Robert McNamara must have been in a hurry too. He never had time to wonder why he was sending 500,000 American boys to fight a war when Lyndon Johnson was “publicly promising in campaign speeches not to ‘go North,’ not to send American boys to fight wars Asian boys ought to fight for themselves,”…
July 8th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "wall street"
Fed Announced it Would Buy up to $300 Billion in Treasury Bonds
Stock action on Wall Street was mostly directionless. Stocks have opened lower here in Australia. But all the juicy action is in the bond market, where the Fed is getting its hands dirty again. You wouldn’t think the Fed would have to come in and support bond prices with investors wringing their hands about global growth. But the numbers tell another story.
July 7th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 4 comments | Continued
Investors Teased and Tickled by Waves of Good News
And now comes the big American holiday – July 4th. Investors pack their suntan lotions and head off to the beach for Independence Day. With Jaws in a cage, they had judged it safe to go into the water. But then came Thursday’s news.
July 6th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
In 1930…as in 2009…the Average Fellow Thought the Crisis had Passed
“I see the publishers association has chosen a ’20s theme,” began the emcee. “What is wrong with you people? Don’t you know what came after the ’20s? The ’30s!”
It doesn’t seem like the ’30s…yet. Ask the man on the street and he will tell you what he’s heard on TV: the worst of the crisis is over.
Subprime Meltdown Has About Run its Course
“But not to worry,” borrowers were told. “Betting on ever-rising home prices is the safest wager in the whole wide world. If you have problems with cash flow when the ARM resets, your house will be worth a lot more, so you can simply sell it and walk away with a nice chunk of change in your pocket.”
June 4th, 2009 | Doug Hornig | 8 comments | Continued
Deal With Bondholders Cleared the Way for GM Bankruptcy
Too bad about GM. It was set up in 1916. If it had been able to hold together for another 7 years, it would have gone 100 years without having to declare bankruptcy.
All people die. All companies die, too. That’s why ‘buy and hold’ is wishful thinking. Buy and hold long enough and you are sure to go broke. And die.
Government Could Succeed in Reflating the Bubble
The dotcom bubble had exploded. Stocks were going down. The economy was in recession. But the recession turned out to be very, very mild. Most people seemed unaware that there was a recession at all. Spending never went backwards…not an inch.
May 27th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Debt Built Up to Levels Even Obama Says Are “Unsustainable”
And then, all that debt that they built up over the last quarter century is a problem. It has to be paid down to the point where it isn’t a problem. And that means the obvious thing – people have to cut back on their spending.
May 20th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
The Practice of Naked Short-selling
Thank goodness! As a greedy optimist, one can certainly understand the attraction of naked short-selling because (for one thing), “Naked short-selling can save a trader the costs of borrowing shares.”
May 12th, 2009 | Mogambo Guru | 3 comments | Continued
Capitalism Always Takes an Economy Where it Ought to Be
Whoever was responsible for the mistakes, capitalism went about correcting them with its customary élan. It hit imprudent investors with trillions in losses. It knocked down mismanaged corporations. It whacked homeowners…
May 12th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | Continued
The New Capitalists Were Not Real Capitalists
Of course, as long as stocks went up, the new capitalists didn’t mind or notice that the financial industry took advantage of them. They completely misunderstood what they had gotten into.
May 5th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
A Credit Depression
You don’t need to own subprime loans to take loan losses in a credit depression. Smith said the area that concerned him most was the surge in small and mid-size businesses simply closing up shop unexpectedly. “In the real economy,” he said, “there is no evidence that the world economy is yet bottoming.”
April 30th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 5 comments | Continued
Stock Prices Down Signals Bears to Hold onto Cash, Treasuries and Gold
The bulls will be killed in the classic way. A strong rally on Wall Street…or a series of minor ones… will lead them to believe that “the worst is over.” They’ll get back into stocks after a 20% or 30% advance – hoping to recover what they lost last year.
April 30th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | Continued
U.S. Government Spending $13 trillion to ‘Fix’ Problems
As near as we can tell, the financial world conveniently remained on hold while we were gone. As of Sunday night, little had changed. Gold, stocks…economists…politicians – they’re all about where we left them.
April 22nd, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Begging the Question: Recovery to What?
Does it mean that American “consumers” (so-called) are awaited momentarily in the flat-screen TV sales parlors with their credit cards fanned-out like poker hands, ready for “action?” Not too likely with massive non-performance out in cardholder-land, and half the nation’s electronics inventory wending its way onto Craig’s List.
April 17th, 2009 | James Howard Kunstler | 29 comments | Continued
