Weekly Links

It was a tumultuous week in both equities markets and credit markets.  In the EU, several troubled countries saw their bond spreads over German bunds spike to record levels, especially Ireland.  Earlier in the week, Ireland was steadfast in their denials that they would entertain an EU/IMF-financed bailout but by Friday, it appeared as though [...]

With gold touching a new high this week and Treasuries coming off their record highs, there’s no clear direction for the market, interest rates or the economy as a whole.  Equities have slid sideways for weeks now and the unemployment numbers have been roughly meeting consensus (slightly below typically).  There’s the typical mix of optimism [...]

So, we survived the week in Hindenburg Omen territory and while the market didn’t exactly “light up” my portfolio, the dreaded market crash didn’t occur, nor is it any more likely over the near term than at any other time in the recent past.  The market has already priced in stagnant unemployment that’s going nowhere, [...]

This week’s big news (aside from some basketball player I couldn’t care less about) was the shocking swap of spies between the US and Russia after revelations that the US had apprehended 10 spies that had been under surveillance for over a decade.  Just when you thought the Cold War was over, this is just [...]