The Financial Times reports that central bank gold buying is at a 40-year high. In other words, whereas central banks have pr... (more)
MANDURAH, Australia—One of the fastest-growing costs in the global mining industry are workers like James Dinnison: the 25-year-old high-school dropout from Western Australia makes $200,000 a year running drills in underground mines to extract gold and other minerals.
The heavily tattooed Mr. Dinnison, who started in the mines seven years ago earning $100,000, owns a sky-blue 2009 Chevy Ute, which cost $55,000 before a $16,000 engine enhancement, and a $44,000 custom motorcycle. T... (more)
