Surprising Divergences Tugging At the Australian Dollar

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on March 31, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) Over the weekend another wave of rumors about plans for economic stimulus in China made the rounds. These rumors were credited for helping to drive China’s Shanghai index toward a 7-year … Read more

The QE2 Reference Price Identifies the Strongest Iron Ore and Metallurgical Coal Plays

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on September 16, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) Last week, I demonstrated how the timing of QE2 provided a useful reference point for buying Freeport-McMoran (FCX) as part of a coming revision of the commodity crash playbook. In this … Read more

links for 2011-09-24

Argentina targets news reporting of inflation data – Yahoo! News A judge has subpoenaed six newspapers for the names and phone numbers of all reporters and editors who have covered Argentina's economy the past five years, so they can be called as witnesses against their sources. News organizations called it an attempt to censor and … Read more

China’s Inflation Could Be Worse but Stimulus Money Is Sitting In Investments, Not Consumption

Originally posted on “Inflation Watch“… Nightly Business Report produced a short video segment describing China’s inflation woes (transcript included) called “China’s Inflation Battle.” The commentator identifies China’s RMB¥ 4 trillion stimulus program (around $585B USD at the time) as the original source of the inflation and takes us to Pengshui, 1000 miles from Beijing, to … Read more

How My Doubts About Stimulus Were Eased – A Little

I decided to take the plunge and read “How the Great Recession Was Brought to an End” by economists Alan Binder (Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics, Princeton University) and Mark Zandi (Chief Economist, Moody’s Analytics). Binder and Zandi conclude that the various stimulus programs and creative use of montary policy over the last … 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

Handwringing Distracting Investors from Good Economic News

I am always intrigued by the words of optimism and the steadfast bullish arguments in the midst of market sell-offs. I am not talking about technical assessments calling for a short-term bounce. I am talking about the “everything is just fine” variety. Monday’s Nightly Business Report provided a picture-perfect example of such talk from Bernarnd … Read more

Steel Dynamics Increases Guidance But Still Waiting for Non-Residential Building and Stimulus

Steel Dynamics (STLD) has steadily rolled out increased guidance over the past few quarters. Last night, STLD increased July’s earnings guidance from $0.10 to $0.20 per diluted share to $0.20 to $0.25. This strength has come from orders and volumes in flat-rolled steel and metal recycling. Because STLD has yet to see any impact from … Read more