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.

Now or Never?

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Well, it’s here. Oatmeal Cookie Baking Troll Day is here at last. I’ve got a knot in my stomach that no sailor could ever figure out. To think that our livelihoods are dependent upon this horrid little woman is sickening and sad. But here we are.

I’m watching the Russell 2000 in particular. As we look at its chart, as well as the chart of the small cap leveraged ETF, it seems we are at an important juncture. Of course, Shrew-Monster could kill it, just like she could kill any other chart, but these are the lines that, at present, matter most. (more…)

The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth

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These videos are not “news”, but they are quite interesting.

The first one, from early in 2009, shows Congressman Alan Grayson grilling Donald Kohn (of the Federal Reserve, in case it wasn’t screamingly obvious already) about where the $1.2 trillion of taxpayer money was sent (we all know the answer – Goldman Sachs – but it’s fun watching Kohn-head squirm anyway).

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All in One Chart

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Greetings from fabled Treasure Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, where I am (of course) at a fencing tournament. That’s following a morning spent in Monterey (way, way south of here) for a gymnastics tournament. If you had told me ten years ago that my life would be dominated by sports events, I would never have believed you. But here I am.

Anyway, in the midst of this, our own beloved BDI, the crown prince of StealthFlation, sent me this fascinating chart. In a nutshell, it really shows that the answer to “What drives the stock market?” isn’t household income, like in quaint old days prior to 2009, but simply how much paper the Fed chokes down. It’s all revolting, but it’s also reality. For now.

OneChart

Mold Action

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Whenever we get a decent selloff in the market, I brace myself for the next intervention – – because we all know that’s what’s coming. Although it doesn’t constitute any kind of announcement, word from the meeting of the Powers That Be over the weekend was:

1012-boldaction

So, let’s get this straight:

+ Q.E. isn’t even done yet; its cessation is still forthcoming this month;

+ The market was at the highest point in human history only a few weeks ago, and it has dropped a single-digit percentage point since then;

+ The world’s central banks have already printed up $12 trillion in funny money to artificially prop up equity markets for their rich buddies

And so they’re calling for………..bold action??? You’ll excuse me if I feel like retching.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – this time with the power of a boldface font – there will come a day that a big announcement is made, and the markets will actually wilt instead of rally. It is at that point you know it’s game-over for these clowns, and asset classes from A to Z are collectively headed for the toilet.