An Editorial on Robert Bork and his Legacy
On Wednesday, December 19, 2012 Robert Heron Bork died at age 85. I did not mourn. Bork first became infamous in 1973 for his roll in the "Saturday night massacre" when as Solicitor General, the...
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North Korea’s Trade With China Jumped 60% In 2011
(Updates with inter-Korean trade in second paragraph.)Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea’s trade with China expanded more than 60 percent to $5.63 billion in 2011, as the totalitarian regime deepened...
View ArticlePerspectives on the U.S. Labor Market
It’s year end and time for some perspective on the economy.Let’s start with the U.S. labor market.The employment to population ratio remains stuck at around 58.7 percent, levels not seen since the...
View Article…Just Like the Titanic, But It’s Full of Bears!
Tonight’s Politico headline, Fiscal cliff deal increasingly unlikely.The Secretary of the Treasury announces after today’s market close the U.S. government will hit its debt limit on New Year’s Eve and...
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All Of The Media-Borne Excuses Are Missing What's Really Behind Weak Retail...
Retail sales, as I expected, have turned out to be much weaker than what the National Retail Federation (NRF), and other analysts, previously presumed. The excuses for the weakness, however, were just...
View ArticleEverything You Need To Know About The Port Labor Dispute That Could Disrupt...
Labor disputes at ports on both US coasts could disrupt trade in the new year and skew high frequency employment data. It could produce shortages of some consumer goods. The resulting higher prices...
View ArticleWhere The Heck Was The 'Festive Spirit?'
Shocked and appalled—that was the reaction to the shopping-season debacle unfolding in the US. It was triggered by MasterCard’s SpendingPulse report that poured ice-cold water on expectations of a 3%...
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JOHN TAYLOR: 2013 Will Start With Markets Up, And Then There Will Be Trouble
Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- After four decades in the foreign- exchange business, John Taylor says a further depreciation of the yen versus the U.S. dollar is one of the surest bets he sees going into the...
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Bill Gross Is Buying Up Tons Of New York Munis
Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Bill Gross has more than doubled his holdings of municipal debt sold in New York, helping propel the world’s largest bond fund to its biggest investment in local securities in...
View ArticleAbenomics and other Drivers of Holiday Markets
The main feature in the foreign exchange market continues to be the yen’s weakness. This weakness, based on expectations that the new Japanese government will succeed in driving the dollar to JPY90...
View ArticleBest and Worst Commodity ETFs of 2012
Commodity ETFs burst onto the scene a few years ago, as these products democratized an asset class that was once difficult to reach for many retail investors. Now, these products are among the most...
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DAVID ROSENBERG: Here Are Two Reasons To Be Bullish On Gold
Just some random gold thoughts here via David Rosenberg’s 2013 outlook:Gold is also a hedge against financial instability and when the world is awash with over $200 trillion of household, corporate and...
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GMI RATINGS: Here Are Some More Red Flags About Herbalife
By Lev JanashviliHerbalife’s battle with its detractors is heating up. The consumer products company (NYSE: HLF) has lost about 60 percent of its market value since April of 2012. Short interest in the...
View ArticleGreat Graphic: Japan and Korea
These Great Graphics come from Bloomberg. I created them as part of an investigation into the impact of a weaker yen outside of Japan. Japan and Korea compete in various industries. As is well...
View ArticleChina’s Economic Glide Path
The Economist out with an interesting piece on China’s economic growth.China faces a more sober economy in 2013TO ITS many critics, the momentum of China’s economy is sustained by nothing but an...
View ArticleReading articles on federal circuit courts...can a layman follow?
When I forwarded this link to Beverly Mann I was interested in the following the current thread on civil rights, the legalalities of state use of torture, the continuation in the NDAA exclusion of...
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These Are The Worst Fiscal Policy Ideas Of 2012
TaxVox proudly presents its 2012 Lump of Coal awards, Thelma and Louise edition, for the worst fiscal policy ideas of the year. The winners are:10. California. The Golden State probably deserves a...
View ArticleMarket Dances to the Tweet of a Cantor
Nice reversal!House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, may not be able to move votes, but he certainly moved the market and gave investors a nice Christmas tweet at 3:05 pm today.The House will return for...
View ArticleStratfor: Options and Conditions for a Spanish Bailout
Stratfor Europe analyst Adriano Bosoni discusses the financial assistance options that the European Union could provide Spain and the conditions they would include.For more analysis, visit:...
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WAIT: Maybe Holiday Retail Spending Was Actually Really Strong
Yesterday the econoblogosphere was all atwitter about a MasterCard report that consumers had only spent 0.7% more this holiday season vs. last year. This is said to be the weakest showing since the...
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