Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Will the Malaysian Ringgit and Stock Market goes Terminal Velocity? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015

By: Sam_Chee_Kong

It is a known fact that one of the hottest topics of discussion among Malaysians for past few months has been our Ringgit. Thanks to our current economic debacle, it helped raised our awareness of our economic situation. Despite the numerous propaganda engaged by our authorities assuring us of our economy’s resilience, it still failed to alleviate our suspicions. Cliché like high level of international reserves, current account surplus, solid domestic financial system and Ringgit reflecting our economic fundamentals were often used. Is it true that our economy is really that resilient and solid? This article aims to look into the current state of affairs of the Malaysian economy and also how it affects the Ringgit.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Debating the Morality of Hiroshima / Politics / Nuclear Weapons

By: STRATFOR

Each year at this time — the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima — the world pauses. The pause is less to mourn the dead than to debate a moral question: whether the bombing was justified and, by extension, whether the United States unnecessarily slaughtered tens of thousands of people on Aug. 6, 1945. The debate rarely focuses on a careful analysis of war and morality and is more frequently framed by existing views of the United States. The debate is rarely about Hiroshima or about World War II. It is a debate about the moral character of the United States. This is not an illegitimate subject, and Hiroshima might be a useful point with which to begin the debate. But that isn't possible until after we consider the origins of Hiroshima, which can be found in the evolution of modern warfare.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Obama's Iran Nuclear Deal / Politics / Nuclear Weapons

By: BATR

Spending time analyzing the particulars of the agreement misses the point of the Iranian deal. It is not about preventing or even delaying the deployment of the bomb. The true intent of the P5+1 negotiation is to disrupt the unholy alliance between the war party and their Zionist overlords. The overwhelming reality is that U.S. foreign policy is based upon doing the bidding of Israel. What is transpiring is a fundamental push back coming from Barack Hussein Obama II. The Full text: Obama’s news conference on the Iran nuclear deal demonstrates this context.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Stocks Bear Market Investors Nightmare! / Stock-Markets / Stocks Bear Market

By: Chris_Vermeulen

Ugly Outlook – Global Economics, Quantitative Easing and Equities - A take on the global economy and equities markets that paints a simple and clear pictures I think.

The DJIA index has recorded seven consecutive down days in a row!  These 7 distribution days are a sign that many institutions are taking profits or establishing losses.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Thinking Outside the Commodity Box: Benchmark's Investment Primer for Lithium, Cobalt and Graphite / Commodities / Metals & Mining

By: The_Gold_Report

It's often difficult to understand the global markets for critical minerals so The Gold Report narrowed it to three—lithium, cobalt and graphite—and brought in Simon Moores, managing director of London-based Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, and the firm's analyst, Andrew Miller, to provide insight into minerals that they say need to shed their labels as traditional commodities and embrace their future as niche, raw-material solutions for a growing list of technology manufacturers. As Benchmark prepares to embark on its World Tour, Moores and Miller discuss supply chain visibility and the impact of disruptive technologies on these markets, as well as companies seeking to leverage lithium, cobalt and graphite into investable business models that will lure investors with a long-term outlook.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Closing the Sausage Factory - The New Normal / Economics / Economic Theory

By: John_Mauldin

“Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appearing inept?”

– Frank Herbert, Heretics of Dune

“Economies naturally grow. People innovate as they go through life. They also look around at what others are doing and adopt better practices or tools. They invest, accumulating financial, human and physical capital.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Real Education Reform Leaves the U.S. Government Behind / Politics / Educating Children

By: Dr_Ron_Paul

Among the items awaiting Congress when it returns from its August break is reconciling competing House and Senate bills reauthorizing No Child Left Behind. These bills passed early this spring. Each bill is being marketed as a huge step toward restoring state and local control over education. However, an examination of both bills shows that both provide local schools with only limited relief from a few federal mandates.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Dow Stocks Index Makes it Seven / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015

By: Andre_Gratian

Current Position of the Market

SPX: Long-term trend - Bull Market

Intermediate trend - SPX may have started an intermediate correction

Analysis of the short-term trend is done on a daily basis with the help of hourly charts. It is an important adjunct to the analysis of daily and weekly charts which discusses the course of longer market trends.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Stock Market Bubbles: What the Media Misunderstands / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015

By: ...

MoneyMorning.com D.R. Barton, Jr writes: Since the last bona fide financial bubble, the real estate and credit bubble of 2007 to 2009, it seems like every time anyone pays a few pennies too much for a stock, there is a flock of analysts ready to start crowing "bubble!" like so many birds on a wire.

I believe that any pundit who calls a sector or market a "bubble" when they really mean "fundamentally or technically overbought" should be banished from pontificating until the real bubble appears.

That's no hollow gripe: These talking heads can do serious damage with their flawed analyses. Regular investors who heed their bad advice can end up prematurely exiting what are in fact strong, lucrative positions, leaving billions in upside on the table.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Greenspan Warns Be Afraid of U.S. Bond Market Bubble / Interest-Rates / US Bonds

By: Bloomberg

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan spoke with Bloomberg's Tom Keene about the U.S. economy, bond market and Fed policy.

On how afraid we should be of bubbles, Greenspan said: "Very much so. I think we have a pending bond market bubble. If we merely substitute the structure of equity prices and we have the price of bonds and instead of expected equity return we do have expected interest rate return. That price earnings ratio is an extraordinarily unstable position."

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Game Theory and Retirement Choices / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement

By: Dan_Amerman

Game theory is a hot topic in many fields right now and for good reason - it can uncover better ways of making decisions, that are often otherwise missed. A particularly good example is the uncommon insights that game theory can deliver for us when it comes to making better retirement decisions.

For our decision-making "game", let's say there is a $1 million pool of money to be split between you and nine other people. If you wait until the end of ten years to cash out - you and everyone else are promised that you'll be equally entitled to $250,000 each.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Agricultural Commodities Peak Food / Commodities / Food Crisis

By: Ned_W_Schmidt

Last we visited on Agri-Foods the concept of Peak Food was introduced. That shift in the fundamentals of global food production was identified as adding support to Agri-Commodity prices. For despite the negative sentiment on commodities and "China is collapsing" group think, Agri- Commodity prices continue to show strong resilience, as shown in the chart below right. As prices of Agri-Commodities do not move in unison, the Agri-Food Price Index has been essentially unchanged for about three years. For example, recently hog prices have been weak while U.S. cash corn hit a new 52-week high.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

The War Between Physical Gold and Silver and Paper Hots Up / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: Alasdair_Macleod

Gold and silver traded in a tight range this week on low futures volumes. Last Friday the gold price rallied from $1,080 to $1,101, last night it closed at $1,089. Silver also traded in a narrow range though both are slightly firmer in early European trade this morning.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Ignore the Commodity Message at Your Own Peril / Commodities / CRB Index

By: Michael_Pento

The Thompson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index (CRB) is back down to the panic lows of early 2009. For those who think the CRB Index says nothing about global growth...invest accordingly at your own peril.

If you believe this commodity crunch is all about some temporary oil supply glut, think again. There are 19 commodities that make up the CRB Index: Aluminum, Cocoa, Coffee, Copper, Corn, Cotton, Crude Oil, Gold, Heating Oil, Lean Hogs, Live Cattle, Natural Gas, Nickel, Orange Juice, Silver, Soybeans, Sugar, Unleaded Gas and Wheat. The value of the weighted average of these commodities is screaming one thing loudly: the rate of global growth is plummeting just as it was at the height of the Great Recession.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Gold and Silver Halfway Home? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: Rambus_Chartology

First off I'm on a working one week family vacation down on the panhandle of Florida which is why I didn't get to post any late Friday Night Charts. It just so happened that this week was the best week to get the family together before school starts in a couple of weeks. I will still be watching the markets and posting each day but if nothing important is happening I may knock off a little early.

I also want to thank everyone who is posting at the forum. It really is a great place to share your idea's and ask question as we have some really talented folks there. As Sir Fullgoldcrown likes to say, "It's all for one and one for all." Whatever it takes to get an edge makes no difference to me as long as we get the edge.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Stock Market Crash, Bear Market Rally in Gold? / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2015

By: Brad_Gudgeon

I'm attaching three charts today: One chart of the daily SPY shows the parallel between Friday and March 3, 2015. The next one, shows where it could go as far as price and time is concerned, and the third shows the weekly chart of the SPX and what I believe may be the eventual conclusion of the correction into October of this year.

Astro-cycle-wise, we have not yet seen the 100 TD low, commonly called the 20 week low, last seen on March 11, 2015. As of Friday we are at TD 104. The 100 TD low usually comes within about a 10% variance giving it about 10 TD's on either side (the longest I've seen was at about 115/116 TD's ).

Monday, August 10, 2015

U.S. Dollar QE Death Sentence, Us Treasury Bond Black Hole / Interest-Rates / US Bonds

By: Jim_Willie_CB

Rather than stimulus, the USFed's Quantitative Easing is a death sentence for the USDollar. It might provide an ongoing backdoor bailout opportunity for Wall Street banks, and even a window for China to switch from long dated to short dated USTreasurys, but QE is death sentence. It guarantees that the USDollar will be removed from the global premises and placed in the dustbin of history. Foreign banking systems are largely devoted to USTBonds as the foundation for their entire reserves system. The African type of hyper monetary inflation blessed as good and fine stimulus is a sentinel signal by the US Federal Reserve itself, given to the Eastern producing nations who save in the $billions. They will start a caravan to exit the USDollar in their banking systems. They have great challenges in doing so, and must follow a prescribed path. That path is the Chinese RMB as an intermediary device, a transition tool. The goal is the return of the Gold Trade Standard, which will assure the return to the Gold Currency Standard and the Gold Banking Standard. The absent solution to the chronic global financial crisis has been the refusal to put Gold at the apex. Instead, the big banks have become zombies, the economies have become sclerotic, the financial structure have been control rooms, the bond platforms have been fracturing, while the USGovt has relied upon bond fraud, gold thefts, the printing press, and predatory wars to defend the King Dollar regime. It is due for the funeral pyre.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Bogus Economic Statistics - China About To Make History Again / Stock-Markets / Chinese Stock Market

By: John_Rubino

Any discussion of China has to open with the now-widely-understood fact that the numbers it reports are not to be trusted. Knowing this makes it easy to dismiss claims of high and consistently-on-target GDP growth, for instance, as a combination of government-directed borrowing and spending, and simple fabrication.

But how to handle negative numbers? When a serial fabricator admits that things are bad and getting worse, that would seem to imply that someone at or near the top has concluded that either the facts can no longer be obscured or that there’s an advantage in creating negative expectations.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Gold Technical Buy Signal / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: Gary_Savage

For those traders who need to wait until the 'technicals' signal a buy. The signal has been given.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Stock Investors Shelter from These Storms in the Distance / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015

By: ...

MoneyMorning.com Michael E. Lewitt writes: In South Florida, we call the dog days of summer the "mean season", as vicious thunderstorms move over the Everglades every afternoon and attack the east coast with lightning strikes and blinding downpours. We keep our fingers crossed that the storms won't morph hurricanes that can sweep the ocean over the land and cause catastrophic destruction.

After a period of intense hurricane activity in the early 2000s, it's been ten years since we've been hit by any serious storms, and we are being told that strong El Nino conditions will likely protect us again this season. But we know that sooner or later our luck will run out, and we will be back in the eye of dangerous winds and storm surges. And, at least for a moment, we'll wish we lived somewhere other than in paradise.