Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Hank’s a Lucky Man

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I am enjoying the new NetFlix documentary about Hank Paulson and the financial crisis. I haven’t gotten to the end yet, but my biggest impression is one I least expected: how impressed I am with his wife and their relationship. Wendy Paulson, his wife of forty years, is quite obviously the guy’s bedrock. She’s intelligent, supportive, discerning, and obviously loves the man deeply. He turned to her at the worst moments of the crisis, and she always had the right thing to say. If you watch “Hank”, I think you’ll probably get the same impression. He’s a lucky man.

0917-wendy

FOMC Taper News Day

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Today is likely to be dominated by the FOMC Announcement at 2 PM. That announcement seems likely to contain details of when tapering will start, the scale and structure of any taper, and possibly a draft timescale for the tapering to zero of QE3 over the next year or two. This is significant market moving news so many traders will be avoiding carrying any exposure into the announcement. (more…)

There Goes Thirteen Hundred

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First of all, thank you to those who vo0917-RESULTSted on what cover of my new book they liked best. When I got the four designs, it took me about half a second to decide on #1 (the guy floating with the balloons). The majority of you folks agreed, as indicated by the pie graph below (green being choice #1). The book comes out early next year, and I’ll be sure to mention it a few dozen times when it does so.

Although I don’t have a position in gold, I have been tracking precious metals with interest, and I noticed that so far this evening, the psychologically-important $1300 level has been breached again. None of us know what the Fed is going to say tomorrow, or what effect their words will have on the market, but my best guess is that gold’s descent is simply going to accelerate. (more…)