financial crisis

The China Containerized Freight Index has bee-lined upward in 2010. The index tracks shipping prices for goods sailing from China to 11 different regions around the world.

Between January 15 and February 26, the index rose 17%. During the same period, the Baltic Dry Index (which tracks average shipping prices globally) fell 18%.

The past year has been all about shifting debt.

The financial crisis drove American homeowners into debt. Homeowners defaulted on their loans (or threatened to), driving the banks into debt. The U.S. government bailed out the banks, shifting debt to the public balance sheet.
Full article at: Debt

Henry M. Paulson left

Market rallies on impressive trade figures from China. But the real excitement over today's news came in the oil sector. Oil hit $84 per barrel after it was reported that China's December crude imports hit a record 21.26 million tons. That's 160 million barrels. Or 5.15 million barrels per day.

The financial crisis changed the way people think. At least some people.

In North America, the bursting of the housing bubble dispelled the myth you could get rich simply by owning a home. Likewise, people are now realizing that buying and holding stocks is not a sure-fire way to grow wealth.

Despite its fall from grace during the recent financial crisis, real estate is beginning to creep back into portfolios, as investors regain their appetite for risky assets. For investors looking to make a play on real estate through ETFs, there are several options offering different levels of risk, current income, and exposure to sectors of the market.

The rampant bullishness prevading the stock market is raising alarm bells. Today, we are, at best, peering into a nascent economic recovery but Dow Jones Industrial Average have already crossed 10,000 (about 30% off the all time high of 14,198 in October 2007) when peak euphoria reigns amongst investors. If that is not getting ahead of ourselves, I don’t know what is.

Seasoned observers of the global stage, such as fund manager Mohamed El Erian, believe that the financial crisis precipitated a global sea change that will transform the West toward a ‘new normal.’ The new normal that El Erian has in mind won’t be pleasant, however, as it implies an Age of Austerity in which Main Street pulls in its horns and downshifts from its fervid spending spree to a mu

Financial crisis or the Great Recession, if you still remember them, seems so far away… we are now in the best six-month stock market rally since 1933. The bulls have been running riot in the stock market, seemingly unassailable and making money effortlessly, while the bears are licking their wounds.

Remember those banks that the federal government bailed out because they were "too big to fail?" Well...after mergers and bank takeovers (some encouraged by the government) those banks bailed out because they were "too big to fail" now are much bigger. JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America combined now control more than 20% of all bank deposits in the United States.

There is nothing more detrimental to our psychology than seeing our friends get rich. With each day that stock markets continue their impressive surge, lingering skepticism are transformed into belief and rational people are behaving once again like gamblers.

As you scour the globe for potential post-financial-crisis profit plays, don’t overlook Taiwan.

The Federal Reserve is schedule to release the results of the bank ‘stress test’ next week as the Obama Administration aims to restore financial stability in the world’s largest economy however, as the International Monetary Fund forecasts global write-downs budding from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression to exceed $4 trillion in 2010, uncertainties emerging from the outco

Maybe it is me but will all these huge numbers…a billion dollars here…a trillion dollars there.. my head was starting to hurt. I do not think I am alone with these worries… except for an ostrich with it’s head in the sand

The quality of the rules is only as good as the person who enforce them. Once the market goes on a bull run, it is like a locomotive travelling at top speed, whoever stands in the way gets flattened. It is hard to imagine a super-regulator having enough gumption to gatecrash the party and risk incurring the wrath of Wall Street.