Goldman Sachs has raised its rating on large banks to “attractive.” In related news, Neal Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program has said that the Feds may have, er, not quite told the truth about the health of the banks receiving TARP funds. He didn’t use the word, lie though. How are these two items related? We’ll explain below.
October 6th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 4 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "financial markets"
Mortgage Bubble and More at Stake Between Australia and China
Two other items of note in yesterday’s housing numbers. The First Home Buyer’s consolidated their position as the most important group propping up Australian house prices. First home buyers increased their percentage of total owner-occupied mortgage demand from 28.6% in April to 29.5% in May. Nearly a third of all demand for new mortgages is coming from new buyers sucked in by the grant. Hmmn.
July 9th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 5 comments | Continued
Superannuation Raiding Party Being Formed II
Super funds represent a pool of capital the government doesn’t have to borrow on the international bond market. Of course, technically the super money is your money. But if Henry is up to what we think he’s up to, your money could soon be financing government-backed infrastructure projects or participating in corporate bond auctions. You can imagine the super industry would do these things anyway, if they seemed like good investments…
June 15th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 10 comments | Continued
A Philosophy of Investing
No one cares more about your money than you do. With a basic understanding of the investment process and a bit of discipline, you’re perfectly capable of managing your own money, even your “serious money.”
May 22nd, 2009 | Alexander Green | 3 comments | Continued
Economy Free to Recover?
Happy days are here again. It’s like someone turned back the clock to 2007. You’re a crank and a nutjob if you think there are serious problems in the financial system. Don’t you know this is the recovery you moron!
A report on U.S. payrolls showed that the American economy shed around 491,000 jobs last month. This was less than expected by forecasters and the least amount of jobs lost in the U.S.
May 7th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 34 comments | Continued
Possible Second Round of Panic Hitting Financial Markets
But what about Main Street, what’s going on there? According to the Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer index released yesterday, Australians were exactly 8.3% more confident in early April than they were in April March. See what a dose of low petrol prices, declining interest rates, and government cash can do for you?
April 9th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 14 comments | Continued
Stocks Fall Another 250 Points. Only 2,100 More to Go.
The Dow ended yesterday’s trading at 7,114. Before this correction is over, it will trade below 5,000. That has been our prediction for the last 10 years. Maybe we were a little early. But we’re sticking with it. Besides, stocks have been a bad bet for the last 12 years. They’re now back to ‘97 levels…
February 25th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | Continued
The Retail Collapse Continues
The retail collapse in the U.S. continues. It’s Armageddon for the sellers of stuff. Bloomberg reports that, “The International Council of Shopping Centres in New York predicts 73,000 U.S. stores may shut in the first half of 2009 after what may have been the worst holiday-shopping season in 40 years.” Your editor strolled though a massive retail space in Colorado last week, the Flatirons crossing mall…
January 5th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 0 comments | Continued
Balance Sheet Bailout Begins
Asciano has $4 billion debt on the books (much of it inherited from when the company was spun from Toll in 2007). But yesterday the company assured investors it wouldn’t be beefing up the equity on the balance sheet with another dilutive capital raising….
November 12th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 0 comments | Continued
Americans Executives Admit Their Salaries are Ridiculous
“We’ve come to realize that these salaries are just absurdly high. None of us can think of anything we’ve done anytime in the last ten years to warrant a salary of even half of what we get paid – much less the $38 million Stan got or the $322 million Ray got…”
April 1st, 2008 | Bill Bonner | 3 comments | Continued