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 […]

China has been in the news again recently, and hence we would like to offer an update on our previous writings on the subject. However, before we do so, allow […]

When the EU started feeling the heat in its periphery, and fearing damages to its core, it established the EFSF (European Financial Stability Fund). We have expressed elsewhere some of […]

Markets could implode from within creating black holes where everything goes in and nothing comes out, destroying in the process paper wealth but also real economies. The essence of Gamma […]

It seems that we are on a ship, that has lost its anchor, left the port for a journey in uncharted waters, and we suddenly discovered that the gorilla we […]

Last Friday’s evening downgrade by the S&P was ill-timed and ill-advised. We wrote a week ago that we would not be surprised if it took place. We will reiterate our […]

As we are drafting this commentary, the news is that a deal for the US debt limit is very close to be completed, that will involve the raising of the […]

As an opening statement allow us to paraphrase David Liss’ claim in his novel A Conspiracy of Paper, where he claims that finance is an animal, and the government needs […]

The old anthem of imperial Europe cried out, “Hail, Europe, our true Fatherland”, and Italy nowadays enters its own phase of the Eurozone crisis. Italian bonds’ spreads over Germany’s Bunds […]