Investing in higher risk assets has been rewarded as markets moved higher on the belief that Italy, Spain and Portugal would be able to roll over the large amount of bonds that were coming due in February and avoid triggering a Lehman-style liquidity crisis. The government bond auctions did go better than expected, and that…
Last month’s commentary looked at economic indicators that may be useful in determining the likelihood of which party will win the presidential election this year. This month I would like to share some sources that can help you cut through the day-to-day soap opera aspect of politics and get one of the most accurate pictures…
In recent months and years, the investment industry has been full of wild opinions and everyone seems to be a self-proclaimed soothsayer. So it’s easy, for example, to find predictions for gold to reach $10,000 per ounce, or treasury yields to explode upwards and for the United States to go the way of Greece, or…
The presidential election is traditionally held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Holding the election on the Tuesday after the first Monday of the month assured that the election would never be held on the first day of the month. This was preferred since many business owners completed their books on the…
The problems of sovereign debt in Europe have been going on for nearly two years when Greece first emerged as a serious problem in the spring of 2010 and then Ireland later in the year. Since that time, we have seen Portugal, Spain and Italy all come into the glaring spotlight of scrutiny for the…
The recent failure of the Super Committee to come to an agreement has brought our nation’s fiscal crisis front and center. A look into the categories that encompass the United States’ spending will show that the challenge is much more than cutting $1.2 trillion from the deficit. The origin of fiscal policy was to allow…
The volatility seen in the stock markets this year has been quite high with very little to show considering the roller coaster-ride that investors have had to endure. You don’t have to watch the financial news for very long to realize that there is a magnitude of challenges facing the financial markets right now. Today…
In looking back at the 2008 U.S. financial crisis we can draw some similarities with the current situation in Europe. The 2008 crisis was caused by over-leveraged banks and financial institutions left holding toxic assets after the real estate bubble popped and the economy peaked. The main culprits who suffered the worst in the crisis were Lehman…
Economic Challenges – By Michael Ball Over the past few weeks, the financial markets have been driven primarily by the weaker than expected economic numbers in the United States and debt worries from Europe. The big concern in regard to the European debt worries is that although these worries have been popping up for over…
The market action over the past few weeks has been downright awful. In fact, if you look at the performance over the past four weeks, with the S&P 500 index down -16.47%, it is the 9th worst four week performance since 1951. In looking at the eight cases that were worse, one was in the…