David Wessel of the Wall Street Journal reported: Last year 63% of the federal budget was spent without a vote of Congress – auto pilot spending for promises made in the past. The federal government spent 9.5% of the federal budget on heathcare in 1960, 25% in 2012, and the CBO predicts 33% in a decade.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Dale Roberts writes: Very few middle class investors will retire due to the money generated from their investment portfolio or their investment philosophy. The stock market is mostly long periods of losing money against inflation, punctuated by two rabid bull markets that led to extreme overvaluation. Regularly, US equity
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Overall debt of the 17 euro countries reached 90% of output, the highest since the euro’s creation in 1999, and 9 are in recession. Ford is closing a major plant in Belgium and two facilities in Britain Zanny Minton Beddoes of The Economist said: Europe has a very big,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Mercenary Trader writes: The routine intervention of the Central Banks, the Greenspan Put transitioning to the Bernanke Put, have underscored the “bad news is good news” phenomenon. Good news is good news because things are getting better. Mediocre news is good news because it means CBs keep rates near
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Albert Sung at Katchum Macro-Economic Blog writes: The Fed can print money but can’t control where it goes. Money is now flowing into Asia – Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Australia are at new highs, while the Hong Kong and Shanghai real estate markets are making new highs. Asian real estate developers in
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Citigroup sees banks getting increasingly involved in collateralized loan obligations for higher returns on capital. CLO issuance has more than tripled in 2012 to a more than five-year high. The U.S. two-year interest-rate swap spread, a measure of debt market stress, touched 8 basis points on Oct. 17, the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bill Gross at Pimco said: Structural headwinds in terms of economic growth, the budget deficit, and the fiscal cliff will dominate the economic debate no matter who wins the election – meaning lower growth due to the excessive debt and leverage built up over 10 or 20 years. Future annual
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Brazil added to gold reserves for the first time since December 2008, Turkey increased its holdings. India normally buys at this time of the year thru November because of jewelry demand for weddings and festivals. David Meger at Vision Financial Markets said central banks are increasing getting into the gold market, with value
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Roger Bridges at Tyndall Investment Mgmt sees no value in Treasuries – growth is not as bad as expected. Economists expect 10-year yields at 1.77 percent at year-end and 2.06 percent by 6-30-13. All 21 primary dealers expect the Fed to expand stimulus measures before year-end. Guy LeBas at Janney
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: 10 of 26 analysts analysts expect the RBI to cut the repurchase rate to 7.75 percent from 8 percent, 2 expect a reduction to 7.5 percent and the rest no change. Rajeev Malik at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets cites blatant pressure from the government to ease and it will be hard
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