It may just be that in life you have to get used to disappointment. Though not for lack of trying, I have spent a great deal of time over the years intending to piece together exactly what happened on days like October 15, 2014. The official explanation is an obvious whitewash, one so haphazard that I doubt it will ever be referred to again outside of ridicule. So much changed after that one day, a buying panic in the...
Read More »Time, The Biggest Risk
If there is still no current or present indication of rising economic fortunes, and there isn’t, then the “reflation” idea turns instead to what might be different this time as compared to the others. In 2013 and 2014, it was QE3 and particularly the intended effects (open ended and faster paced, a bigger commitment by the Fed to purportedly do whatever it took) upon expectations that supposedly set it apart from the...
Read More »True Cognitive Dissonance
There is gold in Asia, at least gold of the intellectual variety for anyone who wishes to see it. The Chinese offer us perhaps the purest view of monetary conditions globally, where RMB money markets are by design tied directly to “dollar” behavior. It is, in my view, enormously helpful to obsess over China’s monetary system so as to be able to infer a great deal about the global monetary system deep down beyond the...
Read More »The Oscars – Gold Plated And Debased Like The Dollar
Submitted by Jan Skoyles via GoldCore.com, The Oscars – Worth Their Weight in Gold? 89th Oscars to air this weekend Oscars have been dipped in 24 karat gold since 1929 If the Oscars were made of solid gold they would weigh 330 ounces 330 ounces of gold is worth $408,210 at today’s prices (nearly €400k & £330k) Only some $630 worth of gold in Oscar statue Oscars cannot be sold due to regulations Steven Spielberg keeps his gold Oscar with the Academy for...
Read More »The Oscars – Gold Plated and Debased Like Dollar
The Oscars - Worth Their Weight in Gold? 89th Oscars to air this weekend Oscars have been dipped in 24 karat gold since 1929 If the Oscars were made of solid gold they would weigh 330 ounces 330 ounces of gold is worth $408,210 at today's prices (nearly €400k & £330k) Oscars cannot be sold, making them a tricky investment piece Steven Spielberg keeps his gold Oscar with the Academy for ‘safe-keeping’ Shows importance of owning gold in safest ways Price of gold has climbed from $20.67...
Read More »Interest Rate Differentials Increasing Financial Market Leverage To Unsustainable Levels
We discuss the rate differentials between Switzerland, Britain, Europe, Japan and the United States and how this Developed Financial Markets carry trade is incentivizing excessive risk taking with tremendous leverage and destabilizing the entire financial system in the process in this video. You want to know what is behind weekly market records, borrowed money via punchbowl central bank liquidity. This ends badly every...
Read More »Great Graphic: US and Japan Five-Year Credit Default Swaps
Summary: For the first time since the financial crisis, the 5-year CDS on JGBs is dipping below the 5-year US CDS. It appears to be more a function of a decline in Japan’s CDS than a rise in the US CDS. We are reluctant to read too much into the small price changes in the mostly illiquid instruments. This Great Graphic was created on Bloomberg and depicts Japan and US 5-year credit default swap indicative...
Read More »FX Daily, February 20: Marking Time on Monday
Swiss Franc EUR/CHF - Euro Swiss Franc, February 20(see more posts on EUR/CHF, ) - Click to enlarge FX Rates US markets are closed for the Presidents’ Day holiday, but it hasn’t prevented its pre-weekend gains giving a bullish tone to global equities. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ recovered from early weakness to close at new record levels before the weekend. Global equity markets are following suit today. The...
Read More »What Will Trump Do About The Central-Bank Cartel?
Submitted by Thorstein Polleit via The Mises Institute, The US is by far the biggest economy in the world. Its financial markets — be it equity, bonds or derivatives markets — are the largest and most liquid. The Greenback is the most important transaction currency. Many currencies in the world — be it the euro, the Chinese renminbi, the British pound or the Swiss franc — have actually been built upon the US dollar. The...
Read More »Japan: an export-led recovery is underway
Fourth straight quarter of growth poses upside risk to our Japanese GDP forecast.The first preliminary reading of Japan’s real GDP growth for Q4 2016 came in at 1% q-o-q annualised, roughly in line with the consensus forecast of 1.1% but below the 1.3% growth in Q3. The growth in Q4 almost all came from external demand (+1.0%), while the contribution from domestic demand was virtually 0%. Japanese exports have shown clear signs of improvement in recent months, consistent with the export...
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