For the uninitiated the above headline from CNBC’s “On the Money” segment last Friday could be an “OMG! What’s happening now?” moment. It is clearly designed to do what it did — grab the viewer’s attention. However, when commentators talk about the misrepresentation and obfuscation emanating from the White House, the folks in the administration have nothing…
Gridlock is Good!
Gridlock is good because when Congress is tied up in knots they can’t do anything to hurt us. This idea has been verified by the market many times over the past 25 years. The Clinton Administration 1993-2001 Mr. and Mrs. Clinton got off to a rocky start, even with a Democratic Congress in place the first two…
“Up and (mostly) Down Wall Street”
This post is dedicated to Randall Forsyth and his predecessor, the late Alan Abelson, who over the years have penned the weekly the “Up and Down Wall Street” column in Barron’s. The reason I included the parenthetical “mostly” was to emphasize that this column is more of a downer than an upper. In fact, although I…
Setting the table for the next disaster
It has been my position that all things economic (Booms, Busts, Recessions, Depressions and Collapses a la 2008) are normal and run in repeating but unpredictable cycles. Knowing and being at peace with this can be very comforting in crisis times. It is simple. We have seen all of this before, despite the differing facts…
Fed Balance Sheet Shrink: Big Problem or Non-event?
I’d like to begin this post with something I wrote June 17, 2013 (“The Dreaded Taper”). “The Fed is buying $85.0 billion of intermediate to longer-term treasury securities and agency MBS per month, about $4.0 billion per day split evenly between the two classes. Meanwhile the Treasury is issuing $40.0 to $45.0 billion per month…
“House GOP leaders fear market will drop like it’s 2008 if health bill fails”
In a last-ditch effort to corral additional votes in support of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, CNBC and “unnamed senior members” of the House of Representatives floated my header for this post. While I can understand the politics behind this headline … the sponsors are trying to scare up support for the bill,…
Bashing the media for fun and profit!
Bashing the media and pundits Seems like that’s all I do in my blog. Frankly, it is very easy. Their consensus is generally on the wrong side of every issue. Four years and over 250 posts on kortsessions.com would corroborate this assertion. It is kinda fun. However, there is an important subtext to my work that…
The Double-Edged Sword of Damocles: Fed Action + Recession Fears
The combination of a fairly certain bump in the Fed funds rate this week and weakening commodity prices (oil in particular) are giving me a deja-vu moment. I almost titled this post “Here we go again.” It was just a bit over a year ago, after the first increase in interest rates in 9 years…
The Hidden Killer–Opinions About News
Taking my title assertion one step further, in many cases Opinion About News due to our beliefs can become our reality, whether factual or not. Yes, we are all entitled to our own opinions and beliefs. It is a free country. However, in investing, relying on strongly-held beliefs and opinions about the news can be quite risky….