This morning’s University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Survey aka The Ann Arbor Housewive’s Report came in pretty weak… (Reuters) – U.S. consumer sentiment retreated in August from last month’s six-year high, though Americans were slightly more upbeat in their outlook than earlier in the month, a survey released on Friday showed. The Thomson Reuters/University of…

Mark Hulbert makes a nuanced point in his MarketWatrch column about the historical behavior of stocks during the month of September. On the one hand, he finds that this is really and truly the cruelest month… Let me first review the impressive statistics behind September’s terrible reputation. Since the Dow was created in 1896, it…

Michael Mauboussin’s book about untangling the results we generate from skill and from pure luck lit up the investment biz upon its release last fall. Since then, his work has been widely referenced virtually everywhere people are seriously trying to understand results and randomness. Quick shameless plug – Michael Mauboussin is a confirmed speaker at…

Props to Terrence Horan and Ben Eisen at MarketWatch for this great illustration explaining what’s going on with emerging market economies and markets right now – and why it could come back to bite developed world investors in the end:   Follow the link below for a more in-depth explanation: Emerging markets, Treasury yields risk…

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LOLZ at the most recent airing of grievances against the financial media by none other than the mighty PIMCO. The Bond Kings have it in their heads that the media is spinning a false narrative about the riskiness of the bond market and driving investors out of fixed income funds… Here’s Doug Hodge, the COO…

Proving there’s always a bull market somewhere, and that even in times of wrenching crisis and panic there is money to be made, the following statistic via Bloomberg: The six biggest U.S. banks, led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp., have piled up $103 billion in legal costs since the financial crisis, more than…