by Philip Pilkington Here’s an interesting little debate from earlier this year that I came across yesterday evening. It is between a number of market analysts over whether the current stock market is overvalued. Why is that interesting? Because the argument is focused on one of the best known foundational stones of heterodox economics: the Levy-Kalecki profit…
Last year came and went but not without a good bit of excitement and intrigue along the way. We saw: The rise of ISIS in the Middle East The death of several famous celebrities including the witty Joan Rivers The end of the Federal Reserve’s QE campaign The unexpected declines (except by me – here…
In very early Asia, participants responded to Draghi’s sovereign bond buying hints, and Merkel’s seeming willingness to let Greece leave EMU by send the euro to a low of $1.1865, according to Bloomberg. The thin conditions exacerbated the move, but the single currency has not been able to resurface above the $1.1980 area since. Softer than…
“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.” –Ludwig von Mises The surreal…
Having closed the Friday session less than 1 pip above the hugely important 1.2000 level below which there lay many stops, following this weekend’s news onslaught which seemed like a deja vu of the newsflow from the fall of 2011, where the main catalyst was the Reuters report that Germany is preparing to let Greece go once and for all (with…
Gold prices ended the first trading day of 2015 slightly higher as a larger-than-expected decline in U.S. manufacturing data counteracted the impact of a stronger dollar. The market initially fell to its lowest level in a month but rebounded after the Institute for Supply Management said its index of national factory activity declined to 55.5…
US real estate investment trusts (REITs) led the performance race in December among the major asset classes, rising a healthy 1.9% in the final month of 2014, based on the MSCI REIT Index. US REITs were also the top performer for the calendar year among the major asset classes. For the rest of the field,…
Gold ended the year at $1182/oz which means its closing price is now down two years in a row. This has obviously caused a lot of mining companies trying to adjust to ‘the new reality’ by slashing costs but unfortunately the market hasn’t really taken these steps into consideration yet as both the…
Dividend investors looking for solid total returns in 2015 should turn to beaten-down energy stocks. With bonds yielding practically nothing and most other traditional sectors for dividend investing looking pricey, high-yielding energy stocks are your best income bet in the new year. Never discount the importance of dividend investing to your total returns. After two…
While interest rates and energy look to dominate the headlines in 2015, another top story for the year looks to be the rising fortunes for the consumer sector. Lower oil prices, rising home values, and a better jobs situation all look to combine to make consumers feel more confident in their economic situations, and thus…
