I have been suggesting for quite some time that the Federal Reserve is stuck in a “liquidity trap” which makes it very difficult for monetary policy to be effective. More importantly, beginning in January of this year, I have suggested that the Fed is being forced to choose between the “lesser of two evils,” to wit: “The real concern…
I realized that our mentally-challenged, differently-abled bullish friends will refuse to accept it for a long, long time, but their welfare-sponsored bull-run ended last December. The breakdown has been subtle since then, and the Silicon Valley stocks that are keeping my house valued at preposterous levels just keep shooting higher (GOOGL, etc.) But the cold…
In an excellent (and free!) daily email I receive, the Daily Shot, I ran across a chart that touched off my quant BS alert. This chart is from here, and is obviously a few years out-of-date, but that isn’t the problem. The problem is that the chart suggests that gold prices rise 5.5% every year. If you…
Photo Credit: thinkpanama (Flickr) Finding the best ETFs is an increasingly difficult task in a world with so many to choose from. How can you pick with so many choices available? Don’t Trust ETF Labels There are at least 44 different Financials ETFs and at least 192 ETFs across all sectors. Do investors need 19+…
A Disturbance in the Farce Corporate revenues and earnings have been weak for quite some time. In big cap stocks this has been masked by the stock buyback effect, which supports earnings per share, even if the underlying trend of a business sucks. Unfortunately, stock buybacks are a horrible use of capital when stocks are…
Morgan Stanley Better-Than-Expected Results Morgan Stanley (MS) reported its second-quarter earnings while shares climbed in the market. Figures were well above analyst´s estimates, led by an increase in the fee for trading and brokerage services. Net revenues reached $9.74 billion beating expectations of $9.1 billion and posted earnings of $1.81 billion or $0.85 per share, or…
The headlines for existing home sales claim “Buyers have come back in force, leading to the strongest past two months in sales since early 2007“. Our analysis of the unadjusted data shows that home sales did rebound – but that the rolling averages did not improve. Overall, existing home sales appear to continue in the…
<<Read Part 1: Are Your Pension(s) Safe? Why It Is Worth Keeping An Eye On Them Introduction In the first part of this two part series, I explained how the pension investment industry worked and why pension holders should keep an eye on them. I pointed out: “Pensions” often get sold a bill of goods by companies wanting…
In his July 17th Blog, Let’s Get Real About Gold, author and Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig likened investor interest in gold with the “Pet Rock” craze of the 1970’s, when consumers became convinced that a rock in a box would provide continuous companionship, elevate their social standing, and give them something hip to talk…
Abbott Laboratories (ABT – Analyst Report) reported second-quarter 2015 earnings of 52 cents per share, up 6.12% year over year, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 50 cents. Abbott Labs generated sales of $5.2 billion in the second quarter of 2015, up 2.2% year over year (on a reported basis) and in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate….
