Henry Kaufman has a great op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this morning in which he expresses his near-term fears about a politicized Federal Reserve. In the course of making his case that some political involvement in monetary policy is probably unavoidable, he gives us a quick history lesson on how US Presidents have historically…
Wall Street Journal
Why Greenwich PD May Run Out of Handcuffs Soon
At last count, the insider trading ring that was originally busted in mid-October has already included roughly 30 people arrested so far. With high profile funds like SAC Capital being closed in on, it’s helpful to get a better idea of how this thing was actually run. The below infograph comes to us from the…
Comparing This Decade's NASDAQ to the 1930's Dow Jones
In a new He Said/ She Said piece from the Wall Street Journal, we get the above chart, which compares the last 9 years of the NASDAQ to the Dow Jones Industrial Average of the Great Depression. Without question, there is an eerie similarity in the squiggles. From the WSJ: Editor’s Note: It was the…
The Retirement Account Death Threat
This one’s interesting. Normally, you hear about clients threatening their brokers for giving them the wrong advice. In this case, a man’s advisor tried to talk him out of tapping his IRA early in order to be spared from the early withdrawal penalty. Was the client pleased with this advice? Actually, no, he became homicidal….
G'Day Rates! Australia Tightens Up
Australia’s central bank raised interest rates yesterday, beginning the unwind of their credit crunch stimulus program. They are the first nation in the G-20 to do so. Like Norway and Brazil, Australia derives a great portion of its GDP from minerals and mining exports, and so is more concerned about inflation in the near-term than many other…
Gut Check Time For The Nasdaq Bulls
Just some quick thoughts as we head into the end of September… Last week was fairly interesting in that many began noticing signs of a change in character for the stock market, if not a change in trend. The Nazz has been the leader for this rally, so the action there is worth noting. Some…
Risk and Reward in Emerging Markets
In discussions with clients and prospective clients, one question routinely comes up, regardless of market conditions: “How much emerging markets should I have?” or some variation. I thought this article by Gregory Zuckerman from the Wall Street Journal this morning did a good job of summarizing where these markets are performance-wise and how they stack…
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…
Hot Links: Ugly Dolls, Trillionaires & The Plant That Eats Rats
Stuff I’m Reading this Morning… The LOLFed kids require that you pay them only in stacks of Zimbabwe Dollars. (LOLFed) Felix Salmon on who’s winning between the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal…in his vestibule. (Reuters) One of the coolest small business stories I’ve heard in awhile: How Ugly Doll became a company. …
Hot Links: Blodget & Spitzer Sittin' in a Tree
Stuff I’m Reading this Morning… Not just tent cities anymore, more like a Tent Metropolis in Nashville, TN. (WSJ) The SEC kids were dropping off resumes after auditing Bernie Madoff. Nice. (NYP) Felix Salmon saw the Scariest Billboard of the Day in NYC yesterday. (Reuters) My favorite read of the week: Lunch and a discussion…
