HYG

High Yield Corp Bond Ishares Iboxx $ ETF

The Fed

The Fed's Latest Surprise Gives You a Big Profit Opportunity This Week

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Traders woke up Thursday morning thinking 8:30 a.m. was going to set the mood for the day. That's when the Department of Labor was scheduled to release its weekly number of new unemployment claims made the previous week.

As it happens, the numbers were awful, at 6.6 million new applicants. That's in addition to the 6.9 million the week before, and 3.3 million two weeks prior.

In other words, an astonishing 16.8 million Americans have lost their jobs in just three weeks. That beats the records set during the Great Depression by several times over (of course, the U.S. has a much larger population now – but still…)

This weekly number was also way worse than expected, with analysts estimating something between 3 million and 5 million new claims.

But instead of dropping, markets opened up more than 1.5%. It's as if 6.6 million people losing their jobs in a single week won't affect companies negatively.

Well, in the short term, that may be the case. Because at almost the same time that the Department of Labor released its data, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell went on air.

What he announced sent pre-market trading skywards. It was yet another stimulus plan, for another $2.3 trillion.

This time, the Fed will be guaranteeing loans made to states and municipalities, and also to households.

But the most important piece of the announcement has the Fed doing something it has never done before…

And it sent one part of the market up three times more than the Dow.

Should you jump on the bandwagon? Here's what I think… Full Story

Should you jump on the bandwagon? Here's what I think...

The Fed

The "High-Yield" Craze Is Masking a Thoroughly Fatal Market Sickness

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Looking for yield? Be careful what you ask for…

Every slick Wall Street operator is hawking junk bonds and leveraged loans as the ultimate drug for yield-starved investors – those seeking "juicy returns" in an otherwise risk-saturated bond market.

What they'll find is suicide by credit overdose.

I'm not surprised we've come to this point.

Now, those who know me know I'm not a big fan of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Acting as Wall Street's un-official "drug pusher" for decades, it went hog wild post-2008, dispensing low-rate, cheap, and always freshly printed money at grotesque levels.

As a result, today's "stimulus-addicted/Fed-supported" securities markets – thoroughly embroiled in bubbles – have crossed the Rubicon of debt and are now limping toward their own suicide, as you'll see.

But it doesn't have to get you.

Your broker and even your friends might think you look crazy for doing what I'm about to suggest, especially because the "good times" still appear to be rolling, but when the reckoning comes - and it will come soon - you'll look not only smart, but downright rich compared to the folks who didn't listen... Full Story

Market Crash

How to Profit When the $217 Trillion Global Debt Bubble Bursts

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While in London recently at an exchange with British Academy President Lord Nicholas Stern, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen really let the cat out of the bag.

She told Stern that banks are now "very much stronger," with another financial crisis like the one in 2008 unlikely to happen anytime soon, and not likely "in our lifetime."

According to Yellen, the Fed has "learned" from the Great Recession of 2008 and is now more watchful over underlying risks in the financial system. She's comfortable saying, "I think the system is much safer and much sounder."

Well, isn't that reassuring…

Really, it's just more of the hubris that got us into the last financial crisis – the one that dragged the global economy to the edge of a precipice and vaporized trillions in wealth. I'm sure you remember it well, even if Yellen seems a little foggy on the details.

On the one hand, central banks periodically warn us against overpriced assets, interest rates at or near extreme lows, and excessive borrowing.

And on the other hand, it's their freewheeling, easy-money policies, ostensibly put in place to stimulate the post-crisis economy, that have just coaxed global debt levels to new records.

That, in my view, has only pushed us further along toward the next crisis. With debt completely out of control all over the world, it won't take much to tip the cart over.

Student debt, subprime auto loans, credit cards, name it: Any one of a number of debt bubbles could be the last straw.

That's why I think my recommendation today is going to knock it out of the park...

Election

How to Profit No Matter Who Wins Today

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This tawdry circus of an election has carved deep scars on the American soul that will persist long after Jan. 20, 2017.

But at least the contest itself is almost over.

The FBI may have closed its investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, and Donald Trump may yet prevail when he answers the troubling lawsuits he faces, but the reputation of virtually every individual and institution touched by this election is ruined – the media, Justice Department, FBI, the candidates, their surrogates and supporters, both political parties, and those holding high office.

As of this morning, the so-called elite political class has disgraced itself on a daily basis for more than a year.

They'll be no help at all. We will be left to pick up the pieces after today.

The markets are finally realizing this, too; they're starting to react to the turbulence ahead, but they are dangerously, shockingly complacent.

So here's what I see happening with your money, whatever the outcome of this farce of democracy will be...