ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
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
If David Stockman, former director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, created the political party of “Fiscal Conservatives,” I might have to give serious consideration to signing up. For now, I have to settle for non-partisan organizations like the Peter G. Peterson Foundation who work hard to promote fiscal discipline … Read more
I have often wondered whether Germany’s initial reticence to help the Eurozone solve its debt problems was “engineered”, in part, to devalue the euro from its suffocating highs in 2009. We will likely never know for sure, but the euro’s remarkable slide in 2010 has apparently generated impressive economic results, especially in Germany. There is … Read more
“Collateral Damaged: The Marketing of Consumer Debt to America” by Charles R. Geisst is a detailed and captivating examination of the history and growth of consumer debt in America. The book scrutinizes the political, cultural, social, and financial forces that converged to inflate America’s tremendous bubble in consumer credit. Geisst reaches all the way back … Read more
As fears quickly rise that President Obama wants to wipe out American business and kill the stock market (as some like Jim Cramer would have you believe), I took a trip down memory lane to watch Obama’s (now forgotten?) famous call to buy the stock market right around the March bottom: Less than 12 months … Read more
Last week, there was talk that the Bank of England would implement negative interest rates. I was all set to begin shorting the Pound (mainly versus the U.S. dollar), but the BoE simply maintained interest rates, made no changes to its quantitative easing program, and had nothing new to say. The Pound lifted in “relief”, … Read more