ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION
August 3, 2024 | Tech Talk for Saturday August 3rd 2024
The Bottom Line World equity markets recorded significant technical weakness last week. Weakness on Friday was extended by a disappointing U.S. July Employment report released at 8:30 AM EDT. Breakdowns below intermediate support levels were recorded by North American, European and Far East equity indices and their related Exchange Traded Funds. Best chart to demonstrate […]
August 2, 2024 | War & Freedom of Speech – Then the Default
I had the privilege of knowing Normal Rockwell back in the 1970s. His most famous war poster, created to raise money for World War II, asserted that if we lost, we would lose our freedom of speech. It is good that Norman is no longer with us. If he were alive today, he […]
August 2, 2024 | Japan Enters Its Death Spiral
Japan has been a big topic in this newsletter because it illustrates the no-win situation in which wildly overindebted countries eventually find themselves. Here are two articles that illustrate the point: How a Country Goes Bankrupt, In 10 Steps Japan Is In That Box Now For The Death Spiral Confronted with both a plunging […]
August 2, 2024 | Recession in the U.S. is Coming Soon
The Federal Reserve delayed cutting rates this week while ignoring signs of a pending recession. The U.S. economy is slowing rapidly and there is a multitude of clues that the U.S. will enter recession before the end of this year. The Federal Reserve has yet to cut rates, but that first cut is almost certainly […]
August 2, 2024 | American’s #1 Financial Problem in One Chart
In April 2024, a record 41% of those surveyed claimed that the high cost of living/inflation was their #1 financial issue – up from the previous record highs of 35% in 2023 and 32% in 2022. At 14%, the high cost of owning or renting a home was the 2nd largest financial issue. Negative […]
August 1, 2024 | Digital Ruble 2025
Russia has announced that it will implement a digital ruble by next July. Moscow will begin using cryptocurrency for some foreign transactions to bypass sanctions and SWIFT. As of November 2024, Russia will permit crypto mining, so long as it is carried out under the watchful eye of the government. The Bank of Russia […]
July 31, 2024 | Study: Canadians Experiencing Worst Standard of Living in 40 Years
The Fraser Institute conducted a study that found Canadians are experiencing the worst standard of living in the past 40 years. Conditions are beneath what was experienced during the 89 recession, the Great Recession, and even the early stages of the post-pandemic. What is going on in Canada? Justin Trudeau uprooted Canada’s fiscal landscape and […]
July 31, 2024 | Crude Oil Rises US$2/B After Israel Assassinates Two Terrorist Leaders
After a Hezbollah attack on a Druze village in the Golan of Israel that killed 12 children playing in a soccer field (total 30 casualties), Israel focused on retribution by targeting the Hezbollah leader (Faud Shukr) who ordered the Majdal Shams attack and killed him and associates in an air attack at his Beirut home. […]
July 31, 2024 | Inflated Prices Increasingly Weigh
Policymakers and economies face a similar challenge globally. After the 2008 meltdown, short-term rates were intentionally suppressed to incentivize credit growth and consumption at the expense of savers and productivity-improving investments. Now, we are paying the longer-term costs of those short-term focused choices. As debt and unaffordability weigh on spending and employment, excess capacity and […]
July 30, 2024 | Yellen Eyes $3 TRILLION ANNUALLY for Climate Change Initiatives
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen once admitted that the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest spending package in American history, was deliberately designed to combat climate change. “The Inflation Reduction Act is, at its core, about turning the climate crisis into an economic opportunity,” Yellen candidly said this April. The act was never intended to curb […]
July 30, 2024 | Art of the Collapse, August 2024
The Paris Summer Olympics may have started a trend: Sodom And Gomorrah Set To Host 2028 Olympics (Babylon Bee) – In keeping with the Olympics’ commitment to sexual violence and Satan worship, the International Olympic Committee announced today that the 2028 games would be held in the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah. “They’re a natural fit for […]
July 30, 2024 | The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America, July 2024 Update. Below 2022 Peak: San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, Portland, Denver, Dallas, Las Vegas. New Highs: Miami, Los Angeles, San Diego…
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, released today for “May,” are three-month moving averages of home prices in 20 metropolitan areas whose sales were entered into public records in March, April, and May. So that’s the time frame. Over this period, home prices in all 20 metros increased from the prior month, in most […]
July 30, 2024 | Central Banks Easing into a Recession
David Rosenberg, founder and president at Rosenberg Research, and Ed Devlin, founder of Devlin Capital, senior fellow at C.D. Howe Institute. and former head of Canadian portfolio management at PIMCO, join BNN Bloomberg to share their outlook on the economy and the markets. Here is a direct video link.
July 29, 2024 | “Well Hello Mr. Coyote”
My two beagles and I were in a coastal canyon this morning, and a coyote started following us. A man has a duty to protect his wife and family, so I yelled to try to scare him away. That didn’t work. The coyote kept following us. So I tried Plan B I […]
July 29, 2024 | De-Dollarization Update: October Surprise?
The next BRICS meeting is scheduled for October, in Russia. In the meantime, a lot is happening on the de-dollarization front. Some recent news: NATO just took Russian assets and gave them to Ukraine: Not surprisingly… Russia says it’s working with a group of countries to build a platform that doesn’t need the dollar (Business Insider) […]
July 29, 2024 | Cash Flow Problems
Happy Monday Morning! As expected, the Bank of Canada slashed rates another 25bps this past week. It was a dovish press conference, with Tiff emphasizing excess supply in the economy. In the words of the BoC, economic growth likely picked up to about 1.5% through the first half of this year. However, with robust population […]
July 29, 2024 | Danielle on The Jay Martin Show
In this episode of The Jay Martin Show, host Jay Martin sits down with Danielle Park of Venable Park Investment Counsel to explore the current state of the Canadian real estate and bond markets. Danielle provides in-depth insights into how negative yields have driven the Canadian home price bubble, the lagging effects of recent rate […]
July 29, 2024 | DEI the Hidden “REAL” Global Agenda
COMMENT: It’s akin to a multi-billion marketing campaign I have family in UK, Sydney, and Galway, Ireland All are getting “diversity” pushed. It’s like a weapon now to prevent unity, common heritage against govt I made these for friends. The end game of diversity? There will be OLYMPIC teams in 30 years! RL REPLY: […]
July 28, 2024 | From the Archives: How to Short Stocks – Is it finally time??
First, the FAANG stocks (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google) were going to rise forever. Then they morphed into the “Magnificent 7” which many believe will ride the AI boom to infinity and beyond. Either way, the result is a wildly unbalanced market (and economy) supported by a tiny group of multi-trillion-dollar companies. We’ve seen […]
July 28, 2024 | A Sticky Last Mile
“Alice laughed. ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said. ‘One can’t believe impossible things.’” “’I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’” ―Lewis Carroll This week we find our […]
July 28, 2024 | Time for a Holiday…
[I’m taking a summer break, so this will be my last commentary until after Labor Day. It will be the usual busman’s holiday, however, and actionable ‘touts’ for popular symbols will be updated ‘round-the-clock as always. Some recommendations will be accessible to non-paying subscribers, so be sure to check the home page regularly, especially if stocks go […]
July 28, 2024 | The Trust in Government is Collapsing – Is Anything Real Anymore?
As we head into the end of this cycle in 2032, this process concerns the collapse of Republican forms of government that is rapidly approaching on a global scale. I believe that this has become far more obvious since the COVID-19 scam. Even in Germany, friends think that something has seriously changed. We are dealing […]
July 27, 2024 | Trading Desk Notes for July 27, 2024
Reversion to the mean continues across key markets Big-cap tech stocks fuelled a ~50% rally in the NAZ (~39% in the S&P) from October to July; their recent weakness contributed to the NAZ falling ~10% (S&P ~5%) from record highs. The MAG7 market cap is down ~$2 trillion (~12%) since July 10. The Russell 2000 […]
July 27, 2024 | Recession Watch: The Un-Inverted Yield Curve and Plunging Copper
Headline economic stats like GDP continue to look pretty good. But the list of reliable indicators screaming “imminent recession” continues to expand. Some of the latest: Un-Inverted Yield Curve An inverted yield curve (where short-term interest rates are higher than long-term rates) is a well-known recession signal. But it really starts flashing when it un-inverts, i.e., when long-term […]
July 27, 2024 | Tech Talk for Saturday July 27th 2024
The Bottom Line Focus this week is on the FOMC announcement on the Fed Fund Rate at 2:00 PM EDT Wednesday. Quarterly earnings reports released to date for the most part have been positive. Focuses this week are on reports by Amazon and Apple on Thursday. Seasonal influences during a U.S. Presidential Election year historically […]