By: Anthony_Cherniawski
The University of Michigan/Reuters consumer sentiment index was released on Friday, showing the worst reading since 1980. It appears that the press has adopted the language used by the Federal Reserve that deflects blame for the condition away from their policies and puts it back on the consumer. They use the words “inflation expectations” […]

I have been talking about an expected wave of bank failures for quite some time, most recently in Too Late To Stop Bank Failures . Recently I was asked to compare the current crisis to the 1980’s S&L Crisis in regards to to whether or not this crisis will be worse.
By sheer number of failures […]

“…So what’s not to love about an inflationary boom…?” “EVER WONDERED WHY your family budgets never seem to work out as planned?” asked Harry Browne in his 1970 best-seller, How You Can Profit from the Coming Devaluation .
The book sold more than 100,000 copies in hardback. Some three decades later, a dear reader sent me […]

By: Paul_Lamont
After reading CNNMoney.com Editor Paul La Monica’s piece on the comparisons to the Great Depression , we felt compelled to respond. Unfortunately for Mr. La Monica, the article regurgitates common beliefs about the Depression which conflict with historical fact and basic economics. We hope to set things straight. We begin with Mr. La Monica’s […]

• House prices fell by 2.5% in May
• Prices are 4.4% lower than this time last year, but remain 5% higher than 2 years ago
• Falling house prices combined with higher inflation makes MPC decision more difficult still
• Borrowers are better placed to weather the storm than in the 1990s
• Tighter credit conditions should help […]

Today I think it is appropriate to look at the actual crash of 1929 and how it unfolded. The importance of this post will examine the multiple interventions that entered into the market trying to prop it up while the market steadily unfolded for four years before bottoming out. When we look at a number […]

Three major U.S. banks - including Fifth Third Bancorp. ( FITB ) and Wachovia Corp. ( WB ) - got clobbered in recent days on the news that they’ve lost another $1.6 billion by making investments in the Citigroup Inc. ( C ) Falcon hedge fund that lost 75% of its value earlier this year.It’s […]

An important swing in the pendulum is due to manifest itself in the near future. Leverage with gold mining stocks and silver mining stocks depends upon containment of costs. Whether of energy costs (primarily diesel), or materials (like steel & lumber), or labor itself (also in shortage), even equipment (rigs in dire shortage with long […]

The inflationary reality that we as consumers have been living for months may finally be starting to dawn on the U.S. Federal Reserve.The minutes of the last policymaking Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, released on Wednesday, showed that the Fed’s inflation forecast was raised from a range of 2.1%-2.4% to a range of 3.1%-3.4%. 
Add […]

In yet another attempt to defend his legacy, Greenspan resorts to semantics and outrageous contradiction ( FT Article ). On the topic of asset ‘bubbles’ – which Greenspan preferred to completely ignore as they acquired air and help reflate after they burst – he asked the following:
“Is there a bubble today in food, energy, […]

The housing bear markets continue to bite into economic activity as the US heads for recession this year and the UK during 2009. The US is still showing no signs of a housing bottom having fallen by 3.1% in the first quarter of 2008 according to government statistics, and foreclosures rising to a all time […]

America’s sluggish economy has the ever-so patriotic Democrats and their media playmates drooling over the prospect of a recession and rising unemployment. Those political activists who have the brazen effrontery to call themselves journalists have been gleefully drawing unfavourable comparisons between the economy under Bush and the Clinton boom, painting the former as a dreadful […]

Welcome to the Weekly Report. Due to family illness, this week’s letter will be shorter than usual but all the more powerful. This week we re-visit the scenario used for the Occasional Letter series as another milestone is passed.
The Scenario: bubble, easy money, inflation in fiat money supply, inflation in commodities and hard assets, inflation, […]

Soaring oil prices were mostly to blame for the past week’s stock market sell-off, but renewed concerns about US economic growth, corporate earnings and mounting angst about inflation pressures also featured prominently in determining the market’s fate.
David Fuller ( Fullermoney ) commented as follows: “As the world’s most important commodity by far, this surge in […]

Whilst the mandarins of the Labour government scratch their collective heads as to why the voters have lost total confidence in Gordon Browns government, one of the key reasons for the meltdown in the Labour vote in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election is the housing bear market.

12 Month rate

9 Months

Real Fall in House Values […]

Welcome to the May newsletter that looks primarily at auction activity in April 2008.The lack of liquidity in the money markets has again been reflected in the subdued sale rate with only 59% of lots finding buyers. This is the national figure and do take a look at the regional variation which is shown in […]

U.S. home prices suffered their worst decline on record, skidding 1.7% in the first quarter, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) announced yesterday (Thursday).
That drop-off from the fourth quarter to the first quarter in the OFHEO’s “purchase-only index” exceeded the 1.4% decline between the third and fourth quarters of last year, and was […]

By: Stephen_Lendman
So says Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of Boston-based investment firm Grantham, Mayo and Van Otterloo, now known as GMO. Some call him the philosopher king of Wall Street because of his highly insightful views on markets and the economy, usually with a longer-term perspective. In a profession of touts, fast-buck and scam artists, Grantham’s commentaries […]

Despite rising fast financially in the past few years, Iceland is feeling the chilly effects of the global credit crunch - so much so the fiercely independent island nation is considering European Union membership to save its tanking currency. A special report, jointly developed by U.K. affiliate MoneyWeek Magazine and our experts here at Money […]

THE PRICE OF GOLD BULLION slipped $10 from a new five-week high in London early Thursday, pulling back to $925 per ounce as crude oil broke new record highs and the US Dollar fell yet again on the forex market.
” Gold has rallied over 8% in the last five days and is now trading over […]

The Council of Mortgage Lender (CML) revised their forecast for UK House prices for 2008 from an anticipated rise of 1% as of Oct 07 to now project a fall in prices of 7%. The CML, inline with its member institutions has a vested interest in talking up the housing market as evidenced by the […]

Is the housing crisis over? Or even close to reaching its peak? Not according to the experts. It seems we have a way to go before all the dirt settles to the bottom. Which is another way of saying that we really do not know what the long term effects of this housing mess will […]

A weakening economy is hammering the home improvement retailers. Both Home Depot and Lowe’s are feeling the slowdown.
Home Depot’s Net Falls 66% As Homeowners Cut Projects
The Wall Street Journal is reporting Home Depot’s Net Falls 66% .
A tough business environment and Home Depot Inc.’s moves to close underperforming stores and pull back on expansion led […]

The equity markets continue to advance out of the January/March lows, commodity prices surge, oil continues to hit record highs and the consumer is now pulling back in a big way. History tells us that manipulation ultimately fails and that it typically only serves to make matters worse in the end. Well, when looking at […]

With the release of last week’s Consumer Price inflation numbers, the debate over the accuracy of the government’s reported Consumer Price Index data was once again front and center. The official numbers showed that the overall rate of consumer inflation rose .2% while the over-hyped core rate rose just a paltry .1%.
However, these incredible April […]

“…Apparent defender of US cash savers since the Great Depression, the FDIC wants to see $50bn pumped into the very worst mortgages issued in 2004-2007…”
AS THE U.S. and British housing bubbles continue to deflate, leaking stale gas like an air-bed blown up when you’re drunk, just how much trouble will come from government schemes […]

Martin D. Weiss writes: Just when Wall Street was hoping for some relief from surging energy costs, crude oil prices surged more than $3 on Friday … spiking to nearly $128 a barrel … shattering all prior records … and driving prices at the pump perilously close to $4 per gallon.
Worse, next week, despite the […]