Economy

The Yuppie Bounce

Go try to find an interview with virtually any sell-side analyst or money manager either in print or on financial television from this past February. Most told you to be completely out of stocks, understandably. The ones who did have the courage lack of choice and had to be recommending stocks in the media were…

Doug Kass: 10 Reasons Why The Market Has Likely Peaked For The Year

“I am less confident as a decade of hocus-pocus borrowing and lending and 35-to-1 leverage at almost every level in both private and public sectors cannot likely be relieved in the great debt unwind over the course of only 12 months.” -Doug Kass, August 26th 2009 Doug Kass has made some tremendous calls over 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…

Forecasters See Recovery… Jobless Recovery

This came out from the Philly Fed on Friday night… The Third Quarter 2009 Survey of Professional Forecasters got a smaller response than normal (only 34 economists participated) but the results are interesting nonetheless. By no means do I endorse the reliability of what this group has to say.  On the panel, you have some…

Green Shoots in San Francisco

Believe me, I have no empirical evidence to share about a turnaround in the economy as it probably doesn’t exist just yet. But I do have a hopeful and interesting story to share about a tech startup taking over the abandoned space of a shuttered hedge fund and making cool, cutting edge stuff.  This is…

Kidz Korner: What Does Stimulus Mean?

Kidz Korner is a relatively new feature here on The Reformed Broker where I explain complex financial issues to kids from the neighborhood in a simple, straightforward way. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Little Timmy Johnson: Hey Mister TRB, can I ask you a question? The Reformed Broker:  You just did… Timmy:  Oh.  Sorry, can I ask you another…

Droppin' Knowledge: Bill Gross on the Aftermath of Engorgement

PIMCO’s Bill Gross has his July commentary up on the web and his perspective is, as always, no-nonsense and interesting.  He begins by graphically describing the circumstances that led to the obesity-related death of a baseball umpire as his set up: “Kill the umpire,” the fan cried to open the 1996 baseball season in Cincinnati, and…