Six central banks -- the ECB, the US Fed, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Canada, and the Swiss National Bank -- rushed in to the European crisis today by taking steps to ensure liquidity for banks (essentially, lowering the cost of lending backstops that European banks can use as a source for short-term liquidity).This was obviously...
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Another lesson from Europe
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, data for shopping activity in the US blew away the forecasts of most economic prognosticators. Sales for the full weekend (from Thursday to Sunday) were up 16.4% over the previous year -- an astonishing increase and an all-time record in terms of dollar value spent during the period.This data should indicate that the...
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving 2011
We would like to take this time to wish all of our readers a very warm and happy Thanksgiving. This of course includes our readers around the world, who can also share in the special message of this most American of annual holidays, wherever they may be.As always, Thanksgiving is an opportunity to reflect upon and be thankful for the blessings in...
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
I'm glad I actually opened my account statement!
Anecdotally, we have now had more than one private client call us to say something along these lines:"I was afraid to open my statement, knowing that things must certainly be going off a cliff, and when I finally did look at it, I was surprised to discover that things were far better than I imagined!"Why would clients be so afraid to look and so sure...
Friday, November 11, 2011
Why you can't pay off your home loan with Monopoly money
First Trust Chief Economist Brian Wesbury recently published an outstanding one-page explanation of some of the underlying issues surrounding the ongoing eurozone debt crisis.Entitled "The Drachma is Dead, and so is the Welfare State," it is an excellent primer on the topic of strong currencies versus weak currencies.For those who might be wondering...
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Financial innovation is largely bunk
Here's a conceptual diagram of all the companies listed on the NYSE from September 2006, grouped by sector and sized according to market capitalization (value of the companies).It is roughly based upon the excellent "map of the market" tool that is available to look at on a daily basis in the "Market Data Center" section of the Wall Street Journal....
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
"Stop me before I ease again!"
Halloween is over, but that didn't stop markets worldwide from reacting in terror to the news that Greek leaders have decided to put their bailout up for a popular referendum, which is a little bit like asking a sick child to vote on whether he would like to take a bitter-tasting medicine or not.The latest consternation arrives just in time for this...
