Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Stock Market Short Squeeze
July 17th, 2008WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. Two words: Options Expiration. Unfortunately, I was too cheap to buy some closer to the money GM calls. Those 17.50 strikes are done. 🙁 If you have no idea what this post means, see, Insider Crimes, Funny Money and Options Rackets […]
Wachovia Securities Raided in Auction Rate Probe
July 17th, 2008Via: Reuters: Securities regulators from several U.S. states raided the St. Louis headquarters of Wachovia Securities on Thursday as part of a broad investigation into questionable practices involving auction rate securities, Missouri officials said. Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan’s office said the “special inspection” at the Wachovia Corp (WB.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) […]
U.S. Dollar Index: Technical Analysis
July 17th, 2008WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. Human Readable Summary: I’m still bearish on the dollar. — Ok, let’s try to eat soup with a knife. U.S. Dollar Index, Weekly Interval The U.S. Dollar is entering a make or break phase. The weekly Bollinger bands are compressing, which […]
Welcome to the Frozen Economy
July 16th, 2008If I refer to Southern California as a death trap, what do the population centers of the North East represent? Via: Business Week: The Polar ice cap may be melting, but the U.S. economy is frozen, starting right here in my small town. Gradually rising levels of dismay at the gas pump and in the […]
U.S. Faces Global Funding Crisis, Warns Merrill Lynch
July 16th, 2008WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. In a recent comment, I wrote: It’s pretty clear that the Fed is more interested in selling out the dollar over time than letting the whole thing come crashing down all at once. They could have just let Freddie and Fannie […]
Cops to IndyMac Customers: Remain Calm or Face Arrest
July 16th, 2008I would not assume that the banking situation will continue to unwind in an orderly manner. If the herd begins to smell trouble, it will move with astonishing speed and ferocity. Don’t get caught trying to move your money to the exit as millions of zombies attempt to do the same thing. —EMERGENCY: U.S. GOVERNMENT […]
MASSIVE INTERVENTION
July 15th, 2008WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. The Plunge Protection Team (Working Group on Financial Markets) is out in force right now. Yep, that was getting a bit hairy and the PPT stepped in. Everything whipsawed at once. We’re seeing an honest to g0d, by-the-book, fake-out, bullshit crank, […]
Wholesale Prices Soar in June; Sales Are Sluggish
July 15th, 2008Stagflation. But don’t bother looking for that term in the AP piece below. Via: AP: The economy showed the depth of its twin problems on Tuesday, slow growth and rising inflation, as the nation wrestled with a teetering financial system, a slumping dollar and rising prices for food and fuel. The Labor Department reported that […]
Worried About Foreclosure? Hope That Your Bank Implodes
July 15th, 2008Via: Wall Street Journal: IndyMac Bancorp Inc., the failed thrift, reopened its doors under federal control Monday and promptly moved to toss ailing homeowners a lifeline by halting all foreclosures on the mortgages it owns. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair, who has been one of the most outspoken officials calling for banks to […]
FDIC Can Cover About 1% of “Potential Obligations”
July 15th, 2008This article is a few months old, so it doesn’t take the IndyMac implosion into account. Via: Forbes: In the case of bank collapse, the FDIC has to step in to insure the value of deposits. Normally the FDIC attempts to maintain a fund at 1.25% of the value of its potential obligations. In recent […]
