As the DOW and NSDQ Race To Go Unchanged on the Year
You have to be impressed with their resilience (or think they are insane). With all the things going on here and abroad, the disappointing economic data, the debt crisis, the growing trade tensions with China, it is an impressive showing. Very little seems better than it was back on January 1st of this year, and […]
Volcker Rule – Not Worth Reacting To
The Final Draft of the Volcker Rule was published for comment at the end of September. Even skipping our traditional rant about government bureaucracy, it is a document over 200 pages long, in which the word “exemption” occurs on no less than 100 pages (it is used 426 times in total). At a quick glance, […]
A Butterfly n Japan and a Banker in Belgium
Chaos theory states than in complex systems, a butterfly flapping its wings in Japan can cause tornadoes in California. Whether or not that is true, a Banker in Belgium buying Greek bonds can impact the lives of factory workers in Germany. Europe continues to head down the path of making the system more complex than […]
The Evolution of EFSF
It seems so long ago, but it was just over a year ago the EFSF was first created. The first iteration was set up in a way that although the headline number seemed relatively large, the amount that would ever be lent was under 300 billion euros as there were various holdbacks and other mechanisms […]
Italy Votes, IMF Gives, and EFSF Yields Increase
Italy rejected the budget today. I can’t imagine that it is because the opposition wanted more austerity. That must make the Slovakians even more eager to provide the EFSF with money to buy Italian bonds. The IMF has declared that they went to Greece (because they had purchased non-refundable tickets) but are going to give […]
While Everyone Is Making Fun of the Slovak Republic…
It seems like the Slovak Republic will agree to the current plan. It seems like some politicians have decided that getting a general election and a chance to be in charge and have power is worth selling out what they believe in. In the meantime, with the current structure the Slovak Republic, as small as […]
Equity Traders Petition to Create More Bond Market Holidays
Yesterday was one of the strangest days in a while – and that is from a long list of strange days. The most confusing part is that over the weekend Dexia went through some form of nationalization – the details of which and the need for which remain sketchy. Erste decided to take some big […]
Nike Changes Slogan To “Just Get It”
On an otherwise quiet day, where the stock market puts the finishing touches on a 10% bounce in less than a week, Nike has realized, “Just Getting It” is now enough. “Just Doing It” is so 1900’s. Why actually DO something when you can get all the benefits from sitting around and talking about doing […]
Today’s New Twist
So today, MAIN and SOVX, European CDS indices waited for US stocks to open before moving to their tightest levels on the day. So in a completely bizarro world, the markets that are most directly affected by this weekends statements and actions have a muted reaction, until the US stock market, with market least directly […]
Dexlexia, Scrabble Countries, and Humpty Dumpty
After another weekend on headlines coming out of Europe stock futures are up nicely and credit, while better, isn’t performing quite as well and sovereign debt yields are up across the board. After a quick glance at the credit markets and the headlines, it seems once again that equities have gotten ahead of themselves. Dexlexia […]