Grexhaustion… Leave the Euro Already
If you weren’t already exhausted by the constant stream of headlines regarding Greece’s inability to meet their financial obligations, you should be now! After more than five years of negotiations, deals, posturing and extensions, the situation in Greece seems to be coming to a head. I hesitate to use the word “crisis” because unless you’re living there and feeling the depressionary pain, this is really a fringe story. What I find interesting is that we are finally seeing all parties […]
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Date: June 29, 2015
Draghi & ECB Deliver
It’s a very busy week for the markets and economy coming off the ECB’s long anticipated announcement of Euro QE last week. On the one hand I thought it was smart to leak the $50B euros per month plan so that markets could digest it ahead of the official statement. It was also a great move to then exceed the number that was leaked by $10B euros. On the other hand, I am not in favor of this piecemeal approach […]
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Date: January 26, 2015
One Door Closes Another Opens
On Wednesday, to no one’s surprise, Janet Yellen & Co. ended the Fed’s 5+ year experiment of purchasing assets in the treasury and mortgage backed securities market, also known as quantitative easing (QE) or money printing. I won’t rehash all of the reasons why I continue to believe this is a misguided strategy, but it is. Before the ink was even dry on the statement, the Bank of Japan completely caught the markets off guard last night with another ramp […]
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Date: October 31, 2014
Draghi Delivers… Bears Lie in Wait
In one of the better telegraphed moves out of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi & Company gave the market what it had been expecting, using some fairly heavy ammunition to provide stimulus to Europe’s struggling economy. He may not have gone to Hank Paulson’s bazooka just yet, but they are getting close! Thursday was a solid win for the bulls as the Dow, S&P 500, S&P 400 and Nasdaq 100 all scored new highs for 2014 with the lagging […]
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Date: June 6, 2014
Obama Victory, Market Sell Off
Congratulations to President Barack Obama and all of the politicians who were elected by the American people last night. In the end, although my candidate did not win, Democracy was and is always the big winner. As you know, I hardly ever use the word “hope” when discussing investing, but in this case, I do hope we somehow see congress and the president at least genuinely attempt to work together on a bipartisan basis. I don’t know a single person who […]
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Date: November 7, 2012
German Courts and Apple
Markets breathed a collective sigh of relief after the German courts ruled “favorably”, allowing the European bailouts to continue. Apple unveiled its latest iPhone as the stock sits near all time highs. Both events did not inspire the markets to do much other than digest as they awaited the Fed’s 12:30pm announcement on Thursday. By the end of the week, the markets will have digested the ECB’s latest pledge to buy European debt in a HUGE way, Apple’s new phone, […]
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Date: September 20, 2012
Nothing New from the ECB
After Ben Bernanke gave the market little to cheer for on Wednesday, his European counterpart, Mario Draghi, and the ECB left interest rates alone and disappointed investors who were hoping for a follow up from his bold statement last week. Draghi did indicate that massive bond purchases would resume again, but that was more than expected. Draghi better deliver quickly or his credibility will certainly suffer. Could he have put his foot in his mouth without speaking with the Germans […]
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Date: August 6, 2012
Europe’s Debt Problems are Here for Many More Years
In my bi-weekly interview with my friends from ET NOW in India, I continue to share my long-term view that Europe’s debt problems are not going away anytime soon. Although that may seem bad on the surface, markets have a way of discounting known and anticipated news into current prices. Remember 2008? Who could forget it?!?! The stock market turned down long before the economy and news. And right at THE bottom in March 2009, the news was about as […]
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Date: April 22, 2012
