10 November 2009

I have really started to dislike municipal bonds as an asset class. They have seen a huge rally along with almost every other financial asset but the underlying fundamentals are weak because of financial distress at states and…

Bond insurer Ambac Financial has warned bankruptcy is a distinct possibility, sending its shares plummeting more than 30% today. What is intriguing about this pending bankruptcy is how this company escaped bankruptcy in 2008, was…

Tilson is saying what I have been saying, namely that March saw an increased number of attractive buys, but most of these are now fully priced. As a result, he is selling equities - even building up his net short positions. Unlike bear…

Andy Xie thinks the Fed is on an inflationary path.  Last month, he wrote an article in Caijing which says that ‘stagflation lite’ is the Federal Reserve’s preferred outcome. What’s interesting is his recent article about the need for…

This comes from the Guardian (hat tip Lee): The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a…

Financial Armageddon: In-Your-Face Influence Peddling FT.com - Not all bubbles present a risk to the economy (Blinkered Fed thinking on asset bubbles. Reminiscent of the Greenspan era.) Fitch Says U.K. Rating Most at Risk Among…

Columbia University Professor and former Federal Reserve official Frederic Mishkin wrote a much-discussed Op-Ed in the Financial Times yesterday. In it, he asks Are potential asset-price bubbles always dangerous? He answers this…