Month: February 2010

Bernanke speaking today will surely be another ‘read between the lines’ delivery with markets hoping he will not drop negative vibes on a trading environment suspicious of the current economic outlook. There are plenty of ‘dead cat bounces’ between housing and earnings which could give way to negative price action given any impetus from the…

Opensecrets.org Lobbying Database In addition to campaign contributions to elected officials and candidates, companies, labor unions, and other organizations spend billions of dollars each year to lobby Congress and federal agencies. Some special interests retain lobbying firms, many of them located along Washington’s legendary K Street; others have lobbyists working in-house. We’ve got totals spent…

Fed raised the discount rate a quarter point and has begun what will be a pattern of rate increases to extend over the next several years. The dollar will benefit with this change in policy direction although the initial impact of the current move is primarily a psychological one. The curve between the 2 and…

Barclays showed what asset sales and transaction revenue, (they call it proprietary trading), can do to in an environment where expectations are so low, down is up. They are quick to fire up the strategies which will go directly to the bottom line, and of coarse, selling things will always work. The trading side however…

The current rationale to buy gold continues to be fueled in large part by an investment cycle where notions of value become intertwined with a macro view of trends. Gold unfortunately shares the bubble characteristics made possible by the enabling of an investment super highway funnelling dollars from the greater population into dubious upside expectations.…

Bernanke clearly wants to get going on raising the discount rate to bring about the’ beginning of the end’ for intervention. Stimulus will remain but the controlling aspects of a hike will be the first time in a while the Fed can say it is leading and not reacting. Rates will rise ever so slowly…

The unemployment rate fell to 9.7% but the announcement left confusion since January is the month to do the reset for many of the data components. Regardless, once the number came out the Bears had much of their day’s anticipated thunder removed despite an intraday decline of about 150 in the DJIA. Sovereign debt issue…

As President Obama announced the Volcker Rules last week, thousands of bank/hedge/equity linked individuals spit their coffee across office suites and began gagging. The V Rule or rules are two fold. One. If you are an institution that take federally insured deposits, you cannot speculate. Two. You will be limited to the amount of risk…