Tim Iacono A new Gallup poll shows that, after steady improvement since the summer debt-ceiling debacle lows, confidence in the U.S. economy has steadily improved and now sits at its highest level since last May, just as gas prices near $4 a gallon were starting to bite. An improving labor market and lower pump prices are no doubt major factors behind the recent rise that led to a surge in holi Read More...

by Karl Denninger The water’s rising around your ankles, jackass…. Banks are hoarding the European Central Bank’s record 489 billion-euro ($625 billion) injection into the banking system, thwarting attempts by policy makers to avert a credit crunch in the region. Almost all of the money loaned to 523 euro-area lenders last month wound up back on deposit at the Frankfurt-based central Read More...

Chris Vermeulen has a mid-week trading analysis video which shows how the market is at major turning point and will make a move very soon. This is an important area and a big move is coming very soon. Checkout Chris’ video to see what his thoughts are! SEE MARKET VIDEO HERE! The video includes Gold, Silver, Oil, USD and the SPY.   Click Below To View Video Read More...

From RanSquawk Submitted by Tyler Durden Breaking news: German chancellor Merkel says if solidarity is necessary we are ready to react immediately, Merkel says Germany willing to pay more capital into ESM at the start in order to give message to the markets** (RTRS) Fitch’s Riley comments that the ECB must do more to prevent a cataclysmic Euro collapse, causing major FX pairs to reach sessio Read More...

When we told investment colleagues who work with hedge fund managers about Dr. Adrian Manz, their initial reaction was not just skepticism, but outright hostility! Why? Because most hedge fund “allocators” would trade their first born sons for a track record half as good as Adrian’s! Click here to see his track record. “He should be managing $10 billion if those numbers were half-true,”s Read More...

Scott Redler T3Live Typically the stock market leads the economy by six months. Could we now be seeing signs in the market that the US economic recovery will pick up steam in the second half of 2012? The market is rallying the face of a weak Euro and strong dollar, buoyed by slowly improving economic data. The home builders are another very encouraging sign right now. No one knows why this grou Read More...

By Elliott Wave International In 1999, 11 European countries surrendered their currencies for the euro and a shared monetary authority. Barely a decade later, the once-celebrated EU is in the midst of a credit crisis and its currency is facing collapse. Elliott Wave International’s analysts have been anticipating and tracking the credit contagion across the European nations for the past two Read More...

If you’ve ever wanted to become a full-time day trader and actually live off of your trading profits, then you simply must drop everything you’re doing, right now, and watch this new video by Dr. Adrian Manz. That’s because Dr. Manz lives the day trading dream. He’s been a full-time professional day-trader since 1998. And if you did what he shares in today’s free video, you could’ Read More...

by Karl Denninger Hell has frozen over. These columns have defended the independence of the Federal Reserve from attacks on the right and left, but after last week the central bank is on its own. It’s impossible to defend the Fed’s rank electioneering as it lobbies for more political and taxpayer intervention in the housing market—just in time for the election campaign. This extr Read More...

Tim Iacono I’ve been meaning to dig through the European Central Bank’s balance sheet data in order to better understand how it has grown so fast in recent months (as indicated in red below) and why the Germans aren’t up in arms about it. Someday I surely will, though there doesn’t seem to be any real urgency since the recent spurt of money printing is not likely to end anytime soon. Bet Read More...

2011 saw huge advances in solar, wind and other renewable energy sources, and these advancements will continue into 2012. In fact 2012 could be the year that renewable energy sources start to seriously compete with traditional fossil fuels, at least that is the hope in the battle to reduce carbon emissions and our dependence on dwindling oil stocks. However a major problem with renewable energy so Read More...

By Phil of Phil’s Stock World This chart from the NYTimes pretty much says it all: The average annual inflation-adjusted return for the S&P 500 has been in decline since the late 90s, the decline only paused in the 00s and that fooled us into thinking it was a recovery but we only stopped getting worse for a while. Meanwhile, real personal income has been in decline since Nixon lifte Read More...

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith from OfTwoMinds blog, H/T ZeroHedge Why Bernanke has Failed, and Will Continue to Fail   (January 9, 2012) Ben Bernanke’s zero-interest rate policy (ZIRP) and command-economy efforts to maintain mispricing of risk, debt and assets are destroying capital and capitalism. No wonder his policies have failed so miserably. To understand why Federal Reserve Chairm Read More...

Scott Redler T3Live Indices are basically flat but there has been some stock specific action. The S&P is still holding above recent floor of 1265, but still can’t break above 1280-1284. Make sure to be looking for relative strength–and weakness–for action. Google (GOOG) has been under pressure the past three days, we had a nice move from $630-$635 to almost $665. This move reward Read More...

By Elliott Wave International “Localities have chopped 535,000 positions since September 2008…” USA Today (10/18) Cuts in government services became conspicuous after the 2007-2009 financial crisis. The first edition of Robert Prechter’s Conquer the Crash saw this coming, even though the book published nearly a decade ago: “Don’t expect government services to Read More...