Mish Provides Wrong Analysis Regarding The "Feels Bad Recovery"

Yesterday, Mish posted a story titled "Why the Statistical Recovery Feels Bad." Unfortunately, his analysis falls far below his abilities.He begins with this statement:Inquiring minds might be interested in charts of GDP minus the effect of increased government spending. The charts are from reader Tim Wallace who writes ...And then proffers this...

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Oil: more Hoarding in Plain Sight?

- by New Deal democratBack when Oil was over $100/barrel, I wrote an article entitled "Hoarding in Plain Sight", suggesting that part of the tightness in the Oil market was governments the world over adding to their strategic oil reserves (a program which Bush had begun at the end of 2006 and continued until the very top of the market - with his typical...

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A Closer Look at Gold

From the US Geological Survey:Gold has been treasured since ancient times for its beauty and permanence. Most of the gold that is fabricated today goes into the manufacture of jewelry. However, because of its superior electrical conductivity and resistance to corrosion and other desirable combinations of physical and chemical properties, gold...

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Lloyds Tops List of Shame

I see that, not content with topping the FOS's list of shame, Lloyds has also topped the list of shame published by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).The FSA report that Lloyds received more than 280,000 complaints in the first six months of 2010.Barclays received 259,266, and Santander 244,978.Well done lads!Lloyds are unapologetic, they claim that its their size that generates the volume of complaints and note that the complaints came from less than 1% of their 30 million customers. So that's alright then!The British Bankers' Association...

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Yesterday's Market

In general, prices have been in a very tight range for the last few days.Yesterday, prices gapped a bit lower at the open (a), fell to previous support (c) and then rallied a bit, only to fall again (d). After a brief move higher, prices formed a double top before selling off into the close (f) on higher volume (g).Note the tight range of the last...

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The Great Currency War

From the FT:An “international currency war” has broken out, according to Guido Mantega, Brazil’s finance minister, as governments around the globe compete to lower their exchange rates to boost competitiveness.Mr Mantega’s comments in São Paulo on Monday follow a series of recent interventions by central banks, in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in an effort to make their currencies cheaper. China, an export powerhouse, has continued to suppress the value of the renminbi, in spite of pressure from the US to allow it to rise, while officials...

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A Closer Look at Corn

From the USDA:The major feed grains are corn, sorghum, barley, and oats. Corn is the primary feed grain in the United States, accounting for more than 90 percent of total feed grain production and use......Corn acreage in the United States has increased from a government-mandated...

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Money Supply: We're DOO ... oh, wait ...

- by New Deal democratA few months ago it was fashionable, pace Zero Hedge, to note the discontinued M3 money supply series, which was "crashing" in YoY terms. We were told that this big a collapse hadn't been seen since the 1930s. (Of course, we might counter with the fact that it's a good thing that less credit has been created compared with the...

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Yesterday's Market

The treasury market has been in a decent rally the last two days, largely as the result of successful auctions:The Treasury Department sold $35 billion in 5-year notes at a yield of 1.26%, the lowest on record at an auction. It was also smaller yield than traders had anticipated, one indication of strong demand. The amount...

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Negative Housing Equity and States

Did you know that California,Florida,Ohio,Michigan,Georgia,Arizona and Nevada make up 31%of the populace of the United States BUT they constitute 62% of the mortgages that have negative equity,,,,,, http://www.corelogic.com/About-Us/ResearchTrends/Negative-Equity-Report.aspx or another way of looking at it.... California and Florida are 18% of the populace and have 40% of the mortgages that are underwater.....

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What's Keeping Oil Prices Low?

Click for a larger imageThe above image shows weekly crude stock going back about 30 years. Notice that current crude oil stocks are at levels not seen in over 10 years. Excess supply = lower pri...

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A Closer Look At Copper

I'm going to continue my look at basic commodities with copper because it's a very important commodity:Copper is usually found in nature in association with sulfur. Pure copper metal is generally produced from a multistage process, beginning with the mining and concentrating of low-grade ores containing copper sulfide minerals, and followed by...

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