US Economic Profile – 17 December 2014

The global economy is under pressure these days, suffering from a troubling mix of heightened geopolitical risk and wobbly macro reports. Despite the challenging environment, the US economy still looks resilient, based on the current numbers through November. Tracking a diversified set of indicators shows that macro momentum was solidly positive through last month. But…

German Socialists So Eager To Destroy Germany

All socialists just see money and justify their taking of other people’s money. The German Socialists are no different. They cannot understand how an economy even how it functions. All they want is to take other people’s money for themselves no different than a thief in the night except they do it while justifying themselves…

Dividend Achievers Stock Analysis: Vector Group & 7.98% Yield

Vector Group (VGR) is the 4th largest tobacco company in the US.  Vector Group has a market cap of just $2.3 billion, making it significantly smaller than its larger rivals. The company sells discount tobacco products under the Pyramid, Liggett, Eagle20’s, Grand Prix, and Eve brands.  In addition, Vector Group has significant real estate investments totaling…

Crude Continues Slide, Ruble Stabilizes, US Futures Rebound As Gl

Previewing today’s market: near record low liquidity, with chance of ridiculous volatility in the Ruble, energy and equity markets. While no doubt today’s main event will be the “considerable” FOMC announcement and the Fed’s downward-revised economic projections followed by Yellen’s press conference, what traders will be most excited by is that, finally, Jim Bullard will…

Will Time Inc. Save Bitcoin?

Major magazine publisher Time Inc. just announced a partnership with Coinbase that will enable readers to pay for their subscriptions in Bitcoin. Time stated that are very excited about the partnership and will work closely with the Bitcoin industry in order to provide greater value to its subscribers. Many industry experts believe that the announcement…

Some Perspective On The Markets

Podcast: Play in new window | Play in new window (Duration: 13:16 — 6.1MB) DOW – 111 = 17,068 SPX – 16 = 1972 NAS – 57 = 4547 10 YR YLD – .04 = 2.07% OIL – .58 = 55.33 GOLD + 1.50 = 1196.00 SILV – .47 = 15.82 Allow me to provide some perspective. On December…

Dollar Recovers, Oil Doesn’t

The US dollar’s recovery that began yesterday continues today.  The euro reached the 50% retracement objective of its slide since mid-October (~$1.2565) and now is more than a full cent lower. The dollar’s slump against the yen ended just above the JPY115.50 level, also a key technical retracement level.  The dollar’s high today was JPY117.50.   This is…

Back Monetary Reflections… More To Come In 2015

I reflected in a post last week that we should have had less accommodative monetary policy and more fiscal policy since the crisis… Thoughts on Investment, IS-LM & Effective Demand. Today Paul Krugman also had what appears to be a moment of reflection upon monetary perspectives… The Limits of Purely Monetary Policies. He recognizes the limitations of…