Is The Stock Market Rally a ‘Validation’?

As seen in the Fortune story of June 15 titled “Economy in ‘early stages of repair’”: “The stock market’s rally serves as “broad validation” of the Obama administration’s financial rescue efforts, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Monday.” While ostensibly this is correct, and commonly-held theory states that a stock market rally would precede an economic …

Read more

The Madoff Fraud – Are There More?

Here is the latest update on the Madoff sentencing from CNBC: http://www.cnbc.com/id/31610169 A few months ago, I wrote an article titled “Crime During Economic Stress,” that is listed under the “Individuals” section (about halfway down the page) here: https://www.economicgreenfield.com/prosperitybypencom-directory/ One of the questions that I have is whether there are more frauds in existence that haven’t yet …

Read more

Is Ben Bernanke a “Hero”?

Recently various people have given high marks and effusive praise for Ben Bernanke’s performance during the Financial Crisis.  Here is a sampling: “Bernanke’s Handling of US Crisis Gets Strong Mark” : http://www.cnbc.com/id/31400566   From Jack Welch: “I think he saved the system, I think he’s a national hero,” Welch said. “I think Bernanke seems to be a guy …

Read more

A Conflict of Interest?

I found this story in The Washington Post, from June 11, to be rather interesting: “Lawmakers Invested in Bailed-Out Firms” : http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/10/AR2009061002565.html?wpisrc=newsletter I would have assumed there are rules that expressly prohibit such a conflict of interest.  If not, perhaps a recusal would be appropriate? SPX at 918.90 as this post is written

More Questions Regarding Green Shoots

In the last post, Warren Buffett commented what he was seeing with regard to signs of an upturn.  This link contains what John Rice, Vice Chairman of GE recently (6/19) said: “I am not particularly of the green shoots group yet,” Rice said today to the Atlanta Press Club, referring to a phrase used by Federal Reserve …

Read more

Article of Note

I would like to call attention to an article written a few months ago by Scott S. Powell titled “‘The Road to Sefdom’ – Revisited.”  Although I don’t entirely agree with all of its points, it presents several themes and points that I believe to be very important and worthy of serious contemplation. Here is the …

Read more

The Untimely Death of Long-Held Assumptions

Ever since the Economic Crisis began, there has been one facet that has been very under-recognized – that many long-held assumptions have proven incorrect. There are many of these assumptions, but I will list a few.  The “fallout” from these assumptions proving incorrect has been widespread and very damaging: Real estate (particularly residential) always goes up. …

Read more

A Quote of Note from Pete Peterson

I found the following interview to be of interest.  Pete Peterson certainly has an interesting background: http://www.chicagobooth.edu/magazine/31/2/peterson.aspx Of particular note was a quote from the article: “We now have political system where, unlike what the founders of the country had in mind, politicians consider the position a career and don’t want to lose their jobs.  …

Read more

An Interesting New Index

I ran across the following – it is Fortune’s Big Picture Index.  From the original notice in Fortune Magazine, June 8, p 62, “Our new proprietary index measures seven key signs of economic health” I find the index interesting, and worth at least a quick peek.  Unfortunately, the link provided doesn’t give a lot of …

Read more