"Here the message must be sent that Mr. Madoff’s crimes were extraordinarily evil and that this kind of manipulation of the system is not just a bloodless crime that takes place on paper, but one instead that takes a staggering toll," Chin said. "Objectively speaking, the fraud was staggering," said U.S. District Judge Denny Chin.Share This
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You’ve seen the headlines: U.S. Dollar Plunges! U.S. Dollar Surges! Why should you care? More to the point, why won’t the dollar just hold still? Actually, in one sense it does hold still. Whatever happens in the currency markets doesn’t change the number of dollars in your wallet — or your bank account. But it can certainly change what your dollars are worth in comparison to other currencies. If you live in the U.S., the day-to-day swings in the dollar are nothing to worry about. The long-te... Read Full Story
If you think everything you’ve witnessed in the economy over the last two years is virtually unprecedented, think again. The People’s Bank of China — the central bank for 1.3 billion people and America’s biggest creditors — has just issued an economic report calling on the world to replace the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency … and for the International Monetary Fund to issue a new, single "super-sovereign currency." Make no mistake about i... Read Full Story
Have you noticed? Gold is starting another run on the $1,000 mark. From April 17 through May 26, gold bullion jumped from $ 867.90 to $953.90 an ounce - a 10 percent gain in less than six weeks. Right now gold may be a little ahead of itself. But I suspect it will be challenging the all-time high of $1,032.70 hit on March 17, 2008, in the near future. While it’s always been possible to participate in the gold market by purchasing mining company shares, until recently there were only two... Read Full Story
Storm #3 Auto Sales Down 44 Percent! At their peak in February 2007, U.S. and foreign-owned companies sold automobiles in America at an annual pace of 16.6 million units. Last month, their sales pace plunged to 9.3 million, a decline of 44 percent (including the best performers like Toyota and Honda). Again, as with housing, we saw a tiny uptick in the prior month, hailed by high officials as a “sign” of improvement. Yet, as with housing, it was weaker than all prior “signs ... Read Full Story
Any economist fixated on so-called “signs of a recovery” needs to have his head examined. As I’ll prove to you in a moment, the hard-nosed reality is that five major economic cyclones are in progress at this very moment. The storms are not abating. Nor are they changing direction. Quite the contrary, what you see today is, at best, merely a deceptive calm before the next, even larger tempests. For investors who follow Wall Street, it could be fatal. For contrarian investors,... Read Full Story
