Our Awful Situation

Archive for the ‘Economy’ Category

The Market Now: A ‘Violent’ Quest For Bottom

Posted by Charlie Kilo on July 8th, 2008

Remember what we said earlier about the Dow hitting 10,556? Time to run for the hills:

Unpredictable days like Monday, when the indexes moved from positive to negative at will and with little notice, are likely to become the norm as Wall Street searches for a market bottom and a recovery that could be months down the road.

“We’re getting news every 5 or 10 minutes that seems to change the psychological positions of the traders. That’s what’s really making this market turn,” says Michael Kresh, president of M.D. Kresh Financial Advisors in Islandia, N.Y. “Frightened money is jumping all over the place, and as long as that happens we’re going to get these whipsaw days.”

Why the Dow at 10,566 is the magic number

Posted by Charlie Kilo on July 8th, 2008

When the Dow hits 10,566 its game over

‘The game is over. There won’t be a rebound’: An interview with Michael Hudson on the economy

Posted by Charlie Kilo on July 7th, 2008

Michael Hudson is a former Wall Street economist specializing in the balance of payments and real estate at the Chase Manhattan Bank (now JPMorgan Chase & Co.), Arthur Anderson, and later at the Hudson Institute (no relation). In 1990 he helped established the world’s first sovereign debt fund for Scudder Stevens & Clark.

Dr. Hudson was Dennis Kucinich’s chief economic advisor in the recent Democratic primary presidential campaign, and has advised the U.S., Canadian, Mexican and Latvian governments, as well as the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). A distinguished research professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC), he is the author of many books, including Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (new ed., Pluto Press, 2002) He can be reached at mh “at” michael-hudson.com.

Read the Interview here.

Dow nears 11,000 mark

Posted by Charlie Kilo on July 7th, 2008

If they think this summer is bad…wait until this fall:

Stocks turned sharply negative after a morning rally, as battered financials continued to weigh on Wall Street and the major indexes returned to bear territory.

The day also marked a remarkable reversal of a trend that has dominated the market the past four months, in which stocks consistently rallied on days when energy prices fell. But with oil down more than $4 a barrel, equities still tumbled as banks were the main market movers of the day.

The joint movement lower of stocks and oil was seen as ominous for the economy.

“I see this as an increased probability of recession occurring here in the US,” Ernie Ankrim, chief investment strategist at Russell Investment Group, said on CNBC. “The problem here is we saw oil come down and about the same time we saw a lot of other things go down.”

Federal Reserve to be investigated by IMF

Posted by patriot on July 1st, 2008

It’s never one been audited, but it looks like the Fed may be investigated:

Humiliation for Mr. Dollar: Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the United States Federal Reserve Bank, faces a general investigation by the International Monetary Fund. Just one more example of the Fed losing its power.

Cramer: Banking Doom Is Upon Us

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 25th, 2008

Jim Cramer says the banks and the automakers are the stocks that could sink this market:

Dow Chemical hiking prices 25%

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 25th, 2008

Via CNN Money:

Dow Chemical Co. announced its second comprehensive price hike in less than a month to offset the “relentless rise” in costs for energy and related raw materials.

The Midland-based chemical company announced Tuesday it will raise prices by as much as 25% next month. That follows price increases of up to 20% that took effect June 1.

Jim Wesley of Survival Blog comments:

Ay carumba! Dow produces a huge variety of chemicals and compounds that go into everything from fertilizers to plastics. This is an alarming indicator of consumer price increases in the near future. When paired with fuel price jumps, this becomes downright frightening for near-future food prices at the consumer level.

Here’s an inflation “score board” Jim recently posted on Survival Blog:

Crude oil up 42.5%
Ethanol up 20.7%
Heating oil up 43.9%
Natural gas up 76.5%
Unleaded gas up 39.5%
Cattle up 1.0%
Corn up 58.8%
Soy beans up; 26.4%
Wheat down 2.2%
Coffee up 5.9%
Aluminum up 32.7%
Copper up 25.7
Platinum up 33.4%
Gold up 6.0%
Silver up 13.4%.
S&P 500 down 10.24%

Only 32% of Americans have confidence in our banks

Posted by patriot on June 23rd, 2008

Which side of the line are you on?

The percentage of Americans saying they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in U.S. banks has fallen to 32% — down nine percentage points from June 2007 and 17 percentage points from June 2006 — matching the 32% of March 1991 and near the three-decade low of 30% in October 1991.

Dow Hits 3-Month Low, Sheds 4% for Week

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 21st, 2008

Its going to be a rough summer for the stock market and for the sheep who depend on it:

Stocks closed sharply lower Friday as oil prices climbed about $3 and a concoction of rumors and bad news shook up the banking sector.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average broke through the key 12000 mark, tumbling 220.97, or 1.8 percent, to finish at 11842.12.

The Dow shed 4 percent for the week, finishing at its lowest point in three months and just 100 points above its March low.

Iran urges OPEC to move off the dollar

Posted by patriot on June 17th, 2008

Looks like we’re closer to “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” (since Iraq was trying to move off the dollar before we invaded there):

Speaking at a ceremony to open the 29th ministerial meeting of the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeated his proposal made about six months ago in a rare summit of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’s heads of states.

“The fall in the value of US dollar is one of the pressing problems of the world today,” warned the Iranian president at the conference in Isfahan on Tuesday.

He further expressed concern over the adverse effect of the dollar depreciation on the international community, especially energy exporting countries through increasing the price of commodities like wheat, rice and oilseeds.

Ahmadinejad said he warned six months ago in the summit conference in Riyadh that there were many indications pointing to continued fall in the value of the greenback.

“And we see that this continues to happen and the resources and wealth of OPEC member countries have been hugely damaged.

“I again repeat my previous proposal; we should have a basket of different international hard currencies as the basis or the member countries should come up and produce a new hard currency for petroleum contracts,” he stressed.

“They get our oil and give us a worthless piece of paper,” Ahmadinejad said earlier after the close of the summit in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.

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