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.

Good Morning, Slopers

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I'm going to make this really quick; indeed, I'm not going to be very active today since all eyes are on the FOMC and I'm getting myself ready.

I entered the day long SPY and short 79 items. I got the hell out of SPY at a nice profit and have added a few more shorts. I am a pure bear again.

I am still only 50% committed, thanks to Bernanke-fear, but my short on FXE is my current favorite. I think the Euro is going to finally give us a sustainable trend on which to trade.

Good luck today. It's going to be a wild ride.

1213-beard

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (by Gary Tanashian)

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Edit 10/23/11 @ 6:09 AM:  The very first feedback I received on this post was from an intelligent and thoughtful reader who notes that "I don't see you talking at all" in response to my "what the eff are we talking about here?" at the end.  The mailer writes that it is all about conversing, asking questions and challenging the status quo and asks a question of his own about what I was hoping to find, the promised land?  He saw me pointing a finger and poking fun.

So here is my answer:  I wanted to find some of history.  I wanted to find something different.  I wanted to find someone talking about money printing and inflationary disenfranchisement.  That is what the whole Fed shtick was about in the video (I admit the helicopters that flew over the Fed had me thinking about making tin foil hat jokes and got me unfocused).  I did not want to find Kumbaya and bongos.  I suppose I wanted to find something more focused on a message of the '99%' being so many of us stuck in the middle of a triad of the Democrat machinery, the Republican machinery and the Corporate machinery.  With a side of Federal Reserve thrown in for good measure.

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More Thoughts on OWS (by Gary Tanashian)

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Chris Hedges has stirred up a mini epiphany in the blogosphere, especially considering the endless war-making that is employed in the name of corporate gain.  I am always against war, whether it is apparently 'justified' or not.  I hate war.  I supposed that sometimes it is necessary, but only to a tiny fraction of the scale to which it is systematically carried out.

A couple more articles for your consideration can be found here http://www.biiwii.com/analysis.htm.  The first, 'Going Apeshit' by James Howard Kunstler, shows the situation in cartoon-like fashion (a huge compliment, btw) as only Kunstler can.  He also shines a light on President Obama's superficial attempt to align himself with OWS for political gain.

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Inflation on Demand & Along the ‘Continuum’

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Global markets are in the midst of a predictable relief rally to the technical bear market that recently became actualized off of various topping patterns that were in force for most of 2011.  It is important to note that this is coming off of a similarly predictable whiff of a deflation scare, as US and European debt 'imbalances' (a polite way to put it) spooked the public out of asset markets and into US Treasury bonds, among other 'safe' havens.

Ben Bernanke, the current US Fed Chief, is a deflation scholar after all.  He is the man for the job and if he was hesitant to do his job, as was the case last spring amid the 'austerity movement' and a red-lined long term T bond yield, he can be less so now.  The 'bad cops' (Fisher, Plosser, Bullard, etc.) at the Fed have been marginalized for the time being with people like Robert Reich and Paul Krugman, along with their decidedly less financially austere views, are back in the public consciousness.

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