Stocks got slammed this week on the good news that oil prices continued to drop. Oil is now just $57 per barrel, down 50% from a year ago. Yet the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 3.8% in the week and 15-51 Strength lost 2.9%. Gold added 2.6% and yields dropped sharply, again. The 10 Year...Read More

There is little doubt that the recent drop in fuel prices has significantly affected economic activity to the upside. Gas prices around my market have dropped more than a dollar per gallon. That gives consumers an extra $100 to $200 per month to distribute to other sectors of the market economy – and with the...Read More

Those who haven’t yet appreciated the recently released statements by Jonathon Gruber should know that the chief architect of the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. ObamaCare, or the ACA) testified that law could only be passed by means of fraud, deception, and “the stupidity of the American voter.” How Gruber’s provocative admission isn’t plastered all over...Read More

Volatility has once again found the stock market – and again, contradictory new reports are at the core. On Wednesday, October 22, 2014, the Wall Street Journal online posted an article entitled, Clouds Darken for America’s Blue-Chip Stocks, citing weak results for traditional powerhouse stocks like AT&T, Coca-Cola, IBM, Wal-Mart, and General Electric. The article went...Read More

Reoccurring themes in the markets continued to play out again this week: the unemployment rate dropped to 5.9% – and labor participation didn’t change a bit; it’s still at 40 year lows. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted lower global output warning “high debt, high unemployment…and mounting risks in the financial sector could spell years...Read More

It’s so easy to beat a dead horse. I mean, we can rehash the turmoil in the Middle East and President Obama’s foreign policy failures; we can beat the drum about lackluster global demand and zero growth economies, or we emphasize that point by highlighting the fact that China’s production posted the weakest quarter since...Read More

Gold lost more than a point last week when news broke the U.S. dollar had hit fresh new highs against the Euro and Japanese Yen. That was on the first trading session of the week, a day when gold lost 1.8%. Remember, the U.S. is the world’s reserve currency, and when currency is strong gold...Read More

The S&P 500 closed the month at another all-time high, ending over 2,000 points for the first time in its history. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the 15-51 strength indicator also remain extremely elevated, though a shade off their respective all-time highs. Stocks are still hot, no doubt – and so are bonds. Yields...Read More

When the topic of wealth redistribution surfaces most people think about taxes. While it is true that taxes are the most visible form of involuntary wealth redistribution, it is not the most egregious form of the practice. No. That high crime is free-market fraud with the intent to pillage – and Wall Street is notorious...Read More

So, the world’s largest economy shrank 3% in the first quarter and stocks everywhere rose in value; yet just one week later a single troubled Portuguese bank sent stocks reeling when news surfaced that it delayed interest payments on a portion of its short-term debt. That’s right, one struggling bank in Portugal caused bank stocks in Germany,...Read More