Category Archives: Fiscal Policy

Repressed Fear

Posted on December 19, 2012 by

This nice chart comes to us from the  Leuthold Group via Bloomberg.   It illustrates that market fear or risk aversion is at its lowest levels since the 1980′s!  Yikes! The Leuthold Group constructs their Risk Aversion Index (RAI) with a … Continue reading →

Posted in Equities, Fiscal Cliff Monitor, Fiscal Policy, Monetary Policy | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Angry Washington Elves Take Down Market, VIX spikes

Posted on December 19, 2012 by

He’s an angry elf. – Buddy,  Elf Leave it to the politicos.   They were the windshield,  we, the bug today. Doesn’t seem like they are gonna move and get it done. The VIX was up almost 12 percent today, the … Continue reading →

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Staring Down the Cliff

Posted on November 29, 2012 by

Nice chart from the Economist laying out the impact of the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts to begin on January 1st if Congress and Administration cannot reach a compromise. (click here if chart is not observable)

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Negotiating the Fiscal Cliff w/ Infographics

Posted on November 21, 2012 by

On Monday we noted the cheeky tweet sent out by House speaker,  John Boehner, asking where were the President’s spending cuts.   We just received this through a robo e-mail from Obama for America. We’re starting sense the Kumbaya good feelings … Continue reading →

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Negotiating the Fiscal Cliff on Twitter

Posted on November 19, 2012 by

Times they are a-changin’. House Speaker,  John Boehner,  just tweeted this (around 2:55 PM eastern):

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Where’s the Bottom?

Posted on November 15, 2012 by

Wish we knew. We respect the downtrend and are trying to remain flexible. We do know fiscal cliff worries are dominating the market, the S&P500′s medium-term uptrend is broken, and the 200-day moving day has been violated.   We now  … Continue reading →

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Quote of the Day: A True Economic Idiot

Posted on November 14, 2012 by

Gov. Jerry Brown has always been and shall always be “Governor Moonbeam” to us. A true economic idiot, his only saving grace as far as we’ve been concerned is that back-in-the-day he dated Linda Ronstadt. – Dennis Gartman,  The Gartman … Continue reading →

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Global Corporate Tax Rates

Posted on November 12, 2012 by

Go no further than the following chart from Deutsche Bank to understand that tax rates do not necessarily correlate with tax revenues.  The effective U.S. corporate tax rate — i.e., taxes actually paid — fell to a 40 year low … Continue reading →

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Composition of the U.S. Fiscal Cliff

Posted on November 11, 2012 by

Here’s some background and a nice chart on the fiscal cliff prepared by the IMF for last week’s G20 FinMin meeting.  Note also the U.S. debt ceiling, which currently stands at $16.394 trillion with current outstanding debt at $16.245 trillion, is … Continue reading →

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It’s Health Care, Stupid!

Posted on November 11, 2012 by

Great chart from the CBO on where the runaway spending will take place in future U.S. federal budgets.  It’s mostly all health care due to an aging population. We sense the next “Big, Big Thing” is going to come in … Continue reading →

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