2065 days ago
Author Danielle DiMartino Booth argues that it is iimportant that people understand the way central bank policies affect their lives. Her recent book reveals how the Fed has lost its way due to creating monetary policy based on market patterns and politics instead of economic metrics. She argues that the Fed is increasingly becoming backed into a corner ever since the money printing of 2008 with the introduction of “Zero Interest Rate Policies” and “Quantitative Easing.” Now the Fed has again become dovish over seemingly small corrections occurring in the markets.
3020 days ago
Marc Faber has been a student of markets since 1970, and has learned that the stock market is largely distorted and manipulated. The markets are no longer trading on sound fundamentals in a system where the quantity of money is relatively limited. The liquidity bubble created by central banks, paper money, interest rates, and quantitative easing are examples of this manipulation.
4398 days ago
Well I told you so. My heart in the end went, marginally, for Romney and as I see deluded lefties across the media world delighting in another four years of hopey change I feel Romney’s pain. But my head told me Obama would win and so I have called it as an Obama victory from the moment it became clear he was going to face Mitt. I never flinched in that – whilst other conservative writers claimed Mitt had momentum and would inch it, this pundit got it 100% right. I shall cover the political and coverage aspects later but starting with the economy. Obama’s victory is not very good news for the USA.
4448 days ago
I tried to get a fatwa levelled against ADVFN CEO Clem Chambers with an early post on my ADVFN blog. That failed. And so I must try to take him to task for his assertion that Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve has done us a favour by signing up for QE3, QE4 and QE ad infinitum. He has not.
4448 days ago
Like me Ben Bernanke is always blowing bubbles. It is just that he does not realise that they eventually fade and die. Recorded before today’s rather dull nil nil draw at Norwich (only highlight: Nolan not booked) the weekly video is back.
Recorded in the back garden of my father & step mother’s house, forgive the relaxed attire. Step mother Helen is very kindly doing a wash.
4485 days ago
For me the dual highlights of the week were Madonna taking on Putin on civil liberties and the hilarious reaction of Russian church and state and my visit to the best bakery in Greece, indeed my whole time in Zitsa.
This is the penultimate video of this series. There will be one next week and then a two week break as I head slowly back to England. The book will, by then, be almost finished. And I have almost decided on my next move. So it is time to go back to the UK and sort that out.
Video Postcard from Tom #004 by dm_500db406b2995
On the Agenda
4522 days ago
I am not sure which is more hapless and hopeless, the ECB or the Bank of England. It is a close run thing and today’s actions by the pair did nothing to clarify the situation.
The Bank of England announced £50 billion more Quantitative Easing. Ok, so QE has not worked to date so let’s try it again but only a small dose. If you think that QE is the answer to the UK’s ills (and for what it is worth I do not) then force the patient to drink gallons of medicine. The strategy seems to be a big gulp, then another big gulp and because that has not worked another sip or two. This latest QE will be regarded as either: another dollop of the wrong medicine (by sceptics like myself) or too little medicine to make a change and thus a counterproductive confidence destroyer (that is the “believer’s view). Either way this is another day in which the Old lady of Threadneedle Street achieves nothing much.
4553 days ago
I am not sure of my Latin. No doubt my father or Evil Knievil or his father George could do better. What I note is just that very few stocks in London seem to be perfectly priced. At one end of the spectrum there are some ludicrously overpriced bags of huff and puff. I flagged up one such enterprise and explained why it was 90% overvalued earlier today here. But it is not alone – I am sure it is not hard to find another two or three dozen companies that are equally over-valued. And I shall turn my attention to Facebook later. Yet at the other end of the spectrum there are profitable companies trading at a discount to Tangible Net Asset value or even to net cash. This is bizarre.
4555 days ago
Gold raced ahead on Friday by almost $100 to $1625 oz. I have long predicted $2,000 gold for 2012 – I actually think we are heading rather higher. For weeks gold has been slipping (to a low of $1525). This has not been the fault of gold but of the morons who run (I use the word loosely) the EU. As the Euro has tanked there has been a flight to the US dollar and gold has slipped in dollar terms as a result. But now there are worries about the US.
