Category Archive: 6b.) Acting Man

Filter archive by: Show All Show only Articles Show only Videos

Tales from “The Master of Disaster”

2018-05-24

10 Year Treasury Note Yield, Jun 2015 - May 2018

Daylight extends a little further into the evening with each passing day. Moods ease. Contentment rises. These are some of the many delights the northern hemisphere has to offer this time of year. As summer approaches, and dispositions loosen, something less amiable is happening. Credit markets are tightening. The yield on the 10-Year Treasury note has exceeded 3.12 percent.

Read More »

Gold and Gold Stocks – Conundrum Alert

2018-05-22

by Pater Tenebrarum

2018-05-22

Moribund Meandering Earlier this week, the USD gold price was pushed rather unceremoniously off its perch above the $1300 level, where it had been comfortably ensconced all year after its usual seasonal rally around the turn of the year. For a while it seemed as though the $1,300 level may actually hold, but persistent US dollar strength nixed that idea. Previously many observers (too many?) expected gold to finally break out from its lengthy...

Read More »

How to Get Ahead in Today’s Economy

2018-05-14

by MN Gordon

2018-05-14

This week brought forward more evidence that we are living in a fabricated world. The popular story-line presents a world of pure awesomeness. The common experience, however, falls grossly short. On Tuesday, for example, the Labor Department reported there were a record 6.6 million job openings in March. Based on the Labor Department’s data, there were enough jobs available – exactly – for the 6.6 million Americans who were actively looking for a...

Read More »

The Capital Structure as a Mirror of the Bubble Era

2018-05-09

by Pater Tenebrarum

2018-05-09

As long time readers know, we are looking at the economy through the lens of Austrian capital and monetary theory (see here for a backgrounder on capital theory and the production structure). In a nutshell: Monetary pumping falsifies interest rate signals by pushing gross market rates below the rate that reflects society-wide time preferences.

Read More »

The Story of India’s Demonetization | Jayant Bhandari

2018-04-29

by Jayant Bhandari

Jayant is constantly traveling the world to look for investment opportunities, particularly in the natural resource sector. He advises institutional investors about his finds. He is a contributing editor of the Liberty magazine and has written for the Mises Institute, the Mises Institute (Canada), Casey Research, Le Québécois Libre, Sprott’s Thoughts, LewRockwell.com, etc. The presentation …

Read More »

From Fake Boom to Real Bust

2018-04-27

by MN Gordon

2018-04-27

More is revealed with each passing day. You can count on it. But what exactly the ‘more is of’ requires careful discrimination. Is the ‘more’ merely more noise? Or is it something of actual substance? Today we endeavor to pass judgment, on your behalf.

Read More »

Getting High on Bubbles

2018-04-26

by Keith Weiner

2018-04-26

Back in the drug-soaked, if not halcyon, days known at the sexual and drug revolution—the 1960’s—many people were on a quest for the “perfect trip”, and the “perfect hit of acid” (the drug lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD). We will no doubt generate some hate mail for saying this, but we don’t believe that anyone ever attained that goal.

Read More »

Negative Rates: Rise of the Japanese Androids

2018-04-17

by MN Gordon

2018-04-17

One of the unspoken delights in life is the rich satisfaction that comes with bearing witness to the spectacular failure of an offensive and unjust system. This week served up a lavish plate of delicious appetizers with both a style and refinement that’s ordinarily reserved for a competitive speed eating contest. What a remarkable time to be alive.

Read More »

The Realities of the Third World Economic Growth | Jayant Bhandari

2018-04-13

by Jayant Bhandari

Trade War Game On!

2018-04-09

by MN Gordon

2018-04-09

“Things sure are getting exciting again, ain’t they?” The remark was made by a colleague on Tuesday morning, as we stepped off the elevator to grab a cup of coffee.

Read More »

Short Term Market Signals

2018-04-01

by Pater Tenebrarum

2018-04-01

SPX Daily, RUT Daily and SPX-RUT Ratio, Dec 2016 - Mar 2018

We reviewed the daily charts after yesterday’s close and noticed that the Russell 2000 Index, the NYA and transportation stocks all exhibited relative strength (the same holds actually for the DJIA), particularly vs. the FANG/NDX group. This is happening just as the SPX is battling with an extremely important trendline. As we pointed out before, relative strength in the RUT in particular served as a short term reversal signal ever since the...

Read More »

GBEB Death Watch

2018-03-31

by Pater Tenebrarum

2018-03-31

As our friend Dimitri Speck noted in his recent update, the chart pattern of the SPX continues to follow famous crash antecedents quite closely, but obviously not precisely. In particular, the decisive trendline break was rejected for the moment. If the market were to follow the 1987 analog with precision, it would already have crashed this week.

Read More »

Trendline Broken: Similarities to 1929, 1987 and the Nikkei in 1990 Continue

2018-03-30

by Dimitri Speck

2018-03-30

S&P 500 Large Cap Index, Apr 2015 - Mar 2018

In an article published in these pages in early March, I have discussed the similarities between the current chart pattern in the S&P 500 Index compared to the patterns that formed ahead of the crashes of 1929 and 1987, as well as the crash-like plunge in the Nikkei 225 Index in 1990. The following five similarities were decisive features of these crash patterns.

Read More »

Slaves to Government Debt Paper

2018-03-29

by Keith Weiner

2018-03-29

Picture, if you will, a group of slaves owned by a cruel man. Most of them are content, but one says to the others, “I will defy the Master”. While his statement would superficially appear to yearn towards freedom, it does not. It betrays that this slave, just like the others, thinks of the man who beats them as their “Master” (note the capital M). This slave does not seek freedom, but merely a small gesture of disloyalty.

Read More »

What Fed Chair Powell Forgot to Mention

2018-03-26

by MN Gordon

2018-03-26

What are the chances of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell being wrong? The chances he’ll be wrong on the economy’s growth prospects, the direction of the federal funds rate, and inflation itself? Our guess is his chances of being wrong are quite high.

Read More »

US Stock Market – How Bad Can It Get?

2018-03-25

by Pater Tenebrarum

2018-03-25

In view of the fact that the stock market action has gotten a bit out of hand again this week, we are providing a brief update of charts we have discussed in these pages over the past few weeks (see e.g. “The Flight to Fantasy”). We are doing this mainly because the probability that a low probability event will actually happen has increased somewhat in recent days.

Read More »

Incrementum’s New Cryptocurrency Research Report

2018-03-23

by Pater Tenebrarum

2018-03-23

As we noted on occasion of the release of the first Incrementum Crypto Research Report, the report would become a regular feature. Our friends at Incrementum have just recently released the second edition, which you can download further below (if you missed the first report, see Cryptonite 2; scroll to the end of the article for the download link).

Read More »

US Stock Market – The Flight to Fantasy

2018-03-22

by Pater Tenebrarum

2018-03-22

US S&P 500 Large Cap Index, NDX Daily and NYA Daily, Mar 2017 - 2018

The chart formation built in the course of the early February sell-off and subsequent rebound continues to look ominous, so we are closely watching the proceedings. There are now numerous new divergences in place that clearly represent a major warning signal for the stock market. For example, here is a chart comparing the SPX to the NDX (Nasdaq 100 Index) and the broad-based NYA (NYSE Composite Index).

Read More »

The Disaster that is the Third World | Jayant Bhandari

2018-03-19

by Jayant Bhandari

Jayant is a contributing editor of the Liberty magazine and has written for the Mises Institute, the Mises Institute (Canada), Casey Research, Le Québécois Libre, Sprott’s Thoughts, LewRockwell.com, etc. This speech was given at the Capitalism & Morality seminar in Vancouver, Canada, on Saturday, 29 July 2017. http://jayantbhandari.com/capitalism-morality-2017/ Jayant Bhandari – How Emerging Really are …

Read More »

Despondency in Silver-Land

2018-03-16

by Pater Tenebrarum

2018-03-16

Over the past several years we have seen a few amazing moves in futures positioning in a number of commodities, such as e.g. in crude oil, where the by far largest speculative long positions in history have been amassed. Over the past year it was silver’s turn. In April 2017, large speculators had built up a record net long position of more than 103,000 contracts in silver futures with the metal trading at $18.30.

Read More »