Crash Survival Zone

The stock market’s damage has already been done. And if you’re one of those people near or already in retirement, you already know you’re going to have to work longer, save more or spend less.

But what should you do right now with the money you have left? Should you wade back into the stock market, [...]

Defeating the Cartel… With Profit, Part 2
… Consider that, although the Fundamentals for Gold have rarely been more Bullish, it is still below its all-time high and still suffers from periodic Cartel Takedowns. [The Cartel’s Motivation for these Takedowns is clear. To maintain its power and profit The Cartel must prevent increasing legitimacy for Gold [...]

Strong buying by China has helped lift commodity prices around the world this spring, but growing evidence suggests that a sizable portion of this buying has been to build stockpiles in China, and may not be sustainable.

At least 90 large freighters full of iron ore are idling off Chinese ports, where they face waits of [...]

For some months now, Jeremy Grantham, a respected market strategist with GMO, an institutional asset management company, has been railing about — of all things — the efficient market hypothesis.
You know what the efficient market hypothesis is, don’t you? It’s a theory that grew out of the University of Chicago’s finance department, and long held [...]

Treasuries fell, pushing 10-year notes to their biggest weekly loss since June 2008, as investors prepared for the U.S. government to resume debt sales after a two-week hiatus.

Ten-year yields rose above 3.4 percent for the first time since November amid concern the record supply of Treasuries to pay for a mounting budget deficit may jeopardize [...]

Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest bond fund, has warned the United States will eventually lose its top AAA credit rating, a fear that had already spooked financial markets on Thursday and could keep the US dollar, stocks and bonds under heavy selling pressure.

The United States will face a downgrade in “at least three [...]

The global recession sapped demand for all kinds of commodities — like steel and grain — yet small burlap bags are still arriving by the planeload at Russia’s state-owned diamond company.

A worker examined a diamond at the Alrosa cutting and polishing center in Moscow, Russia.
Each day, the contents of the bags spill into the stainless [...]

By William Pesek
If the bubble that just burst didn’t work out for you, build a better one.

That looks like the rationale of Asia investors. Their optimism has driven the MSCI Asia Pacific Index up 38 percent from a five-year low on March 9. In recession-plagued Hong Kong alone, shares have gained 52 percent. Even Japanese [...]

History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. But when it’s your farce, sometimes it’s hard to appreciate the humor.

We’ve railed about the stress tests since they were announced, but the chicanery, starting with the March 10 Citi and Bank of America pronouncements that they had had a decent couple [...]

After more than eight weeks of a rally, stock market behavior is close to exuberance, say “smart-money” strategists who view factors such as rising participation and positive reactions to most news as tell-tale signs that it’s time to take money off of the table.

“Just like when too many participants bet on the same horse the [...]