“Not a week goes by without someone extolling the virtues of the equity market because there’s no credible investment alternative with interest rates near zero,” said Stanley Druckenmiller, the investing legend. “If one applied the average interest rate settings of Volker and Greenspan using standard Taylor rules, today’s Fed Funds rate would be 3%; this is the least data-dependent Fed in history,” he continued. “Thi

Hope all goes well… “Amazon and Facebook are two of the top GDP destroyers,” said Lithium, hands-free on Highway 1. “They’re run by brilliant guys, obsessed with innovation, creative destruction.” Their earnings were great; frightening for competitors. “Apple was a GDP destroyer, but no longer, they’re too large, they’ve saturated the market.” Apple’s performance sucked tailpipe. “Think deeply about what these earnin

Overall: “We have created new tools to determine whether an economy may be pursuing foreign exchange policies that could give it an unfair competitive advantage against the United States,” announced the Treasury, late Friday. “China, Japan, Germany, and Korea will be closely monitored as a result of a material current account surplus combined with a significant bilateral trade surplus with the United States. Taiwan w

“Best day of my life,” said Jackson, my oldest, fresh off the field, eyes ablaze. I smiled, seeing something new, asked him to explain what happened out there. “It’s hard to describe,” he quickly replied, then went quiet, considering, processing. “Coach Coleman told me to stop waiting for perfect shots, and start taking imperfect ones. Which didn’t make much sense, and made me nervous because I didn’t want to screw u

Here we go again. Iron ore prices surged 15%, extending the rise from December’s low to 70%. Copper jumped 5%, not quite exceeding the March highs. Cement jumped too. As did most things that the Beijing boys need for a building bubble. Even oil exploded higher, climbing 4.8% to new 4mth highs. And remember, just last Sunday the largest conclave of Trustafarians on planet earth failed to limit its production. The Doha

Hope all goes well… “On Thursday this bull market will become the 2nd longest in American history,” bellowed Biggie Too. “2,607 days old,” barked Biggie, not missing a beat. “Gonna surpass the 1949-1956 raging run. The 1990-2000 bubble was the longest.” From 2009 to the end of QE in Oct 2014, a 50/35/10/5 weighted portfolio of equities, bonds, commodities and cash returned 98%. But since then it’s fallen 3%. “First w

“Tell me what price means,” instructed Yoda, high in the Rockies. I sat quietly. “It means both nothing and everything,” he whispered. “Price means nothing if you must sell or buy.” And I considered the rising tide of global capital chasing diminishing returns, the crowding of positions, the scarcity of transactional liquidity. “But price means everything if you want to understand what is real in the world.” The majo

“People work in order to convert their time into a unit of account,” he said. “We call that money, and it’s an invention that allows us to store time.” Most people have stored little or none. So when they receive money, they quickly purchase necessities; food, shelter, health care. “People who are able to save money inevitably purchase real estate, stocks, bonds – all of which are alternative vehicles for storing tim

Hope all goes well… “In the act of taking risk, it’s a rare thing to initiate a trade and make money right away,” said Simplicity. “You almost always face challenges, hurdles, things that force you to question yourself,” he continued, walking Occam’s razor. “If you then discover you took risk to avoid missing out on a move, or because it seemed like it just made some sense, you’ll be shaken out and lose money.” He pa

“All major economies need to deploy a full toolkit of economic policy measures to address weak demand, boost employment and raise living standards,” announced Jack Lew. “This includes monetary and fiscal policies and structural reforms,” continued America’s Treasury Secretary. Of course he’s right, it’s obvious. Self-evident. We’ve been here before, quite recently. Which is both a blessing and curse. “Global policy m