China’s Counter-Deflation Bet Pays Off Big

Oh to have the resources of China. The Financial Times reports in “China sits on up to $1.5bn in copper profits” that China has cleaned up in betting against the deflationary fears that gripped much of the planet in 2008-2009: “Beijing’s bet that a ‘super-cycle’ in metals markets would keep copper prices high, despite the … Read more

Fleckenstein: “Why would I want to hedge gold?”

Bill Fleckenstein, President of Fleckenstein Capital and one of my favorite money managers, was on CNBC’s Fast Money Wednesday night giving his typical, colorful commentary on gold. I am posting an approximate transcript to his brief interview because it included what I think should be a classic moment in gold commentary. Toward the end of … Read more

Sold My TIPS to the Fed – A Review of the Current TIPS “Debate”

Last week, the iShares Barclays TIPS Bond Fund (TIP) surged to a fresh 2-year closing high on the same day the Federal Reserve issued its latest monetary policy statement. (TIPS = Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities – I will refer to “TIPS” when discussing the actual bonds and use “TIP” to refer to the ETF that uses … Read more

British Pound Likely On the “Last Leg” of Its Rally

The British pound has been on a fascinating and very bullish ride versus the U.S. dollar. On Thursday, the pound accentuated its action by perfectly tagging the lower part of its bullish channel directly above support at the 200-day moving average (DMA). (Click for larger view) Source: dailyfx.com charts (click for larger view) I redrew … Read more

Stimulus Projects for the Double Dip Recession

As fears mount that the United States is dipping into a double-dip recession and headed down the road of deflationary Japan, Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke tip-toed, tap-danced, and downright side-stepped these landmines during his testimony to the Senate today. The market still did not like what it heard, sold off nearly the instant the Semiannual … Read more