by Larry Levin    Don't worry, this isn't a public service message trying to get you to recycle. Instead "Go Green" refers to the Tuesday markets. The Dow completes its 19th week in a row with a green close on a Tuesday - so yes, there are no superlatives left. As a gentle reminder, since February 1st, the Dow has gained 9.85%; absent Tuesday it is up a mere 0.5%. Despite equity strength, bonds rallied, VIX rallied, the USD ranged violently to end unchanged, and commodities drifted lower on another dismally low volume day. Correlations between stocks and the … [Read more...]

    by Larry Levin    Our thoughts and prayers are with the people in Oklahoma this morning. It is unbelievable to see such terrible devastation. In the wake of the ongoing IRS scandal, former Congressman Ron Paul spoke on the abuse of power, and reiterated that the agency's actions were not new, and have been used for nearly a century to transfer wealth from the people, and violate the very liberties given to us by the founding fathers.While Paul's positions may be considered extreme, his words do resonate. Paul's rhetoric is definitely outside of the … [Read more...]

    by Larry Levin    After more of the same last week....good news is good news and bad news is good news for the equity markets, it's time for a little Monday misanthropy. This time it's directed at poor Bernie Madoff, who once had billions of dollars, but now he makes $40 a month doing menial prison labor. Poor Bernie! Alas from Hedge fund billionaire to low paid worker with minimal job security as he reported being moved from a clerk in the commissary to now taking care of the telephone and computer systems. It's a far cry from his former life and like so … [Read more...]

    by Larry Levin    The nothing-matters-but-Central-Planning rally continued today, until late afternoon.  The morning brought very bearish economic data (again) that was summarily ignored - for HOURS - then finally succumbed to reality.  In fact, even the normally dismissive financial journalists wondered aloud "why in the world is the market grinding higher given ANOTHER day of horrible data?" The Dow closed lower by only 42-points, which was laughably its "worst day" in about two weeks. The morning's additional poor economic data follows. CPI was … [Read more...]

    by Larry Levin    There was another good deal of economic data that was dumped into our laps yesterday morning and it was once again so bad – it was good.  That is to say, it stunk so badly that investors (read: Fraud Street insiders) now believe that the ECB (European Central Bank) is about to go full-Bernanke just like the Japanese. Will Super-Mario counterfeit the Euro to save the bankers like Bernanke & Abe?  Do I have to ask?  If not, why did the following data inspire such a large rally on Fraud Street? French GDP was negative for the 2nd … [Read more...]

    by Larry Levin    Let's face it, ever since the financial crisis, we have begun to see bubbles everywhere. The damage wrought by the real estate bubble has been so extensive that the nation is rightfully terrified that another asset bubble is inflating beneath our noses, preparing to wreck the already wrecked American economy at the drop of a hat. Bubble-phobia has now become a national pastime, and rightfully so. So what's the biggest scariest bubble of them all? Just shy of $1 trillion, and now the largest debt portion of the US household non-mortgage … [Read more...]