RiskAverseAlert

Is Dubai's Default a Black Swan Event?

My Dong has been devalued by 5%, too ... but then again I'm 50 and growing older.

But seriously, not sure how growing risks of sovereign debt default will not ultimately cascade to threaten even U.S. Treasury liabilities.

Time for the U.S. Economy to Reindustrialize

Is the author saying we are to be saved by fascism? Public-Private partnerships, wherein private companies drive the availability of finance, which in turn drives the availability of infrastructure needed to sustain an advanced economy (in this case, electricity) is what Mr. Steinberg essentially is proposing via his call for the transformation of knowledge-based commerce into utilities. How is this any different than what Mussolini imposed upon Italy in his time?

A better approach is bankruptcy reorganization of our dead, overbearing, overreaching globalization junkies (at whose core finds the companies indicated here) and resurrection of national banking along lines Alexander Hamilton developed. Then, we can get on with the job of a massive build-out of 4th generation nuclear power facilities and a transformation from a hydro-carbon-based economy to a hydrogen-based economy, financing this at rates of interest the private sector simply cannot compete with.

Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo Stocking Up on Liquidity

How can one not perceive a greater measure of bank balance sheet fakery when even the long-term solvency of the U.S. Treasury increasingly is being called into question? Indeed, this might be one reason why Treasury holdings among banks are so low. When the whole thing is set to blow, why not improve momentary appearances of solvency squeezing yield further out on the risk curve? It seems that, despite last year's near meltdown of the money market, those who chase yield even among what are widely perceived "safe instruments" (agencies) either have not learned a thing or the present moment is a ruse whose intention falls under "all things are not what they seem."

Cramer's Mad Money - When the Facts Change...(10/23/09)

Good advice, Shemp! Now take it, because the fact a massive short squeeze (see unbalanced RSI surge in both March and July) largely has brought stocks to present levels is evidence you fail to account for in your bullish stand. And speaking of facts, diminishing volume shows this rally climbing a wall of complacency, and since when is this bullish? This same condition wasn't bullish last March-May, 2008 (while you, on the other hand, were bullish) and it continues not being bullish now.

Outlandish CEO Pay: How to Fix the Problem

Do not shareholders effectively have a vote already, this with their decision to own a stock? I was just thinking how willingness to own shares of companies with lavish executive compensation packages has been, itself, a sign of the times. Plainly, too much money has been chasing too little value, and I do not suppose correction of this trend has yet run full course. Indeed, I imagine the market, itself, will have more impact correcting executive compensation imbalances than any concerted effort at reform (this is not to say, though, the effort should not be made). And I don't imagine executives will be such big fans of the free market on the way down as they were on the way up. For this reason alone, it might be better to forestall any reform effort until after nature has already run its course. The cream ought learn the hard way the price of clinging to a fantasy, just like everyone else.

The Coming Consequences of Banking Fraud

I'd rather be un-American than stupid, and that is why I am extraordinarily bearish like Mr. Kim. However, to call the bounce off March '09 bottom "fraud" seems a bit arbitrary to me. Why not suppose the fraud began when the [collapsed] Ponzi scheme called "structured finance" went into suicide mode with its securitized sub-prime mortgages? Or, how about when Alan Greenspan became Fed chairman and turned over central bank policy making to leveraged speculators? Then again, there was Richard Nixon's destruction of FDR's Bretton Woods global trade arrangement. Has this not proven the mother of all frauds perpetrated on the American middle class? Sure, I can buy my doodahs cheaper at Wal Mart ... now if only I could find a job...

Five Reasons the Market Could Crash This Fall

Positively spot on. All the technicals quite agree. There's no doubt this rally off March bottom largely is a short squeeze. No doubt whatsoever. To wit, find me one instance in the market's bull run from 1982-2000 when RSI shot straight up like it has both in March and July. You can't, and so here's the rub...

The "wall of worry" the market is said to climb is no subjective notion. Indeed, the absence of worry is reflected both by RSI behavior since March as well as increasingly diminishing volume of shares exchanged (as you noted). What is most shocking about this is the seeming lack of fear following last year's collapse of structured finance. And now, who will back Uncle Sam? Any word yet on benevolent life forms found by rovers on the planet Mars? Notta!

You are right. We are on the verge of the most spectacular collapse since the 14th century fall of the house of Bardi. The name of the game for decades has been "Inflate or Die." With the collapse of structured finance a seminal event seizing capacity to inflate, now is time when the death of monetarism soon becomes apparent to all. The Fed already is finished. The degree to which Treasury continues its adherence to belief in the viability of the present financial system will determine whether the United States itself survives what history quite likely will call the coming Great Calamity.

The path of least resistance in the stock market, therefore, is down. Indeed, I believe equity is dead money so long as bankruptcy reorganization of the entire financial system continues being desperately forestalled for the sake of opportunities this presents to the thinnest of interests who in their extreme vulnerability likewise recognize an extraordinary circumstance in which incredible power stands to be consolidated.

The Treasury's Pump and Dump Scheme for Bank Stocks

"After a cursory examination of the largest banks, they all pass and are told to raise additional capital just to be on the safe side. Investors start to buy the bank stocks en masse causing many bank stock shares to double and triple in price. Over $200 billion in new capital is obtained from investors eager to get in at depressed prices."

Following the 1929 crash, those enterprises with nothing to lose (because everything was at risk of being lost) pooled their resources to do pretty much the same thing. Whether "investors" are responsible for the effects mentioned in the above quoted paragraph is entirely debatable. However, per more recent "distribution" of bank stocks, even here it probably is a misnomer calling bank stock buyers "investors." More like saps. And their king is Cramer.

Nothing Is Ever Truly 'Off the Books' in the Financial World

The shadow banking system is as dead as Elvis and we probably have barely even begun to pay for the cost of the funeral...