It wasn’t long ago that volatility seemed to have flat-lined. Those were the good old days. Just look at market results for the past two months and you’ll see a…
High-Frequency Headache
Previous posts this week shared concerns from John Mauldin of Mauldin Economics about exchange-traded products and high-yield bonds. Mauldin also called out high-frequency traders, who did nothing to keep the market from dropping…
Kill the Quants – Before They Kill the Markets
As we noted last week, there is always something to worry about. Yesterday, we discussed the risks being created by exchange-trade products, quoting a Mauldin Economics column. In his column,…
Exchange-Traded Products Can Be Risky
While fear of rising interest rates has clearly been a factor in recent market volatility, there are plenty of other reasons for the sudden jolts that are worrying investors. Doug…
Market Drop Was No Big Deal
The stock market has been setting records for years and it set another one last week. This time, though, the record wasn’t for the highest ever Dow Jones Industrial Average.…
Gold Can Be Fickle
“Nobody really understands gold prices, and I don’t pretend to understand them either.” …
Abnormalization and QE4
It seems to be a policy of the Federal Reserve Board to never use a two-syllable word when a four- or five-syllable word is available. So we have “quantitative easing”…
Central Bankers: Masters of the Universe
Earlier this month, along with our usual dire observations about an economy that has come unhinged, I noted that the world was not coming to an end. On closer inspection,…
Economic Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is “a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from…
Attention Deficit Capitalism
“Democracy would not be democracy, rule of the people, without at least a modicum of political attention and activity from its citizens.” …