I have two very quick questions to ask all Slopers; please take a moment to answer:
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.
Four Remaining Months (by Xerxes)
There are four months left in the remainder of 2023. We are experiencing the first red month since February and, not to put too much pressure, this week has the potential to determine the direction for the rest of the year.
(more…)The Perspective of Reduction
At the latest Jackson Hole resort vacation, Powell trumpeted the “significant reduction in holdings” by the Fed, suggesting that, by golly, they had made astonishing progress shedding all those trillions of dollars of securities holdings. Well, allow me to give that suggestion some perspective.
(more…)The Gold Standard
I’m already seeing plenty of chatter about how the sell-off is over, and it’s back to buy, buy, buy again. Yeah, well, I don’t think so. Below I present to you the up-to-date charts of a variety of important indexes, each of which have been divided by the price of gold. This representation of equity values, in real money terms, is a more honest and meaningful portrayal of value.
Here’s the all world index which, like just about every other item, shows the price action cleanly within the confines of what could be a massive topping pattern. This rounded top is similar to the two which preceded it, but vastly larger.
(more…)Yellen’s Greatest Crime
Humans are, I believe, fundamentally decent and honorable creatures. A tiny percentage of them are psychopaths, sociopaths, and malevolent, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is one of the best-known and powerful among them. She runs contrary to everything I hold dear: natural, organic markets defined by the creation of true value and the free exchange of goods and services in an environment which rewards creation and punishes sloth and corruption. This lifelong government shrew had her greatest victory yet six months ago when she created this monstrosity:
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