The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has been warning brokerages and investors of the dangers that leveraged ETFs pose all year. This past week, they announced a raising of the margin requirements for these products and I think this was a very smart move. By now, most investors are aware of the erosion involved when…
Fighting Recession With More Debt
This one will take you a second, but it’s very apropos of our current administration’s recession-fighting strategy. Sources: Cagle.com
The Kids Aren't Alright
Teenage unemployment at 25.5% has worse consequences than just the lack of a minimum wage paycheck for the kids. When I was a teenager, I worked at a local hardware store a few nights a week after high school. I was a stock boy and then a cashier. My co-workers were miserable people, stuck in…
Hot Links: UNG, AT&T and Wal-Mart People
Hot Links for Weekend Reading… Think bankers are in low regard now? In 16th century Holland, they were banned from the church and treated like pawnbrokers and brothel keepers. (CreditSlips) Happy bicentennial to Elbridge Gerry, the man who ran the dollar printing presses to pay for the Civil War. (NYT) Big PR problems for AT&T‘s…
The "Real" Unemployment Rate is All Ewwey and Stuff
EconomPic did the graphic above and I think that this is the best way to look at the current unemployment sitch. The scale on the right includes unemployed people that are not counted in the official number, such as those who have picked up part-time work, are working on a task-by-task basis or who have…
Leprechauns on Parade
Moment of truth time for the gold bulls and bears. The Will it or Won’t It Break $1000 polemic is every bit as suspenseful as the buildup to Ross and Rachel’s first kiss was during Season 2 of Friends. I don’t share investment ideas or make market calls on this site for compliance and business…
Hot Links: So Cute Your Head Will Explode
Stuff I’m Reading this Morning… 8 Reasons Goldman Sachs Says Buy The Chinese Selloff. (TPC) Sex offenders living under a bridge receiving stimulus money. I’d say that “stimulus” is the least of their problems, yuk yuk yuk. (DailyBeast) Buffett still selling Moody’s. Sucks to be a ratings agency these days. (Bloomberg) Nikki takes us behind…
Hot Links: World of Seinfeld
Stuff I’m Reading this Morning… Biggest gain in Chinese stocks in 6 months last night, Shanghai up 4.8% on the session. (Bloomberg) The age old debate about genes and income gets a great treatment by Mike Konczal. (RortyBomb) The latest Fed meeting minutes divined for your reading pleasure. (NYT) It’s that time again…annual report to…
From the August Archives
Your favorite Reformed Broker‘s taking a much-needed day off today. While you’re reading this, I’ll be at an amusement park with the family going for a world record in funnel cake eating/ roller coaster riding. Below are some recent posts I did that you may have missed. If you saw them all already, then I’ll…
Did We Fall Off The Bull Today?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5ZrTO7yRYI] Nasty bank failure/ secondary rumors all day today… Banks down 4.5%, Oil back under $70, AIG down another 8, Dow down 180 points with a little more than an hour left. Guess we’ll see.
