The (Limited?) Opportunity for Regulatory Renewal

The never-ending debate about government regulations has recently inherited an intriguing level of urgency with the economy stalled and both major political parties targeting regulations as potential impediments to growth. The Obama administration announced plans to remove regulations that it estimated would save businesses $5 billion over five years. In an all too predictable partisan … Read more

S&P Downgrade of U.S. Debt Sets Up A Potential Dollar Relief Rally

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.) Nouriel Roubini thinks the S&P downgrade could help lock the U.S. into a recession and Christina Romer wants to “swing for the fences” and respond with a massive jobs bill – Bloomberg Video: “Roubini, Rosner, … Read more

British Business Secretary Cable Supports More QE If Consumer Demand Remains Weak

On July 24, British Business Secretary Vince Cable was interviewed on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show. During this interview, Cable made the case for further quantitative easing (QE) if consumer demand in the UK continues to weaken. While he was quick to point out that the Bank of England runs independently, he provided a ringing … Read more

Governor King Still Gives Me Plenty of Reason for Remaining Bearish on the Pound

On June 15, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King spoke at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet for Bankers and Merchants of the City of London at the Mansion House. The speech covered very familiar themes for King and the Bank of England. King first acknowledged the squeeze on the economy in the United Kingdom: “The challenge … Read more

Reckless Endangerment: Financial Risks Are Even Bigger Now

Gretchen Morgenson and Josh Rosner wrote Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon to describe how the recovery from the financial panic and recession have resolved little and have left the economy at tremendous risk for an even larger crisis. Aaron Task interviews the authors on Yahoo! Finance’s Daily Ticker. … Read more

Greek Debt and Mortgage Fraud Keep Deutsche Bank In A Downtrend

(This is an excerpt from an article I published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.) It has been a while since I last looked at Deutsche Bank (DB). At that time, I was focused on a pairs trade strategy versus Goldman Sachs (GS). So when I noted last week that GS … Read more

links for 2011-04-25

Dangerous Views of Volatility: Pay attention to the VIX, but don't just follow the crowd – Barrons.com The market remains schizophrenic. One day, stock prices tumble because Standard & Poor's questions the credit rating of the United States, and investors panic and sell and fret, and the front pages of many newspapers are apocalyptic. The … Read more

The Federal Reserve C(Sh)ould Become a Target of the Oil and Gas Price Fraud Working Group

(The following news release is satire and reflects my own cynical interpretation of recent news events. But as they say, there is always some truth in humor.) On Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder introduced the country to the Oil and Gas Price Fraud Working Group to “…focus specifically on fraud in the energy markets” by … Read more

Chart Review: TBT Survives the Test As Gross Growls and Romer Fails

In late February, I lamented that TBT, the Pro Shares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury ETF, was careening toward a retest of the 200-day moving average (DMA) that it would lose. After three more weeks, the anticipated retest finally occurred, and TBT survived. *Chart created using TeleChart: The retest of the 200DMA was a great reminder … Read more

Evergreen Solar Retrenches

During the last earnings conference call for Evergreen Solar (ESLR), management claimed that the company had the resources to meet its liquidity needs and had enough cash to sustain current and planned burn rates. A little over two months later, ESLR has announced that it is retrenching and shutting down its manufacturing facility in Devens, … Read more