Let’s see, the Wall Street insiders made billions in bonuses and fees during the Bubble Epoque - and they were smart enough to take the money off the table…
December 3rd, 2008 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "inflation"
Marshalling the Armies of Inflation
Is Mr. Market schizophrenic? He’s acting like it. Just before 1pm on Friday, the All Ordinaries traded at 3,201. The market was bad and getting worse. Then, shares rallied nearly 5.7% for the rest of the day. The All Ords closed up 54 points on the day. But from the intraday low to the close, it was more like 186 points. Now that’s what we call a bounce back! Maybe Mr. Market had a few martinis for lunch and came back in a reckless mood…
November 24th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 2 comments | Continued
Fall in Commodity Prices Will Reduce Inflationary Forces
Now to the big subject of the day. Inflation. You’d think evidence of even bigger deficits in the U.S. is clearly inflationary. But not everyone thinks so. The new prophet of doom, Dr. Nouriel Roubini, says at least four factors are setting up what he calls “Stag Deflation” (as opposed to the stagflation of the 1970s, where you had no growth and rising prices). Roubini’s four forces of Stag Deflation are…
October 31st, 2008 | Dan Denning | 6 comments | Continued
Top Five Bear Markets of All Time
The S&P 500 made its bear market low in October of 2002 at 776. That’s 13.3% below yesterday’s close of 896. And should it decline to that level, it would be exactly 50% below its all time intra-day high of 1,552 (set on October 31st of last year). By any historical standard, that’s a whopper of a bear market. So Grantham dipping a toe in now is an assumption that this bear market is roughly consistent with similar bear markets of the last 137 years. Take a look below and you’ll see what we mean.
October 23rd, 2008 | Dan Denning | 4 comments | Continued
This Bear Market 2008 Could Last 20 Years
When Mr. Market goes into a sulk, he takes a long time to come out of it. Real bear markets last 10…15…20 years. And judging by the meltdown in the financial sector…and the rapid losses we’ve seen over the last three weeks…we have a real bear market on our hands. This bear market actually began in January 2000 when the tech sector crashed. But it was reversed when the feds opened a Hoover dam of liquidity, beginning in 2001-2002. Stocks floated higher…
October 22nd, 2008 | Bill Bonner | 5 comments | Continued
Do the Facts Support Impending Inflation?
Today we ask whether we’ve got it all wrong. We pause to examine whether or not our prediction of impending inflation is consistent with what’s actually going on in the markets. It’s one thing to keep saying it. But do the facts support it? More on that in a moment. First, Warren Buffett once paraphrased Ben Graham, saying that in the short-run the stock market is a voting machine but in the long-run it’s a weighing machine.
October 20th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 2 comments | Continued
Deflation is the Master of the Field, Sweeping Away Inflation
Inflation delenda est. Viva deflation! And now Congress has passed a bailout bill…the fix is in…everyone will be protected…spared…saved. But Wait…
October 7th, 2008 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | Continued
From the Gold Pan… Inflation, Deflation and Precious Metals
The key to the rising price for gold in the 1930s was the effort by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to raise the nominal price of gold from $20 to $35 per ounce. It was still - in many respects - a gold standard world back then. But in raising the gold price, FDR also indirectly spurred the market capitalization of much of the mining industry. One thing to keep in mind is this. We know a few things about inflation, both practically and from economic theory…
September 26th, 2008 | Byron King | 3 comments | Continued
Inflationary Monetary Policy, a Bit Like Pornography
Inflationary monetary and fiscal policy is a little like pornography. That is, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, confronted with the challenge of distinguishing pornography from free speech or art, famously said, “I know it when I see it.” The same is true with investors and inflationary monetary and fiscal policy. One of the great criticisms of monetarists is that they have a tough time proving when an increase in the money supply is actually inflationary.
September 23rd, 2008 | Dan Denning | 1 comment | Continued
Deflation is on the March
Inflation is retreating…deflation is on the march. Food prices were increasing at about a 10% annual rate in July. In August, the increase slowed to 7%. The whole world economy is slowing down…
September 18th, 2008 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued