Take out the garbage and clean up your room…
Comments »Monthly Archives: September 2012
Stocks And Bond Valuations Have Entered Uncharted Territory
” Here is a follow-up on my monthly valuation updates. When I started including the Crestmont P/E updates in my monthly valuation reporting, I developed a scatter graph to illustrate the correlation between the Crestmont P/E and inflation.”
Comments »Greek Unions Organize Another Walk Out to Protest Austerity
“ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s main labor unions urged workers to walk off the job for 24 hours on Sept 26, to protest a new wave of austerity measures demanded by the country’s international lenders, a union official told Reuters on Thursday.
“We can’t take any more austerity,” said Ilias Iliopoulos, secretary general of public sector union ADEDY. Greece’s private sector labor union confederation GSEE also takes part in the strike.”
Comments »ECB Firepower Pushes Yields Lower
Italy held another auction with yields hitting two year lows. The ECB pledge is helping yields trade lower across the board.
Comments »Initial Claims: Prior 365k, Market Expects 369k, Actual 382k
$FSLR Steps Up Their Game
“First Solar Inc. (FSLR) Chief Executive Officer Jim Hughes is stepping up efforts to managepower plants that generate electricity from the sun, helping utilities use the technology in a way his rivals in China can’t.
The biggest U.S. solar panel maker plans to build new projects from the Middle East to Australiaand use proprietary systems that help power-purchasers manage the amount they buy from solar farms, Hughes said in his first interview since taking the CEO position in May.
The company’s pitch to utilities is that it will help them predict uneven power flows from solar panels, giving grid operators the ability to integrate the facilities into their networks alongside those that burn fossil fuels. That’s making First Solar less dependent on manufacturing, an industry dominated by Chinese companies led by Suntech Power Holdings Co. (STP)”
Comments »Shadow Banking in China Begins to Hurt Investors
“To live out his retirement years, He Zhongkui was counting on steady income from an investment that promised interest payments five times higher than what he could earn in a Chinese bank.
Now He, a 62-year-old former municipal official in Wenzhou who rides a rusty bicycle, is cutting back on food and gasoline, having found himself one of a growing number of victims of China’s nebulous world of shadow banking. A “friend,” who he said had been paying him 2,400 yuan($379) a month after He gave him one-third of his 600,000-yuan life savings to invest in real estate, suddenly disappeared. So did the payments and principal.”
Comments »The Aussie Dollar Continues to Find Speculators as Debasement is Expected
“The Australian dollar traded 0.3 percent from the highest level in three weeks on speculation theFederal Reserve will signal further stimulus that tends to debase the U.S. currency.
The so-called Aussie and New Zealand’s dollar maintained two days of gains after Germany’s top constitutional court cleared the way yesterday for the nation’s ratification of the euro area’s permanent bailout fund. New Zealand’s currency, known as the kiwi, was close to a more-than four-month high after the Reserve Bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged today.
“The markets are seeing a good chance that the Fed will announce QE3 today,” Daisaku Ueno, a senior foreign-exchange and fixed-income strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. in Tokyo, a unit of Japan’s biggest listed bank, said, referring to a third round of asset purchases known as quantitative easing. “That’s lending support to risk currencies like the Aussie and kiwi.”
Comments »The Dollar Hits a Seven Month Low Before the Fed Announcement
“The dollar weakened to a seven- month low against the yen and Treasuries rose amid speculation the Federal Reserve will unveil more stimulus today. European stocks dropped from a 14-month high as European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. and BAE Systems Plc fell on plans to merge.
The dollar depreciated 0.2 percent to 77.71 yen at 7:50 a.m. in New York. The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell two basis points. The yield spread between Dutch and German 10-year debt narrowed to the least since January after an election in the Netherlands. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 0.3 percent as BAE dropped 6.8 percent and EADS sank 8.7 percent. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.2 percent. Oil increased 0.2 percent to $97.24 a barrel.”
Comments »Asia Trades Mixed, Europe is Down, and U.S. Futures are Off a Bit
Detail on the iPhone 5- $AAPL
Apple confirms introduction of iPhone 5 (662.89 +2.30)
Co announced iPhone 5, the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever, completely redesigned to feature a new 4-inch Retina display; an Apple-designed A6 chip for blazing fast performance; and ultrafast wireless technology. iPhone 5 comes with iOS 6 with over 200 new features including: the all new Maps app with Apple-designed cartography and turn-by-turn navigation; Facebook integration; Passbook organization; and more Siri features and languages. iPhone 5 comes in either white & silver or black & slate, and will be available in the US for a suggested retail price of $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model and $399 for the 64GB model. iPhone 5 will be available from the Apple Online Store, Apple’s retail stores, and through AT&T (T), Sprint (S), Verizon Wireless (VZ) and select Apple Authorized Resellers. iPhone 5 will be available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK on Friday, September 21, and customers can pre-order their iPhone 5 beginning Friday, September 14. iPhone 4S will also be available for $99 and iPhone 4 will be available for free with a two-year contract. iPhone 5 will roll out worldwide to 22 more countries on September 28.
Reality Check
Are We at War or in Partnership With Muslim Extremists ?
“US-Backed Terrorists Murder US’ Own Ambassador in Libya
Murdered US Ambassador exposes Libya “progress” propaganda – provides a warning against US meddling in Syria. “
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Healthcare: Too Big to Function ?
“The United States wastes more money each year providing health care than it does paying for the entire Department of Defense budget, according to a new study.
Thirty cents of every dollar spent on medical services is squandered, says a group of researchers from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. That translates into $750 billion annually being flushed on unnecessary care, bureaucratic delays, fraud and other waste, based on calculations for 2009.”
Comments »New Normal: A Third of Americans Now Say They Are in the Lower Classes
“The percentage of Americans who say they are in the lower-middle or lower class has risen from a quarter of the adult population to about a third in the past four years, according to a national survey of 2,508 adults by the Pew Research Center.
Not only has the lower class grown, but its demographic profile also has shifted. People younger than 30 are disproportionately swelling the ranks of the self-defined lower classes.1 The shares of Hispanics and whites who place themselves in the lower class also are growing.”
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