The magician would have you look at his right hand, while he is preparing his trick with his left hand, so it is with the world and the market places today. As we move from concern to worry and worry to fear and finally fear to panic

President Obama recently appeared on The View in order to laud Jamie Dimon as the smartest banker on Earth. Masterfully, he also convinced the ladies that if the real regulations of Dodd-Frank had been in place, J.P. Morgan’s $2 billion trading loss would have never happened. It seemed Obama was saying the government needed to protect poor Jamie from himself.  In light of J.P. Morgan’s total capital, Main Street media looked at the...

Is it just pure coincidence the demise of the U.S. economic system started at the same time as the passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 which effectively eliminated Glass-Steagall? From 2000 through 2001, we watched a new paradigm of dot-com companies implode and melt away as cash burn rates destroyed one company after another. Technology manufacturing jobs left our shores in droves, but the bankers had an answer.  Low interest...

If I didn’t know better, in my column of 4/27, you would have thought I had insulted the Pope, Mother Teresa and the American flag all at the same time.  If you haven’t read my column regarding APPLE of that date, please do. Vituperation, maliciousness, and nasty would be descriptions that adequately categorize the emails I received.  In fact, the outpouring was very reminiscent of the March 2000 response I received when I started...

Randolph and Mortimer, the Duke brothers, thought they had it all figured out.  They knew, or at least thought they knew, that the orange crop would be a failure and prices on the futures market would skyrocket. Obviously, they had inside information. The instructions to their floor trader were to buy on the opening and keep buying no matter the price!  A killing was to be made; it was going to be the Duke’s day.  What they weren’t...

The financial markets have been a playground for a small select few. Not because they’re smarter, more experienced, or even better at what they do but because a group of bankers and politicians decided their own interests should come first. Due to ZIRP (zero interest rate policy), seniors, retirees, and pretty much any recipient of fixed income were forced to take risks never before contemplated. However, if they wanted to make a mortgage...

“Nationalism in Europe is on the rise.” It sounds like a headline from the 1930s, and it was. After the First World War (1914-1918), Germany felt the oppressive boot on the back of its neck. War reparations were instituted by the winners against the losers. This meant that in addition to rebuilding a country, it was also necessary to pay off the war debt. One of these tasks alone was difficult enough but the combination of both made it...