Photo credit SD Union Tribune The fires in San Diego County are still burning, but the worst has probably passed. At last count over 1,000 homes had burned in the fire, and word from the Union Tribune is that the first permit to rebuild was filed this morning. Prior to the fires, one of the […]
Monday is a big day in the economy. Citibank will announce its earnings, and $5 billion in bonds to finance the TXU buyout go on sale from Citibank and JP Morgan / Chase. From the Wall Street Journal comes word of a new “pipeline” of money to help Citibank and its affiliates: The Master-Liquidity Enhancement […]
In the Marines we had a saying, terse and to the point as is the Jarhead way: “Bohica!”, it was an acronym that stood for “Bend over, here it comes again”. I direct your attention to two graphs that I shall explain: What this chart is showing you is the pricing of something called a […]
As most of you know from my earlier posts, I have been watching the stresses build in the global currency and credit markets. While most people have little idea what they are and why they are there, suffice to say in a world that is increasingly outsourcing things to each other, the exchange of money […]
October is Wall Street’s least favorite month. The big drops in points tend to come in October, and it seems that the Wall Street insiders are smelling something coming in the wind. From Bloomberg: Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) — Skittishness over the U.S. stock market’s record-setting rally is reaching a crescendo among options traders who are […]
A few weeks ago the Fed massively cut rates, essentially stepping in to free up money that the banks and large investment firms could not or would not. Most observers would expect that the credit crisis had largely passed, and in fact the press trumpeted such. In my opinion all they did was kick the […]
The Federal Reserve on Friday reported that consumer credit rose at an annual rate of 5.9% in August, the biggest increase in three months. The increase in consumer credit was led by an 8.1% increase in revolving credit, which is the category that includes credit cards. Non-revolving credit, which includes auto loans, also rose at […]
As I mentioned yesterday, I was eagerly running down information on something I had caught wind of – that banks in the UK were in a liquidity crunch to cover their positions, and rather than go to the Bank of England to get more money they were instead turning to the EU central bank. Now […]
Last month the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates a full ½ a percentage point. Some folks were surprised by this (myself included) due to the fact that many economic factors (such as the stock market) were near multi-year highs, and the economy in general was thought to be chugging along nicely. In reality what […]
Inflation – American Consumers Fighting Back
If you believe some of the negative financial press the American masses are a fickle mob of spendthrifts that mindlessly blow everything they have and then some without a care. In contrast to that, I offer a story from the Wall Street Journal: Food Makers Struggle To Pass On High Costs High commodity prices have […]
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