In January, European Union (EU) bureaucrats based in Brussels passed an EU banking reform referred to as the BRRD. The BRRD stands for Banking Recovery and Resolution Directive. The reform rules were aimed at shielding EU taxpayers from bailing out … Continue reading
October 1987: The U.S. stock market collapsed 23 percent in one day, the largest one-day drop on record. For the rest of that year economists debated how deep the depression would be in 1988. There was no depression in 1988. … Continue reading
In the summer of 1914, the few who had any sense of what was about to happen to the world had no idea how long it would take for their fuzzy contemplations to unfold. The German Army had been preparing … Continue reading
Recent commentary by David Stockman, former Reagan Administration budget chief, is timely for investors because it focuses on the Federal Reserve’s internal debate about “policy normalization” in advance of Wednesday’s important Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Stockman argues that the … Continue reading
Editor’s note: A version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com. With MF Global (MFG) recently disclosing more details on its bankruptcy and liquidation, let’s quickly review the financial debacle that came to fruition under former New Jersey governor, former … Continue reading
Editor’s note: A version of this article first appeared at RealClearMarkets.com. The current global debt accumulations are unprecedented. In fact, it can be observed that at no time in the history of the human race, other than during periods of … Continue reading
If you had been living on another planet the last three years, you would be shocked to learn that the credit-rating agency, Standard and Poor’s (S&P), has placed the current AAA credit rating for the debt issued by the U.S. … Continue reading
Guest Commentary The Republican Party, with the help of the Tea Party, swept the House of Representatives with a massive pickup of at least 60 seats. The Federal Reserve made another historic announcement with its $600-billion “Quantitative Easing” program (QE2). … Continue reading
Guest Commentary Mark it down. At 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday, August 10, 2010, the U.S. Federal Reserve made a historic announcement. It signaled that the central bank was going to “preserve the size of its balance sheet.” The announcement didn’t … Continue reading
Financial markets function to discount the future. Usually, by the time you read about something in the newspaper, financial market pricing has already “discounted” that event weeks, months, or perhaps even years before it hits the front page and becomes … Continue reading
If you’ve seen the movie “Thelma and Louise,” you’ll never forget the ending: In the last scene, the two main characters head down a dirt road in their top-down convertible. The road dead-ends at a very high cliff. The last … Continue reading
