02 Mar
There’s 2 forces at work in the US. On one hand you’ve got the US government bailing out companies left and right and at the same time the financial institutions aren’t willing to lend money. So which force is going to win? Will the printing press eventually overwhelm the credit destruction or is credit being […]
Posted in Ben Bernanke, interest rates by: arnie
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21 May
Economics:
Canada’s April inflation numbers increased to 0.8% for the month and 1.7% year over year. Canada reported food increased 0.8% in the month and energy prices increased 6.0% (this contrast to the US which strangely enough showed no change in energy prices). Although the year over year numbers are low relative to the other […]
Posted in Base Metals, Ben Bernanke, Economics, Inflation, Oil, Stock Watch, copper, fomc, interest rates by: arnie
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04 May
Should North American investors be investing based on an economic environment that is recessionary or inflationary?
As mentioned previously, the US economy seems to be in a bull market as bad news (such as housing or employment stats) results in rising stock markets. If the market responds to bad news by pushing up the stock […]
Posted in Agriculture, Ben Bernanke, Commodities, Economics, Energy, Fertilizer, Housing, Inflation, Inflationary Policy, Manufacturing, Oil, Portfolio, Stagflation, interest rates, natural gas by: arnie
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29 Apr
Housing:
There were more negative housing statistics released this morning. The most reliable measure of housing prices is the S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index. The index (for 20 cities) reported that y/y prices were down 12.7% for February. This represents the biggest fall since the index was created. For the month, the price decline accelerated to […]
Posted in Ben Bernanke, Housing, Inflation, interest rates by: arnie
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25 Apr
There’s lots of talk about what Helicopter Ben Bernanke and the FOMC will decide to do with short term interest rates next week. Apparently the market is no longer pricing in a 50 basis point cut in rates with some economists expecting only 25 or even no rate cuts. My feeling is that Helicopter Ben […]
Posted in Ben Bernanke, Inflation, Inflationary Policy, natural gas by: arnie
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11 Apr
Recap:
The Dow Jones and TSX were both down 256 and 226 points on Friday respectively probably the result of General Electric posting lower profits q/q and also lowering guidance for the year. This comes only a short time after the company had affirmed guidance in March. Markets are nervous because of the implications that weakness […]
Posted in Ben Bernanke, Energy, Inflation by: arnie
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