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22 posts tagged with "Interest Rates"
Everywhere there are arguments that we are in a "V"-shaped recovery. And there are signs that in fact that is the case. Today we will look at some of those, and then take up the topic of when the Fed will raise rates. We open the case and look at the evidence. Is there enough to come to a real...
A battle plan, we are told, seldom survives contact with the enemy. Nonetheless, military leaders throughout the world wisely persist in making plans they know will be changed time and time again once the battle starts. Contingency plans are made for all sorts of events, whether likely or unlikely,...
In what is the shortest e-letter I have written in years, for which many of you will be grateful, this week we once again delve into Fed policy. Should they raise rates in June? The even tougher question is "Will they?" Plus we look at a very disturbing report that Chinese firms are unable to...
I returned very early this morning from the Las Vegas Money Show, where all flights to Dallas were cancelled last night due to the odd tornado or two in the area. I went back to the hotel, had a dinner with friends, went to the room and began to research the hot questions on the minds of many of...
With the theme song (circa 1979) from The Clash as our background music - Should I Stay or Should I Go? - we explore whether the Fed will raise interest rates this summer or postpone any actions until after the election. We look at a prediction by bond maven Jim Bianco, whose track record on these...
This week we address the question of whether the stock market is forming a top, take further looks at Fed policy and the unemployment rate and see if there is a connection. I think there is. The relationship is less subtle than it might appear. At the end of the letter, I ask for some help from...
Free trade, jobs, fairness and the economy are all front and center in the coming political debate. As politicians respond to polls, we are going to hear a lot more about them in the coming months. Most of what you hear will be VPG - Verbalized Political Garbage. It will demonstrate that most...
This week we are going to visit my Worry Closet, where things goes bump in the night. There are many writers who assure us that those sounds are imaginary and I should go back to sleep. But others suggest the sounds may emanate from some real substance, and that their corpus is growing in the dark....
One of today's trickiest investment questions revolves around interest rates and bond investing. We are in an economic environment in history like no other, so we have few direct parallels from which to draw wisdom. Should we keep our bond investments short-term and suffer pathetic yields, or move...
This is always a fairly intensive research time of the year for me, as I begin to format my thoughts about the possible trends for the coming year. Next week, I will sit down on Thursday and Friday to write my annual forecast edition. It will be a shorter letter this week, as I husband my energy...
This week as I am in Nova Scotia, where my bride "suggests" I will be far removed from any internet access, I am pleased that my friend Art Cashin is allowing me to reproduce a series he has been writing about in his privately circulated "Morning Comments" that I think you will thoroughly enjoy....
In most issues of this weekly letter, I spend our time together looking at specific trees and various flora, commenting upon how they affect the overall economic forest. Today, it is time to drop back and look at the forest as a whole, given that we may be on the precipice of events that could...
Today we are going to look at a very important speech by new Federal Reserve Governor Ben Bernanke. I think this is one of the more important letters I have written in a while. The speech has received a lot of publicity for some of it's speculations about potential Fed policy. Some seem to find...
Today we examine the deluge of month end data, which continues to confirm we are in the Muddle Through Economy. I politely respond to George Gilder (even after he called me a Keynesian and an economist) and look at the very long term implications of tax policy. There is a lot of very interesting...
"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things." This week we talk about whether we are in a housing bubble, look at stock and bond market directions, the problems with the dollar and much more. It is that semi-annual time when I make predictions (which is the term for educated...
Life in the Muddle Through Economy goes on. With all of the sturm and drang going on in the markets, most stock indexes are not too far from where they were at the beginning of the year, except for the NASDAQ, which has been far from reality for a long time.
"History does not repeat itself," said Mark Twain, "It rhymes." That observation has a great deal of truth in it. Lately, however, economic history has been more like the cacophonous poetry of the Beatnik generation than the smooth resonating sounds of classic iambic pentameter.
What a week! There is so much to talk about, and the good news is that it is not all bad! The theme of today's e-letter is going to be : "The Games People Play". My less than sainted Dad was a games player. I have a letter on the wall over my desk from John Wayne to my Dad referring to some...
Last December I wrote you a letter telling you that those of us who fly in economy class were worried about a bumpy landing. We kept hearing about a soft landing, but the ride was getting rough. The passengers back here in coach class are getting real nervous. Now, we would just as soon forget...
This is a slightly longer than normal e-letter. I have put a lot of thought into this week's letter, and lay out a case as to why we are at a very critical juncture. Serious investing requires serious study. Simply making predictions with no rationale is useless and potentially harmful. In this...
