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November 2011

Make-Or-Break Week For Europe

by John Rubino on November 27, 2011 · 25 comments

The people buying bonds issued by Italy and Spain are clearly looking past the dysfunctional balance sheets and focusing on Germany’s reluctance to let a major PIIGS country default. So an Italian bond, in the mind of the market, becomes a German bond. But this sword cuts both ways. If European debts are tossed into [...]

Consumer Metrics Institute: GDP Report “Does Not Bode Well”

by John Rubino on November 22, 2011 · 18 comments

The Consumer Metrics Institute, a consultancy with a good track record of year-ahead economic predictions, is out with its analysis of 3rd quarter GDP. By and large it’s pretty grim. Some excerpts follow without comment, since the main points pretty much speak for themselves: In their second estimate of the third quarter 2011 GDP, the [...]

Why Would Anyone Buy A Spanish Bond? Part 3

by John Rubino on November 20, 2011 · 12 comments

The Eurozone’s descent into chaos is starting to get repetitive — though with each iteration the numbers do get scarier. Back in 2010, for instance, the crisis was already almost a year old and Spain looked like the most likely post-Greece domino. In Why Would Anyone Buy a Spanish Bond? and Why Would Anyone Buy [...]

Welcome to the Third World, Part 3: Disappearing Pensions

by John Rubino on November 8, 2011 · 22 comments

One of the things that separate the “rich” world from the rest of humanity is the expectation that a lifetime of work is rewarded with a comfortable retirement. Whether through an employer’s pension or 401(K), or government plans like Social Security and Medicare, citizens of the US, Canada, Europe and Japan take it for granted [...]

And You Thought the Real Estate Bust Was Over

by John Rubino on November 7, 2011 · 18 comments

This week all eyes are on Greece and Italy, which is reasonable since they’re likely to be pretty entertaining. But as incredible as it sounds, PIIGS country sovereign debt might not be the biggest banking-system threat on the immediate horizon. It turns out that the largest European banks have held onto — and apparently failed [...]

Gold Miners Are Growth Stocks Now

by John Rubino on November 3, 2011 · 11 comments

Earnings season has, so far, been a mixed bag for most industries. But for gold and silver miners this is one for the record books. One of the selling points of precious metals miners is that they’re “leveraged to the gold/silver price”, which means a small move in the price of the underlying metal produces [...]

Welcome To The Third World, Part 2: Real Lives

by John Rubino on November 1, 2011 · 11 comments

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal devoted an entire page to the differences between today’s economy and a typical recovery: Slow Recovery Feels Like Recession Americans are two years into a recovery that doesn’t feel much different to many of them from life during the most bruising recession in seven decades. Scenes of the long haul back [...]