By Doug Casey, Casey Research Everyone knows that the US government is bankrupt and has been for many years. But I thought it might be instructive to see what its current cash-flow situation actually is. At least insofar as it’s possible to get a clear picture. As you know, the so-called Super Committee recently tried to come up with a plan to cut the deficit by $1.5 trillion and failed com Read More...

By Elliott Wave International Close to ninety percent of all traders lose money. The remaining ten percent somehow manage to either break even or even turn a profit — and more importantly, do it consistently. How do they do that? That’s an age-old question. While there is no magic formula, EWI Senior Instructor Jeffrey Kennedy has identified five fundamental flaws that, in his opinion, Read More...

Courtesy of Mish  In conjunction with a “Pause for Reflection” and stalled talks by Greece Bank Creditor Group over the benefits of further “voluntary” cuts on Greek debt, yield on 1-year Greek bonds soared over 400%. A hard default appears imminent. Chris Vermeulen’s Free Trading Analysis & Signals Newsletter Read More...

Submitted by The Daily Stag Hunt, H/T Zerohedge Five years on, the powers that be have just released the transcripts of the Fed’s FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meetings from 2006.  Putting hindsight economic analysis aside, you quickly realize more than anything else: the committee is full of burgeoning comedians! Commentators have already highlighted the “humor” of the Read More...

Scott Redler T3 Live The market is seeing its first real brush back pitch, which we talked about as a likelihood this morning. With the market as thin as it is and headlines still out there, it’s been prudent to at least keep a hedge on while holding multiple positions long.   As of now we are below the $128.20-128.60 area on the SPY. If we don’t re-claim this area in the afternoon, it wi Read More...

Bruce Krasting The Federal Financing Bank (FFB) released its most recent monthly data today. The Treasury owns this bank, meaning the citizens own it. The folks at the FFB are doing a heck of job. Assets rose in the month by a very respectable $866,000,000 (18% annualized growth!). The bank ended November with assets totaling $58.4B; it’s levered 15-1. A look at where that “growth” came fro Read More...

Every night, Dr. Adrian Manz sends his Daily Momentum Trader day trading service subscribers recommendations for five or six stocks to trade the following day. He tells his subscribers precisely what to do and when to do it: Entry points, trailing stops, profit targets… the works. Everything can be automated using online trading software, such as RealTick or Tradestation II. The result: Just Read More...

Tim Iacono The intertubes were abuzz yesterday after the release of the Federal Reserve’s 2006 policy committee meeting minutes in which it seems the central bank was blissfully unaware of the trouble ahead for housing and credit markets, a point nicely illustrated below from the Wall Street Journal’s Little Alarm Shown at Fed At Dawn of Housing Bust($). “So far we are seeing, at worst, a Read More...

Courtesy of Mish  The US’ complete ineptitude on oil policy is in the spotlight just as predicted. A pair of articles will show what I mean. China Snubs Geithner on Iran Oil Bloomberg reports China Snubs Geithner on Iran Oil, Japan Plans Cut U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner’s efforts to tighten economic sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program won backing from Japan a day Read More...

by Tyler Durden Literally seconds ago we noted how Bank of America will sell its first born to crash the market and get $600-800 billion in QE3 up and running by March. Sure enough, here is yet another desperate attempt to push this agenda, this time with the bank cutting tracking Q4 GDP estimates  for the second time in two days, to 2.7%, from 3.5% earlier. From Bank of America Well, we bump Read More...

by The Mad Hedge Fund Trader Have I seen this movie before? Three years ago, analysts were predicting default rates as high as 17% for Junk bonds in the wake of the financial meltdown, taking yields on individual issues up to 25%. Liquidity in the market vaporized, and huge volumes of unsold paper overhung the market. To me, this was an engraved invitation to come in and buy the junk bond ETF (JN Read More...

Tim Iacono In this story at Aljazeera(?), Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, looks back at the late, great housing boom that turned to bust and offers some suggestions for what Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan should have done. First, the Fed has responsibility for maintaining the stability of the US economy. Alan Greenspan should have recognised the Read More...

If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming a professional day trader… or if you’re already a trader but want to make more consistent profits… then you should drop everything right now and watch Dr. Adrian Manz’s new video! In this video, Dr. Manz reveals precisely HOW he identifies expansion setups on trending New York Stock Exchange stocks, and walks you through two or three real-life Read More...

Courtesy of ZeroHedge. Submitted by Tyler Durden. While we have long asserted that any attempt to be bullish this market (and economy) by necessity should at least involve the thought experiment of eliminating such pro forma crutches as trillions in excess liquidity from the Fed, not to mention direct and indirect intervention by the central planners in virtually all asset classes, which in turn Read More...

Courtesy of Bruce Krasting  The January 2012 numbers for Social Security (SS) show a mixed picture. The results mirror what is going on in the economy. There is clear evidence that revenues at SS are recovering; there is equally clear evidence that America’s social expenditures are rising at a rate that exceeds the rate of recovery. The following numbers are adjusted for any consequences of th Read More...