The Bank of Italy, when it was headed at the time by Mario Draghi, knew Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA hid the loss of almost half a billion dollars using derivatives two years before prosecutors were alerted to the complex transactions, according to documents revealed in a Milan court. Mario Draghi, now president of […]

Iraq has been accused of employing strong-arm tactics to make American military contractors operating in Iraq to pay exorbitant income taxes. They are running to Trump complaining that this is hampering the fight against Islamic State extremists – of course. The Iraq government is demanding millions of dollars in taxes that these contractors earn providing […]

Although Asia closed with pretty much a mixed session, it really does not explain the mood or sentiment. Yes, the Nikkei closed lower on the day (-0.1%) but after opening lower and a brief dip thereafter, for the balance of the day the market was bid and closed just below unchanged. Major stocks driving the […]

Not that much to get excited about in Asian markets today, but with not much fresh news to go-on indices closed mixed. The Nikkei opened better after their long weekend but with other regional markets drifting weaker, the index did well just to close in the positive. Bank of Japan minutes released relatively smoothly with […]

GREXIT QUESTION: I just read an article about Grexit and the MoU that expires in the summer of 2018. Let’s assume Greece exits EU and the Euro, what would happen to Greece and it’s people? What hardships would Grexit bring to the Greek people and what could individual Greeks do to prepare themselves for these hardships? […]

  The close of a healthy week and the Nikkei manages a close above the 22k figure. It has been flirting with the 22 handle all week and finally takes the YTD close above 15% and the 1yr to 27%. Initially, the rally was helped by the weaker Yen, which earlier was trading 114.20. This […]

  There has been an effort to use diamonds in place of gold since you can travel with them without setting off metal detectors. But the real problem has been the untrained eye can easily be fooled. The Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange (SDiX), has launched a new product they hope to compete with gold. Perhaps this […]

Europe is now replicating the 1930s and the mistakes it made with austerity back then as well outside of Germany. Of course, Merkel has imposed the German view of austerity based on their experience but has ignored the opposite experience of the rest of Europe that led to the 1931 Sovereign Debt Crisis and mass […]

QUESTION: Marty, we are living in Austria and we try to grasp what will come after the Dow reached the mid 30.000s or even the 40.000s in 2019/20 and the dollar went up too? what goes up must come down. it would be good to know how to prepare oneself for the everyday life as […]

The opening conversation in Asia was that of the impressive bounce the US markets had attained by close of business. Many Asian traders had left their desks Thursday with the DOW futures down over 130 points with fears spreading that we could see a repeat of the October ‘87 crash. As a result of the […]