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If you recall, I have been warning for a while now that hedge funds were going to take a beating. There are many progosticators out there including Nouriel Roubini which feel that many hedgie bankruptcies are on the way. Below is a snippet of a well-written article from the UK site “Money Week” [...]

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PNC, down only 13% this year-to-date, very good for a bank stock, is acquiring beleaguered Ohio bank NCC for $5.5 billion. The price represents a huge discount to the prevailing market price before open today and NCC was down 34% in early trading. PNC is issuing $7.7 billion in stock and warrants to the [...]

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Where can we start? There is so much news – all of it negative, I have news coming out of my ears. Let me do this news round-up a bit more like a live-blogging session then.
All of this started, in my opinion, because credit markets seized up and a lot of international banks [...]

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Due to the market crash today, I will be making extra heavy posts. But, rather than over-post on the blog, I will be posting news items in the News Feed. Please check My News Feed in the sidebar.

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The 30-Year U.S. Treasury began to be issued in 1977. It’s yield at 3.86% is a record low as a flight to safety is underway. I have to repeat: this is a market crash.

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Inequality in major U.S. cities rivals Africa: U.N. UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Major U.S. cities including New York, Washington, Atlanta and New Orleans have levels of economic inequality that rival cities in Africa, according to a U.N. report published on Thursday.
Ugly election incidents show lingering U.S. racism – [...]

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The news on markets around the world is particularly dire this morning. Despite a late day rally in the U.S., markets in Asia and Europe are down as much as 9 and 10% and S&P Futures are 60 limit down. This is going to be a very ugly day with market breakers likely to be [...]

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In a recent post I said that I was selectively scanning for value plays at this level. A reader asked me the legitimate question: “Why would anybody buy anything in this market?” Basically, he was questioning my sanity.
I am entirely sane — my answer to the question is very simple. When you purchase [...]

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I am hearing of heavy early voting in the U.S. presidential election. In particular, I have heard stories of heavy voting in Georgia, Colorado, Florida and North Carolina. Apparently, Colorado’s exit polls show an enormous 20%+ advantage for Obama, where the voting in Florida is tilted in favor of McCain (these statistics are [...]

This morning in an e-mail exchange with Marshall Auerback, I questioned why the U.S. Dollar was rising so precipitously. I do understand much of this has to do with a need to refinance dollar-denominated borrowing by international financial institutions that have been unable to roll over their debt in the clogged credit markets. But, the magnitude of the rise is truly astonishing. I said “Dollar strength is very strange.”

Marshall understands that Dollar strength is not strange over the short-term because of liquidity needs. However, it was his analysis of Fed policy that I found most interesting. I will repeat it here: