Blue trendline on the Euro goes back to the 2001 low.
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.
Banks Making Bank
Want a business with PRIVATE profits and PUBLIC losses? Open a bank! It’s the one perverted segment of our ostensibly capitalist society in which the government just bails you out, no matter how badly you screw up. Look no further than ANY bank stock to see how this works out.
You Can Take That to the Bank
Been to your bank lately? I rarely go, because there’s no need, but the banks that I do visit have the same thing in common: 90% of the place is unused. I have no idea why they’re dumping money into leasing these cavernous relics from the 1950s, but they might as well shut down almost all of them, particularly since for every 15 teller stations there’s 2 tellers, tops.
Financial Market Stress: Not Yet, But……….
So here is the thing. During a bull market or very bullish phase, indicators give the all-clear. Come on in, the water’s fine! Investors are always going to be complacent and market/economic signals at least stable (or quite positive) at market tops. It’s the way the markets work. Recall 2000 and 2007. As Steven King would say, “nope, nothin’ wrong here.”
This chart from MacroMicro illustrates the point. During a bull phase in the markets things are fine… fine… fine… and then suddenly, out of nowhere, NOT fine. So pictures like this tell us what we already know; the market is bullish and the waters are calm.
(more…)Financials At Resistance (by LZ)
