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This comes from Andy Lees of UBS: A few weeks ago I sent out a note highlighting that the Nasdaq was approaching its post 1974 trend line from which the average movement has been 24.06% in the subsequent couple of months. At the time I…

by Michael Pettis For the past two months there have been very strong rumors in the markets that next year’s new lending quota was going to be set somewhere between RMB 6.5 trillion and RMB 7.0 trillion.  For comparison’s sake, total…

Press is reporting that the government may impose a bank levy next year of about 0.1% on what it terms “non-core overseas debt.” It appears that the authorities are getting more serious about addressing the nation’s high short-term debt…

Most of the headlines you’ll see related to the Federal Reserve’s Z.1 Flow of Funds report are focused on the change in household net worth. In the 3rd quarter 2010 report, released yesterday, the change was a positive one: household net…

Hugh Hendry is back writing after a long hiatus. His latest commentary to investors makes for good reading. His thesis: we are in a world of debt deflation for which there are no policy remedies; the Fed is fighting an uphill battle and it…

by Michael Schussele The people of Ireland have been impressed into a life of indentured servitude by the financial engineers of the IMF and EU to pay the debts of bankers (723 billion euro of guarantees) which were not their debts and to…

The deal between President Obama and the Republican congressional leadership is not likely to have a significant positive effect on an economy facing severe headwinds pulling in a negative direction. The key fact to remember is that we are…

I almost feel naïve for being so angry at President Obama’s betrayal of his campaign promises regarding taxes. I had never harbored much hope that he actually intended to enact the reforms that his supporters expected – not after he…

if many countries were in the cast of “The Biggest Loser,” the US would be among the fattest competitors. Thus, with this report, is the US now able to say, “See here, we are going to go work as hard as the rest of you to slim down”? Maybe…

In the following post I list a number of risk factors which I believe investors should give serious consideration, but I do not for one second pretend for that list to be exhaustive. Neither should you read anything into the order of which…