Thursday, June 25, 2009

Louis Gerstner: Kill The Casino Wall Street Has Become

Louis Gerstner: Kill The Casino Wall Street Has Become
It is clear something is wrong in the markets. I can only assume someone is playing the music. When they stop the you better grab a chair and hold on.

H1N1 Update

http://health.utah.gov/epi/h1n1flu/sitrep062409.pdf

Some Ugly stats coming out of the CDC. Lets hope it gets no worse.

A category 2 pandemic has the following characteristics: • Case fatality ratio
of 0.1 percent to less than 0.5 percent.
• Between 90,000 and 450,000 deaths
in the U.S. (compared with estimated 36,000 deaths during a typical influenza
season).
• Excess death rate of between 30 to less than 150 per 100,000
people.
• Illness rate of between 20 and 40 percent


 


 

California set to issue IOUs as fiscal crisis weighs | U.S. | Reuters

California set to issue IOUs as fiscal crisis weighs U.S. Reuters
Next week could be ugly. No signs of closing the gap soon and washington so far says no bailout. Are we really going to play chicken with the 8 largest GDP in the world?

Gross Domestic Product and Corporate Profits

News Release: Gross Domestic Product and Corporate Profits
Q1 -5.5%. Ouch unless we get some serious wind it be negative for the whole year. At this point it does not look like any wind is blowing.

The Animal Spirits Page: On the coming neo-feudalism

The Animal Spirits Page: On the coming neo-feudalism
IS this really where we are heading? I think it is dream that China will have any economic power. They are our twin. Producing everything we consume. When we stop the wheels come off. Yes I expect Riots here. Yes I expect Obama to not be the savior. But in the end creative destruction will sow the seeds for recovery. What that looks like no one knows.

News from 1930

News from 1930
A cool site, more then a little scary in some cases.


Col. Ayres, VP Cleveland Trust, predicts an abrupt recovery in stock and
commodity prices by Labor Day due to current consumption exceeding production.
Distinguishes between two types of depression, “V”-shaped and “U”-shaped.

Insider Selling Outpaces Buying 22x

Insider Selling Outpaces Buying 22x
Hmm..Wonder who they are listen too. Cause CNBC is sure the bottom is in. I would be selling too if I owned company stock.

China - Economic Catastrophe Unfolding

Zero Hedge: Guest Post: China - Economic Catastrophe Unfolding
Excellent read. China is hidding its problems. When they are flushed out you will see a massive drop in there markets.

Bond Market Plays

It looks like we may get some bond prices declines in the next year or so.
If you want to profit from it.

~ UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury ProShares (NYSE: TBT): This ETF is not for the faint-hearted. It seeks to perform at twice the inverse results of the Lehman Brothers 20+ Year U.S. Treasury Index. So if the Index drops 5%, TBT should return rise about 10%

.~ ProFunds Rising Rate Opportunity (RRPIX): This is a mutual fund that also seeks the inverse performance of the bond market. Its results aim to correspond to 125% of the inverse of the daily movement of the 30-year Treasury bond.