Saturday, February 27, 2016

Investors: You May Want to Take Heed of the Current Relationship Between the Monthly 10/20 SMAs


Note: To enlarge, click inside the chart.

Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump


Mrs. Clinton release those bank speeches along with those other transcripts of speeches from 2014 to the first quarter of 2015 in which you earned $11,000,000 for 51 talks. Mr. Trump release your tax returns for the past ten years.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

45% of Americans Pay "NO INCOME TAXES"



According to the Tax Policy Center, which is a joint project with the Urban Institute and Brookings Institute, approximately 77.5 million individuals will pay no federal individual income tax for the 2015 tax year. I don't know about you, but I believe everyone should have some skin in the game, even if it is nothing more than $5. Saying that, I am a strong proponent of the Fair Tax.  

Justice Scalia from the Grave


Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Monopoly Game Goes "Cashless"


The game company is preparing our children for a "cashless society." Most young adults today are already in a cashless environment with the use of their debit cards. A cashless society is closer than most of us realize. 

We will soon see the end of the $100 note and probably the $50 note in support of the removal of the 500 Euro note.  We went from $10,000 bill to $100 bill without even a whisper from society.
Thought for the day: "You may want to consider swapping your $50 and $100 notes for $20 notes while you still can."

Friday, February 12, 2016

What Now, DJIA?


Note: Click inside of chart to enlarge.

Abject Failure of Quantitative Easing, Now Negative Interest Rates



What do we have after "637 interest rate cuts and $12.7 trillion in Quantitative Easing by Central Bankers of the world for the past eight years?"  Weak economic growth and investors starting to rebel against all this quantitative easing.  In other words, absolutely nothing!  Now, these same Central Bankers want to institute a world-wide monetary policy of "negative interest rates."  That is, you deposit $100 in your bank account and after one year, your bank gives you back $98.  What? Yes, you read that correctly.  See, all those QEs have not stipulated consumption spending or business investment. So, these Central Bankers want to try the next great monetary experiment with "negative interest rates." What is their rationale?  Well, if you are not earning any interest on those deposits, you will spend those deposits, which will stimulate the economy through personal consumption expenditures.  No, it will not stimulate the world economies, because individuals and firms will perceive a "NIRP" as another round of abject monetary failure by Central Bankers.

According to Bank of America, this has been the results of all this Central Bank quantitative easing:
  1. 637 interest rate cuts over the past eight years
  2. $12.3 trillion of asset purchases by global central banks in the past 8 years
  3. $8.3 trillon of global government debt currently yielding 0% or less
  4. 489 million people currently living in countries with official negative rates policies (i.e. Japan, Eurozone, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark)-0.92%, the most negative yield in the world (2-year Swiss government bond).



Tuesday, February 09, 2016

Wholesale Inventories to Sales


At 1.32x, the December 2015 “Wholesale Inventories/Sales Ratio” is drastically higher than at year-end 2014 and is back at levels that have always coincided with recessions. But, I am sure that it will be different this time, right?

Thursday, February 04, 2016

Wall Street vs. Main Street



“The new law of business evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the un-fittest.” Gordon Gekko