Overview: There is an eerie calm in the capital markets today as the G20 meeting gets underway. There is much uncertainty, and the event calendar is chock full next week, with the Brexit debate getting underway in the UK Parliament, the CDU picks a new leader to replace Merkel, possible partial US government closure, Powell’s testimony before Congress, OPEC+ meeting, and US employment data. In Asia, the rise of Japanese...
Read More »Truth Is What We Hide, Self-Serving Cover Stories Are What We Sell
The fact that lies and cover stories are now the official norm only makes us love our servitude with greater devotion. We can summarize the current era in one sentence: truth is what we hide, self-serving cover stories are what we sell. Jean-Claude Juncker’s famous quote captures the essence of the era: “When it becomes serious, you have to lie.” And when does it become serious? When the hidden facts of the matter might...
Read More »Cool Video: Santa Claus Rally and Trade
I was on Fox Business today. Stuart Varney introduced me by asking me about my forecast for a Santa Claus rally–a year-end recovery in equities. From a technical perspective, I liked the fact that the S&P 500 successfully retested last month’s lows last week. I liked that the price action made last Friday’s price action into an island bottom, with a gap lower opening followed by Monday’s gap higher opening. In terms...
Read More »Bearish on Fake Fixes
This systemic vulnerability is largely invisible, and so the inevitable contagion will surprise most observers and participants. The conventional definition of a Bear is someone who expects stocks to decline. For those of us who are bearish on fake fixes, that definition doesn’t apply: we aren’t making guesses about future market gyrations (rip-your-face-off rallies, dizziness-inducing drops, boring melt-ups, etc.),...
Read More »CHARLES HUGH SMITH – Why We Are Going Toward Venezuela’s Path
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Read More »Great Graphic: Weekly Jobless Claims and the S&P 500
The softer than expected PCE deflator today plays into the dovish market mood. There may be little that can resist it until next Friday’s employment data, which should be another robust report with hourly earnings holding above 3% year-over-year. Last November, average hourly earnings rose by 0.3%. As this drops out of the year-over-year comparison, even a healthy bounce back from the 0.2% drop skewed by the hurricane...
Read More »America Needs a New National Strategy
A productive national Strategy would systemically decentralize power and capital rather than concentrate both in the hands of a self-serving elite. If you ask America’s well-paid punditry to define America’s National Strategy, you’ll most likely get the UNESCO version: America’s national strategy is to support a Liberal Global Order (LGO) of global cooperation on the environment, trade, etc. and the encouragement of...
Read More »Further falls for GBP/CHF exchange rate
- Click to enlarge Over the last 4 weeks the pound has continued its decline against the Swiss Franc which is no surprise. Global events including Brexit, Italian debt problems and Trade wars are prompting investors to sell off their risky currencies and invest in safe havens such as the Swiss Franc. Since the start of the month the GBP/CHF exchange rate has dropped from 1.3160 and is currently trades at 1.2685....
Read More »Swiss stock exchange could lose EU access in January
EU Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis. (Keystone) An EU Commission document has revealed that, for now, not enough progress on the Swiss-EU framework agreement has been made to renew the ‘financial equivalency’ status of the Swiss stock exchange in Europe. According to a note sent on Tuesday by Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, it seems that patchy progress in ongoing talks between Bern and...
Read More »Swiss gender pay gap compared to rest of Europe
© Andrii Yalanskyi | Dreamstime.com A recently published study ranks Switzerland 10th on gender pay gap. Switzerland’s gap of 17% is bigger than Italy’s (5.3%), Luxembourg’s (5.5%), Belgium’s (6.1%), Sweden’s (13.3%), Spain’s (14.2%), Denmark’s (15%), France’s (15.2%) or the Netherlands’ (15.6%), but lower than Finland’s (17.4%), Portugal’s (17.5%), Austria’s (20.1%), the UK’s (21%) or Germany’s (21.5%). Confusion...
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