How many tasting menus would a 300-pound lineman need to consume to feel satisfied? Well, we might be about to find out. After “Good Morning America” host Michael Strahan, in a pioneering example of what we’ve termed “lobster signaling”, invited the members of the championship Clemson Tigers football team to a “proper meal” of lobster… Read More
Authored by Dmitri Speck via Acting-Man.com, Commodities as an Alternative Our readers are presumably following commodity prices. Commodities often provide an alternative to investing in stocks – and they have clearly discernible seasonal characteristics. Thus heating oil tends to be cheaper in the summer than during the heating season in winter, and wheat is typically… Read More
Kirk Woodman, vice-president of exploration for Vancouver-based private gold explorer Progress Minerals, was found dead on Jan. 16 in rural Burkina Faso, after having been abducted a day earlier by as-yet unidentified individuals. According to a statement by Burkina Faso minister of foreign affairs Alpha Barry, Woodman was kidnapped near the village of Tiabangou at the Bira… Read More
Update 2: Official denial now, this time from Bloomberg TREASURY DENIES REPORT MNUCHIN PUSHED TO LOWER CHINA TARIFFS Commenting on the WSJ report and subsequent denials, Calvin Tse, Citi’s North American head of G-10 foreign-exchange strategy, said “we have imperfect information right now, but based on what we know, I do not view this as… Read More
Just a few short days after Speaker Pelosi chose to exercise her right to not invite the President to give his “State of the Union” address, Trump has – perhaps – responded… In a letter to Nancy Pelosi, President Trump explains that he will be postponing her trip to various foreign countries due to the… Read More
The State Department is calling back employees to work, telling them they will be paid for at least one pay period, despite the ongoing government shutdown. In an urgent message sent to Civil and Foreign Service officers on Thursday, Bill Todd, the deputy undersecretary for management, told staffers that the department is “taking steps to… Read More
You have to laugh really. From the lows after the Mnuchin Massacre on Boxing Day, Netflix stock price is up a stunning 53% (more than double the already impressive moves of the rest of the FANG stocks)… The last few days have surged further after the firm hiked prices, but all eyes will be focused… Read More
By: Nicolai J. Foss It is now commonly recognized that the majority of the economics profession for about four decades held an erroneous view of the nature of the “socialist calculation debate.” In particular, the nature of the arguments put forward by Mises and Hayek were misconstrued. Revisionism took off in the mid 1980s with… Read More
Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com, A suicide bombing in Manbij, Syria has reportedly killed 19 people including four Americans, two of whom were US soldiers and two of whom worked with the US military. ISIS, which has an extensive history of falsely claiming responsibility for attacks it had nothing to do with, has claimed responsibilityfor the attack. Despite the… Read More
LONDON — Biographer Anthony Butler tells us that as a young man South African president Cyril Ramaphosa was rarely seen without a bible under his arm. So this one-time practicing Lutheran is well aware of the role Pontius Pilate played in the death of Christianity’s icon Jesus Christ. Earlier today Ramaphosa adopted Pilate’s playbook, agreeing… Read More
Following reports that the Paris-based bank was considering disbanding its prop trading unit after notching an abysmal -20% drop in revenues in its trading business last year (adding to a streak of middling-to-poor returns), BBG reported Thursday afternoon that, for the second straight year, SocGen is planning to slash its bonus pool for traders –… Read More
Gold mining veteran Rob McEwen is nothing if not optimistic. The founder of Goldcorp Inc. is sticking with his bold prediction that the precious metal will soar almost fourfold to $5,000 an ounce, bolstered by a weaker dollar and waning demand for trendy assets like pot stocks. “Once people get over buying cryptos and biotech… Read More
Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, In August of last year, I wrote an article entitled “As Good As It Gets“ which discussed the record levels being set by a broad swath of economic indicators. To wit: “First, “record levels” of anything are records for a reason. It is where the point where previous limits were reached. Therefore,… Read More
That China has had a problem with rising defaults is not news: as we reported back in October, 2018 was already set to be a record year for Chinese bankruptcies. Things only got worse in November and December when defaults spiked to 20.4 billion yuan ($3 billion) confirming that the supportive policies from the People’s… Read More
Authored by Zachary Yost via The Mises Institute, Most libertarians are familiar with Dwight Eisenhower’s warning about the military-industrial complex and its nefarious influence on US foreign policy. Many have read Major General Smedley Butler’s short book War is a Racket, in which he lays out the ways in which war is in the economic interests of certain… Read More
Sears Holdings corporation announced on Thursday that it has accepted a $5.2 billion bid by Chairman Eddie Lampert’s ESL Investments, preserving approximately 45,000 jobs upon approval. ESL will acquire “substantially all of the Company’s assets” assuming Lambert’s rescue package is approved at a February 1 hearing. Assuming closing conditions are satisfied, the transaction will close… Read More
Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk, May survived a vote of no confidence and the EU might extend Article 50, but only with conditions. Nothing’s changed. Yesterday added no clarification to the Brexit process. With the backing of DUP MPs, Theresa May Survived a Vote of No Confidence 325-306. Most expected that result, as did… Read More
Shortly after BNP Paribas closed its prop trading unit (reminding readers of the financial press that the practice of risking shareholder money for profit continued in Europe after the financial crisis, along with the sometimes enormous consequences of seemingly trivial human errors) and its US commodities derivatives trading unit, the Paris-based bank’s smaller cross-town rival… Read More
The post-Christmas stock rally extended through Wednesday as the small-cap and tech stocks led the way, with the Russell 2000 up 14.3% and the Nasdaq up 12.5%. The SPX and Dow are up 10.4% and 10.1% respectively. During the stretch between December 26th and January 17th, the Russell 2000 index experienced only two down days.… Read More
Via Global Macro Monitor, Summary We believe the market is way off base in its analysis of what caused stocks to sell hard in 2018 The U.S. and world have a debt problem and yields need to mover higher in order for markets to clear The breakout in long-term yields in late September broke the… Read More