Mainstream analysis currently believes that there is no catalyst that could trip the markets into the next cyclical bear phase.  It is important to remember that such events are rarely seen in advance and only truly analyzed in hindsight with much finger pointing and diversion of blame.  However, ...

Never before has the world faced such a serious debt crisis.  Yes, in the past there have certainly been nations that have gotten into trouble with debt, but we have never had a situation where virtually all of the major powers around the globe were all drowning in debt at the same time.  And what...

Gold stocks are actually enjoying a great month, a stark contrast to this year’s brutal death spiral lower.  But after catapulting up by more than a quarter in less than a month, investors are wondering what to do next.  Is it time to cut losses before the catastrophic plunge resumes, or double ...

There has been much hope placed on the “housing recovery story” over the last couple of years as it relates to the economy. With each passing month all eyes have been glued to television screens, and headlines, as the latest estimations of housing starts, completions, new and existing ...

What do tulips, Pet Rocks, Beanie Babies, Barbie Dolls, real estate, stock markets, and gold, have in common? They’ve all seen speculative bubbles in their prices that burst with devastating results for investors who believed there would be no end to their rising prices. Should we believe claims t...

The markets stalled this week and essentially traded sideways leading to a loss in short-term momentum; intermediate and long-term momentum still remain strong, however, along with the market’s overall trend higher. We should expect to see some movement next week with the July jobs report on F...

Gold has made some good progress in the last three weeks, and not surprisingly, so has the Gold & Silver Mining Index (XAU). When we looked at the chart recently, we saw a number of features worth talking about. ————————– (This is an excerpt...

There has been a significant number of articles written since the beginning of this year pronouncing that the “Great Rotation” of money from bonds into equities has finally arrived.  Most recently, my colleague Josh Brown, posted a note stating: “My argument was a very simple ...

Following up on my timely post ‘Here Come Those Municipal Defaults That Everyone Said Couldn’t Happen, Pt 2‘, I comment on Meredith Whitney’s OpEd in the Financial Times.  If you remember, she – like I – warned of municipal defaults years ago and was ridiculed...

The pension nightmare that is at the heart of the horrific financial crisis in Detroit is just the tip of the iceberg of the coming retirement crisis that will shake America to the core.  Right now, more than 10,000 Baby Boomers are hitting the age of 65 every single day, and this will continue...

In a recent Politico playbook posting the following paragraph caught my attention: “POTUS last night, at an Organizing for Action dinner at the Mandarin Oriental: “Galesburg is where I gave my first big speech [June 2005] after I had been elected to the United States Senate. It was th...

The NYSE has released new data for margin debt, now available through June.  I’ve updated the charts in this commentary to include the new numbers. The New York Stock Exchange publishes end-of-month data for margin debt on the NYXdata website, where we can also find historical data back to ...

Lacy Hunt and Van Hoisington kick off their second-quarter Review and Outlook with a contrarian view: “The secular low in bond yields has yet to be recorded.” And as usual, they have their reasons; but unlike most of the blabbermouth economic talking heads out there, they aren’t ...

To suggest we have encountered heightened volatility in the bond market as of late is quite the understatement. Although Treasury yields had been increasing in front of the mid-June Bernanke speech, they have continued to run to the upside post the commentary without a whole lot of retracement up to...

My weekend column noted that public investors, who on average were pulling money out of the market until late last year, are now pouring money in at their fastest pace since 2007, while indications are that so-called ‘smart money’ (Wall Street institutions, the trading departments of major banks...

In every era, there are certain people and institutions that are held in the highest public regard as they embody the prevailing values of society. Not that long ago, Albert Einstein was a major public figure and was widely revered. Can you name a scientist that commands a similar presence today? To...