August 17th, 2011 – Europe’s last Gasp?
News out of Europe yesterday included a proposed plan by France and Germany to solve the EU debt problems. This plan called for the creation of a “collective government” run by the EU President and a tax on every financial transaction. Both of these ideas are significant and, we believe, unworkable. By setting up a […]
August 8th, 2011 – Debt Downgrade
When we mentioned that the market would be volatile last week, we didn’t know that Standard and Poor’s would downgrade US Treasuries late Friday night. The downgrade is having a ripple effect across global equity markets today. What is interesting is the yield on US Treasury Bonds has fallen dramatically today. That is the complete […]
August 4th, 2011 – Debt Deal
All those pundits that said we need to get a debt deal in order to “stabilize” the markets are certainly eating their words. The last few days have been horrendous for the stock market and today is no exception, with the market being down over 450 points so far. As we stated in our last […]
August 1st, 2011 – Political Ramifications
The next few days we are going to see political theatre that could be greater than Shakespeare’s plays. Some have asked us not to talk about politics, but at times like this, it is politics that is driving the market lower. We believe the market will be very volatile over the next few days with […]
July 14th, 2011 – European Debt
The capital markets have shown no signs of easing up on Europe’s debt laden countries. Until recently, Italy’s headline was little more than an occasional reference as one of the “I’s” in PIIGS. This has changed in the last few weeks as the severity of the situation in Europe is reaching a point we have […]
June 30th, 2011 – Slow Train Wreck
Greece saves the world (well at least for a little while)!! Stock markets around the world were up the past few days as Greece voted for their “suicide pact” (austerity plan) that is only delaying the inevitable and in our opinion is only going to make the adjustment bigger and more disruptive when it occurs in […]
June 15th, 2011 – Debt problems
The US should be looking at Greece as an example of how NOT to fix our budget crisis. You can not solve a debt problem if there is no growth in an economy. Last year, Greece tried to fix its debt problem by implementing spending cuts and tax increases – they increased their VAT tax by 20%. History has […]
May 27th, 2011 – A "V" recovery
In just two years, the stock market is up 100% from its bottom in what will probably go down, at least for most of us, as the worst market correction of our lifetimes. The stock market has experienced a V recovery over this time and we believe the probability of a market correction to be fairly […]
May 17th, 2011 – Client feedback
In our last update, we asked you to respond to a few questions about the economy. The results were mixed. On the personal side, we almost had an even split on those that are cutting back their personal spending and those that are spending more. We also had an even split on those who believed the economy was […]
April 15th, 2011 – A bag of goods
We are all being sold a bag of goods! Unless one has been living under a rock, you are aware there is broad consensus that if nothing changes in Washington, the US government will be broke several years from now. The looming debt crisis is one of the reasons why Tea Party candidates won so […]