Results for Financial Crisis Investing
We Want to Hear From You: How Do You As A Consumer Feel About the Financial Reform Bill?
With U.S. consumers still feeling the sting of the global financial crisis, consumer advocacy groups are claiming that they snagged a win with the financial reform measure approved last week by a joint House-Senate congressional committee.
The bill goes next to President Barack Obama, who is expected to sign the measure into law.
"It’s historic legislation," Michael Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, told ABC News. "It’s a big win for consumers."
Four Ways to Profit From a Business-Driven Rebound
Last week we learned that the U.S. economy expanded by a whopping 5.7% annual rate in the 2009 fourth quarter – the biggest jump since 2003. This was well ahead of the 4.5% consensus estimate and solidly beats the 2.2% growth rate achieved in last year’s third quarter. The turnaround is the largest in almost three decades.
The main driver of the performance was a big slowdown in the rate at which businesses were drawing down their inventories. This alone contributed 3.4% to overall growth in the quarter. Paul Ashworth at Capital Economics in London believes that inventory rebuilding will continue to boost gross-domestic-product (GDP) growth for another two or three quarters.
But what happens after that – especially after the stimulus spending out of Washington winds down later this year? Will this rate of growth continue?
Investors who know the answer to that question will be the best-positioned to profit.
Warning: This is Not Another Wall Street Conspiracy Theory, These are the Facts
Just last week, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to directly pay billions of dollars to banks as part of its scheme to bail out insurance giant American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG).
According to committee Chairman Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, the testimony that congressmen heard just didn’t “pass the smell test.”
What really stinks about the whole mess is not only the cover-up of what really happened and why, but the inability of anybody in Congress to actually do their homework and be able to frame pointed questions and get to the truth.
It’s not complicated, but it is convoluted. Here are the facts and some questions that Congress needs to ask – and that the American people deserve straight answers to.
My Confrontation With Ben Bernanke: The One Question He Refused to Answer
"The Federal Reserve continues to work actively to prepare for the possibility of financial stress."
- Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Jan. 5, 2007
The Secret Service agents watched me warily as I approached U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
I didn’t waste any time. After introducing myself, I showed him a copy of the talk he gave at the American Economic Association (AEA) meetings in January 2007. I circled all the times he used the words “panic,” “crisis,” and “stress” in his speech, entitled “Central Banking and Bank Supervision of the United States.”
A total of 36 occasions.
I asked him point-blank: “Did you know in advance that a financial crisis was headed our way?”
He looked nervous. I could tell he was uncomfortable with my question. He looked at me stoically and smiled.
And he refused to answer.
But there was no doubt in my mind what the correct answer was. I think he was worried about his job if he said, “Yes.”
The High Cost of Greed …
Money Morning subscriber Ted Kubichek wrote and asked if one of our experts could comment on the underlying cause of the financial crisis whose fallout will affect the U.S. economy for years. Here’s an edited version of that question, as well as the reply by Money Morning’s Shah Gilani, an internationally recognized expert on the global credit crisis.
Anatomy of a Scam: This “Prime Bank Program” Has Already Cost Investors Billions
Two years ago, an associate of mine lost $100,000 because he didn’t listen to me. A year ago, I saved a manufacturing company from the same scam. And just last week I saved a friend of mine $300,000.
For several years…
Looking For the Next Global Profit Play? Take a Look at These Emerging Market ETFs
By Mike Caggeso
Associate Editor
Money Morning
Like most investors, Harvard University’s billion-dollar endowment fund took a beating during the global financial crisis. Many investors cashed out, opting for the safety of the sidelines.
But Harvard called a new play.
During the…
Motivations Abound for Federal Reserve's Delayed Release of Bank Stress Test Results
By Mike Caggeso
Associate Editor
Money Morning
The results of the bank stress tests are in, but instead of releasing them today (Monday), the U.S. Federal Reserve is holding them close to its chest until after the markets close Thursday.
The…
Market Moves Will Remain on Hold Until Bank Stress Test Results Are Released Thursday
By William Patalon III
Executive Editor
Money Morning/The Money Map Report
Barring some dramatic – and unforeseen – news this week, expect investors to tread water until Thursday, when the government is expected to release the results of the bank stress tests it…
Money Morning’s Bank Stress Test Says These Three Banks Are the Strongest
Why wait for the U.S. Treasury Department’s bank stress test when Money Morning can highlight the four secrets that will let you separate the winners from the losers in the U.S. banking system?
Call it the “Money Morning Bank Stress Test.”
Back in February, I looked at the Top 12 U.S. banks, to determine whether it was really necessary – as U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was proposing at the time – to devote the enormous sum of $1.5 trillion of our money to bail them out. I came to the conclusion that such a huge bailout was unnecessary, and that only a few of the Top 12 banks seemed in any danger of collapse. Fortunately, policymakers and the market have now come to agree with me.
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