1 - Make banks and all other players in financial services subject to the "know your customer" rule and behavior will change immediately once they can only sell customers investments that are suitable for them...ie. no options and commodities to widows and orphans. 2 - Require the separation of customer funds and banking funds and force disclosure of who's trading what when to prevent commingling and taking both sides of the bet. 3 -  Either outlaw unsecured third party derivatives or force them onto regulated exchanges with complete pricing transparency. This doesn't have to be complicated. … [Read more...]

On June 28th, the Chicago Fed released notes saying that the 3 month average of the National Activity Index has now "reached a level historically associated with a mature economic recovery following a recession." While the Fed didn't make clear what constitutes a "mature" economic recovery, I think this is government speak for "we've just given the market everything we had and our data suggests that's all she wrote." And that, in turn, seems to lend itself to more downside ahead.  Or at a minimum a very, long protracted and slow recovery. … [Read more...]

I think the risks of a double dip recession are growing exponentially by the day: 1 - BP's oil spill elicited nothing short of a yawning response and political BS when foreign flagged ships could have entered the gulf and captured 90% of the spill (they were offered and refused fearing labor upsets) 2 - nearly 60% of Americans didn't want the Health Care Reform - and we got it anyway. Evidently this is government at the people not by the people. 3 - record number of businesses are not just trying to preserve 2009 gains but actually bring forward 2011 earnings in an attempt to stave off higher taxes and the double whammy of a stimulus program that is out of bullets 4 - "stuff" remains … [Read more...]

Many of the same strategies that make for successful warriors make for successful investors and vice versa...here's a few that I've been thinking about lately courtesy of my Sensei, Doug O'Connor: Strike when the opportunity presents itself.  You often don’t have the luxury or knowledge to plan to strike (or buy or sell), so you have to be ready to do so at any time.  Flexibility in your actions (and holdings). Wait until the opponent is fully committed before you strike (wait until a company has revealed enough of itself to know whether or not you should buy or sell…or waiting to see what the rest of the pack is doing and head the other way…UNODIR). Trust in your training (trusting … [Read more...]

Leave it to the Federal Government to put the “con” in Economics. Tomorrow’s jobs report is expected to produce 540,000 new jobs in May which, if it happens, will be the largest single jump in over a decade. Too bad it has nothing to do with reality. According to the ADP report released Thursday, private payrolls increased 55,000 for the month. Also reported yesterday was a weekly initial unemployment claims figure of 453,000. So how is it that the government expects to report more than 540,000 jobs? Because these are the same guys who run Amtrak and the Postal Service and think they’re viable businesses. If the total new jobs figure is 540,000 as expected and 400,000 jobs … [Read more...]

http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4221650/575k-new-jobs-to-be-created-in-may Here's a clip from my latest appearance on Fox Business. Here's to hoping the government doesn't manipulate the numbers too badly on Friday.... :-) … [Read more...]