They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. The map below is worth a PhD thesis, and perhaps a weighty tome. Prepared by my friends from government data at the online financial site run by Henry Blodget, Business Insider, it ranks the states most impacted by the sequestration of federal spending that starts on Friday,
Buried in the recently passed Dodd-Frank financial reform bill are massive financial rewards for turning in your crooked boss. The SEC is hoping that multimillion-dollar rewards amounting to 10%-30% of sanction amounts will drive a stampede of whistleblowers to their doors with evidence of malfeasance and fraud by their employers. If such rules were in
Global Market Comments February 26, 2013 Fiat Lux Featured Trade: (SUDDENLY THOSE ITALIAN LESSONS ARE PAYING OFF), (FXE), (EUO), (EWI), (VIX), (UUP), (NEW BOJ GOVERNOR CRATERS YEN), (FXY), (YCS), (UUP), (PETER F. DRUCKER ON MANAGEMENT) CurrencyShares Euro Trust (FXE) ProShares UltraShort Euro (EUO) iShares MSCI Italy Capped Index (EWI) VOLATILITYS&P500 (VIX) PowerShares DB US Dollar
Welcome to the first black swan of 2013! You couldn?t mistake the meaning of the cries of topless female protesters as they flung themselves at police guarding Italian polling stations on Monday. Basta! Basta! Enough! Enough! The purpose of their demonstration was visibly scrawled in large letters across their nubile bodies in black ink for
At long last, Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has appointed a new governor to the Bank of Japan, Haruhiko Kuroda. The foreign currency markets responded immediately, taking the Japanese yen down to ?94.60, a new three year low. It also broke new ground in a range of currency crosses, including Euro/Yen, Ausie/Yen, and Kiwi/Yen. It
If you have been living in a cave for the last 72 years and missed the work of management guru, Peter F. Drucker, here is your chance to catch up. I just finished reading The Essential Drucker, a weighty tome of 368 pages which summarized the high points and pearls of wisdom of the author's
Global Market Comments February 25, 2013 Fiat Lux Featured Trade: (ANOTHER DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE MAD HEDGE FUND TRADER), (SPY), (SPX), (QQQ), (AAPL), (HPQ), (YHOO), (CSCO), (TLT), (TBT), (FXF), (UUP), (FXE), (GLD), (GDX), (TSLA), (USO) SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) SPX Corporation (SPW) PowerShares QQQ (QQQ) Apple Inc. (AAPL) Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ) Yahoo! Inc.
Diary Entry for Friday, February 22, 2013 Dear Diary, 4:30 PM Thursday- Thought I?d check my Bloomberg to see how the Asian markets were opening. Wow! Shanghai is really taking it in the shorts, down 5%. Looks like when Ben Bernanke catches a cold, the Chinese markets catch pneumonia. They must be more dependent on
Global Market Comments February 22, 2013 Fiat Lux Featured Trade: (FOLLOW UP ON TESLA), (TSLA), (DON?T MISS THIS REAL ESTATE BUBBLE), (A VERY SHORT HISTORY OF HEDGE FUNDS), (POPULATION BOMB ECHOES), (POT), (MOS), (AGU), (RJA), (CORN), (WEAT), (SOYB) Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, Inc. (POT) The Mosaic Company (MOS) Agrium Inc. (AGU)
Damn! I should have cut a commission deal with Tesla (TSLA) before I published my story on their amazing electric vehicle a few days ago (click here for ?My Take on the Tesla Tiff?). I have since received a dozen emails from readers telling me they have jumped on the waiting list with a $5,000
There is a new real estate bubble forming in the US, but it is not inflating where you think. Apartment rents have been rapidly rising, and are about to go ballistic. In fact the appreciation has been so strong that the cost of ownership is now less than renting in many parts of the country,
Legendary Fortune Magazine editor, Winslow Jones, created the first hedge fund out of a shabby office on Broadway in New York City in 1948, and generated monster returns over the next 20 years. He got the idea of a 20% performance bonus, now an industry standard, from ancient Phoenician sea captains who kept a fifth
Pack your portfolios with agricultural plays like Potash (POT), Mosaic (MOS), and Agrium (AGU) if Dr. Paul Ehrlich is just partially right about the impending collapse of the world's food supply. You might even throw in long positions in wheat (WEAT), corn (CORN), soybeans (SOYB), and rice. The never dull, and often controversial Stanford biology
Global Market Comments February 21, 2013 Fiat Lux Featured Trade: (IS THE PARTY OVER?), (SPY), (INDU), (IWM), (FXY), (YCS), (TLT), (GLD), (SLV), (FXE), (RUMBLINGS IN TOKYO), (FXY), (YCS), (TESTIMONIAL) SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) iShares Russell 2000 Index (IWM) CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust (FXY) ProShares UltraShort Yen (YCS) iShares Barclays 20+
The simple answer is no, not yet. But the neighbors have complained about the noise and called the cops. Today?s 108-point drop in the Dow, and 19-point decline in the S&P 500 does mean that the straight line, parabolic phase of the bull market is over. One of the most overbought markets in history is
I spent ten years of my life tramping in and out of Japan?s Ministry of Finance headquarters in Tokyo?s Kasumigaseki district. It was a dreadful reinforced steel and concrete affair with a dull grey tile siding that was so solidly built that it was one of the few structures in the city to survive WWII.
Global Market Comments February 20, 2013 Fiat Lux Special Tesla Issue Featured Trade: (MY TAKE ON THE TESLA TIFF), (TSLA) Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA)
By now, you are all probably well aware of the firestorm that has erupted between Tesla?s (TSLA) Elon Musk and the New York Times. It started when the groundbreaking California car maker loaned out a high performance Model S for testing of its East Coast supercharger network to the Times? auto correspondent, John Broder, for
Global Market Comments February 19, 2013 Fiat Lux Featured Trade: (WHAT?S A POOR BOND MANAGER TO DO?) (TLT), (TBT), (NLY), (CVRR), (CWB), (THE POPULATION BOOM) (WHO EXPENSIVE OIL HURTS THE MOST), (USO) iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treas Bond (TLT) ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury (TBT) Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NLY) CVR Refining, LP (CVRR) SPDR
With the consensus wisdom now pervasive that the 60 year bull market in bonds is over, what is a poor bond fund manager to do? Has he now become the defacto manager of the New York Mets, condemned to reliably losing every season? Pity the hapless financial advisor who has to drag clients, kicking and