In March 1914, the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) started its operations in the US. Within fifteen years the depression was taking root in the US. Seventy years later, the European […]

Almost 1600 years ago the first signs of Rome’s demise appeared in the horizon. Around 411 AD the Visigoths under Alaric’s leadership attacked and ravaged the city. Smoking ruins and […]

Since early July we have posted comments about Italy’s shaky position. In late 2009 the ten-year spread of Greek bonds over the German Bunds was approximately 400 bps. Greek ten-year […]

As those lines are being drafted, the ECB announced – under its new leadership – a reduction in its interbank lending rate by 25 bps. The EU and the US […]

We have the feeling that we needed a surgery and we got a counseling session. The “landmark” deal announced in the early morning hours (EU time) yesterday, is full of […]

An abnormality (exostosis) has been developing in the markets that involves an a priori assumption that the EU will solve its debt and banking problems. On the surface it seems […]

The late Milton Friedman used to ask his students at the University of Chicago whether money matters. Of course, the classic answer that he was expecting from them was: “Only […]

The markets are known to be moved by the forces of greed (upswing and bullishness) and fear (downturn and bearish trend). In a similar way, in the cosmos there are […]

The markets nowadays are in purgatory. What is the task of professional market watchers and fund managers? In a nutshell we would say it is to unmask portfolio holding’s self- […]

A friend describes in a book he wrote about twenty five years ago, how when they were kids he and one of his friends went into a five-and-dime store and […]