Markets

Google is loaded o the gills with cash, yet today they are pricing up a bond issue. he Financial Times is reporting that Google will raise as much as $3 billion of 3, 5 and 10-year money. Here's my question: why do this? Acquisition:…

Arguably the 30 year US bull market in bonds is at a close. What's clear is that yields are exceedingly low and real yields are now negative. In effect bondholders are often paying the US government to lend funds when inflation is taking…

The gold-silver ratio (GSR) measures how many ounces of silver one can purchase for an ounce of gold, on a certain date. Reference to the ratio has a long history. One of the first mentions was that upon the death of Alexander the Great,…

Barron's Roundtable member Felix Zulauf spoke to the German-language Handelsblatt about the European sovereign debt crisis and financial markets in an article published today. Like Jeremy Grantham, he has turned bearish. Below is my…

I spoke to Tadas Viskanta of Abnormal Returns on StockTwits TV about a lot of different issues this past week. We discussed commodities, bond market, QE, tech stocks, and a lot more. Here's the video below.

QE is, in fact, a ‘crop failure’ for the dollar. The Fed’s shifting of securities out of the economy and replacing them with clearing balances removes interest income. And the lower rates from Fed policy also reduces interest paid to the…

A fall in commodity prices increases the potential for financial market disruption and non-performing loan problems in China.

Jeremy Grantham is seriously bearish again. In part 2 of his latest quarterly newsletter, he departs from the peak resources argument he made in part 1 and focuses on the overvaluation in stocks. His advice: sell!

Systemic risk is not driven by close macro integration. If this were the case, US states would have far higher exposure to systemic credit risk. Instead, systemic exposure is very high for European sovereigns. The roots of systemic risk lie…

You have strong growth in emerging markets offset by weaker growth in the developed economies. Who wins this battle? For now, EM is winning and that is bullish for commodities over the near-term.