What is left in the governments bag of tricks to get the banks back on track? One topic that I wrote about -- 5 months ago -- has popped up this past week with more and more frequency. We are finally starting to hear more and more chatter about relaxing "Mark to the...
It was reported this week that the Treasury Department sold $32 billion in T-bills at a yield of 0%. Yes, that's NOT a misprint: zero percent yield. These are treasury bills which mature in four weeks. Yields on these kind of investments have dropped from 1.75% this...
You may not have heard of the term "auction rate preferred securities." Yet. If you have not, you probably will soon. Essentially, these are longer-term investments but they have an unusual feature: an interest rate that resets – usually every 7, 14, 28 or 45 days....
The news surrounding Bear Stearns on Friday morning was not good! There are several important elements to this story. The first element is the most important one: Bear Stearns appears to be out of cash. If you've ever traded on margin (or know someone that does),...
I've labeled this *the yikes spiral* because typically this happens when certain markets are in free fall. The most often example occurs when a company runs into trouble and may need to contemplate bankruptcy. It's a sad event, because people are losing money, and...
The two big questions around my house these days are: 1. What kind of Halloween candy will we be giving out this year? 2. When EXACTLY do we change the clocks again? But the big question around the office is, "what will the Federal Reserve do on Halloween?" The...
Look At The Bond Market Hate being the party pooper, but I think it's important to remind people that when interest rates start to creep up, that's usually a sign that the party in the stock market may be taking a pause, or even coming to a close. Look at what's...
Interest rates are on the rise. Why? In my line of work, we never know the reason why certain events took place -- until after they've occurred. Then we have to deal with picking up the pieces, or mopping up the spilled milk. As many people smarter than me have noted,...
