August 2009

Larry Summers' "To Do" List

Today, President Barack Obama announced his reappointment of Federal Reserve Chairman Benjamin Bernanke to another term.  Economic advisor Larry Summers, whom many had speculated would be Bernanke’s replacement, must not have taken the news well. The following To Do List was found in a trash can on Pennsylvania Avenue… Read Also: Lucan Van Praag’s “To…

Hot Links: Gartman, DeLong, Merkel & The Big Dogs

Stuff I’m Reading this Morning… On tap today:  New home sales, consumer confidence, the Richmond Fed. The Fly is liking the refiners here.  (iBankCoin) Commodities guru Dennis Gartman starting a new hedge fund.  (MarketFolly) This is a non-story to me, but the Goldman trading huddles are now in the spotlight.  (Clusterstock) Bernanke to get the…

Return of the Flannel Shirt: Recession Kids Get Their Grunge On

The year was 1991…Nirvana and Pearl Jam owned the airwaves, stocks and the economy were shaken by the Savings and Loan Crisis, and a young Chris Farley taught us how to laugh every Saturday Night. And oh yeah, we were all wearing flannel shirts. The flannel shirt trend came out of the Seattle thrift store…

Hot Links: Monday Morning

Stuff I’m Reading this Morning… READ THIS FIRST: Marla Singer submitted this op-ed to the New York Times, which they probably will never run.  (ZeroHedge) Americans are no longer the big spenders in this world.  (SmartMoney) Fellow inmates say Bernie Madoff is dying of cancer in prison.  (NYP) Steve Forbes has a new book out…

What Your Favorite Blogs Said at the Bottom

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed out at around 666 and 6500 respectively on Friday, March 6th of 2009. Just for fun, and because it’s been too hot to go outdoors, I thought I’d take a look back at what my favorite financial bloggers were talking about as we stared into the…

More Hot Links: Tightwad, Missouri

More Hot Links for Weekend Reading… Plan B: Starting your own business if job offers don’t come your way.  Very informative article.  (NYT) John Hancock launches a mutual fund based on technical analysis.  (Bloomberg) What the hell is going on with Porsche?  CEO’s house raided?  That VW thing not over yet.  (ZeroHedge) The ridiculousness of…

Don't Get Too Excited About Tech Just Yet

With the Nasdaq up over 22% year-to-date and many tech stocks on the receiving end of big upgrades recently (Goldman practically proposed to Google this past week with their endorsement), many investors have begun digging in the crates for some of their old favorite tech stories again. Eric Savitz‘s Technology Trader column in Barron’s today…

The Top 10 Investor Traps According to the NASAA

For 90 years, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) has been committed to protecting and educating individual investors.  The other day they put out a list of what they believe to be the Top 10 Investor Traps, and I thought they’d done a pretty good job of summarizing some of the major pitfalls that…

OMG: Dow Jones Index Business For Sale!

Since 1884, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (and to a lesser extent, the DJ Transportation Average) has been the most widely-followed and broadly-used measure of US blue chip stock performance in the world. And Rupert Murdoch, who acquired the Dow Jones Company to get the Wall Street Journal, is putting it up for sale via…