Marc Faber Featured in Communist Propaganda Piece
In this communist propaganda piece, Marc Faber gives his take on the near future.
The experiment of the central banks will fail. It may work for a while, much as white paint on a cracked building looks nice for a while.
In the future, 50% of taxes may be used just for payments on the debt.
Then there will be hyperinflation, and the governments will distract the people by going to war. Full video below.
Quant quiz of the Week
Friday humor. Video below.
Short term long while long term scared
On the long hedge funds, the Fed and the market. From Biderman.
To summarize my recent New York City trip, almost all of the hedge fund types I visited with in New York are both long stocks for the short term and really scared for the long term. Why? They are long stocks mostly because buybacks have been fueling gains and now stock prices have climbed to less than 10% below the all time highs.
On the other hand they are really scared because global equity markets are now dependent not only on central bank manipulation but that investors continue to believe in miracles. For it will indeed take a miracle for the markets to survive the mess the central bank manipulators have created. Video below.
iRational
Apple for president? Much can be said about Apple and it’s greatness, but all those parabolic moves usually end the same way. The Economist on Apple.
THE new iPad, which was released on March 16th, is the most popular version of the tablet yet. Apple sold 3m of them in just four days. But some buyers took to discussion forums to report that it has a tendency to heat up. A similar debate exists about Apple’s stock.
The company’s share price has risen by 83% in the past year, and by almost 50% so far in 2012. Apple is now easily the largest company in the world by market capitalisation, at some $565 billion. It looms over Exxon Mobil, which is worth a mere $408 billion. Since the start of this year it has added $187 billion to its valuation, roughly equivalent to the entire market caps of companies like Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson and Wells Fargo. Apple is larger than the American retail sector combined. (Full article here).
The TVIX Chaos- What it means for investors
The TVIX collapsed under heavy trading yesterday. After the close CSFB said it will create new shares, and the TVIX fell even further in after hours trading. From Vix and More.
One month and one day after Credit Suisse (CS) announced the suspension of new creation units in the VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX Short-Term ETN (TVIX), the issuer announced today that it plans to reopen issuance of TVIX “on a limited basis” effective tomorrow.
In a twist, the press release also noted:
“Beginning March 23, 2012, Credit Suisse may from time to time issue the ETNs into inventory of its affiliates to make the ETNs available for lending at or about rates that prevailed prior to the temporary suspension of issuances of the ETNs. Also, beginning as soon as March 28, 2012, Credit Suisse may issue additional ETNs from time to time to be sold solely to authorized market makers. Credit Suisse may condition its acceptance of a market maker’s offer to purchase the ETNs on its agreeing to sell to Credit Suisse specified hedging instruments consistent with Credit Suisse’s hedging strategy, including but not limited to swaps. Any such hedging instruments will be executed on the basis of the indicative value of the ETNs at that time, will not reflect any premium or discount in the trading price of the ETNs over their indicative value and will be on terms acceptable to Credit Suisse, including the counterparty meeting Credit Suisse’s creditworthiness requirements, margin requirements, minimum size and duration requirements and such other terms as Credit Suisse deems appropriate in its sole discretion.” [emphasis added]
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