No matter whom we spoke to today, the focus of the conversation has been on gold’s spectacular fall. There are many rumors floating around from China off-loading because wrong storage figures were released, to a large spec investor who sold 6 tonnes and has taken a huge loss on a leveraged trade! Whatever the excuse, we woke […]

CalPERS (California Public Employees’ Retirement System) posted a profit of just 2.4% for its fiscal year (which ended on June 30) that was well below its 7.5% investment target. This is illustrating the crisis emerging in pensions. Even the pensions that were funded are now underfunded because they counted for so long on 8% bond yields. […]

Yesterday, dealers spent most of the day waiting for the Greek vote and then, later in the day, Janet Yellen’s semi-annual HH (Humphrey Hawkins) testimony in front of the House Financial Services Committee. The Greek vote was rather well publicized throughout the day and confirmation that the measures would be accepted should be no huge surprise. With […]

What actually constitutes the Long Depression has been debatable, for at first it was called the Great Depression, and then that title was transferred to the 1930s. Consequently, some limit the term Long Depression to the worldwide price recession beginning in 1873 and running through the spring of 1879. Six years is not exactly a “long” depression, that in […]

When the Great Depression began, over 8,000 commercial banks belonged to the Federal Reserve System, but nearly 16,000 did not. There were still state banks that were not members. Those non-member banks operated in an environment similar to what existed before the Federal Reserve was first, established back in 1914. People criticize the Federal Reserve […]

The markets were relatively well behaved today, with little geopolitical excitement to unnerve trading, but we did see weaker economic data in the States. Retail sales were expected +0.2% but failed to deliver showing at -0.3%, ex-autos -0.1% vs. 0.5%. Also, May Business Inventories broadly in-line at 0.3%. Despite the less optimistic showing, the U.S. Stocks put in a […]

Whenever there is some political deal, it is NEVER what they present to the public with such magnanimous fanfare. There is always a hidden agenda. Here, Obama tells the American people this deal will prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons. Why the sudden change of heart? Surely, negotiations could have produced the same result five years ago. […]

  There have been many attempts at creating a gold standard and this notion that money should retain a value yet simultaneously people want to earn more with rising wages and assets values. Even Merkel’s “austerity” is a derivative of this idea that money should be somehow tangible in value yet simultaneously Euroland allows for […]

The left-wing Syriza Party of Greece is starting to question what Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is up to. Merkel is demanding austerity FIRST before any loans. Additional murmurings behind the curtain claim that Merkel wants a list of all assets owned by Greece. If Merkel thinks that she can seize Greek assets upon a default, she is […]

Only an hour into this morning’s trading and the news broke of the possible Greek Deal. Bunds were hit hard (down over 170 tics) and BTP’s (Italian Govt. Bonds) rallied 2 full points, pushing all peripheral spreads tighter. Greek 2yr Govt. Bond traded down 600bp to 23.75%. Equities loved the news and have been in […]