International Investing

It is surprising how unsophisticated the swap market is as described in this Bloomberg article. It seems that, when it counts, no one really knows anything about pricing/trading this instrument. Not even the supposed experts. This section of the article is almost humorous. This is how literally 10’s of millions of guarantees are put into [...]

Caroline Baum, Bloombergs Austrian, says that its coming so you better get used to it. Read the article in full here:
For those putting their faith in markets, one glance at the U.S. Treasury yield curve tells you something is amiss. The yield on every issue, from bill out to bond, is below the Fed’s target [...]

From Mises.org:
In the United States today, there is approximately $10 trillion in outstanding mortgages, and of these, about one-quarter are subprime and Alt-A loans…Individuals who access such loans often pay a below-market interest rate, or an interest-only mortgage payment, for the first few years of the mortgage. But after that, mortgage payments are adjusted to [...]

The always entertaining Daniel Gross of Slate gives 5 reasons why(summary from FT, original article in Slate):

Public investors are getting really excited when insiders sell, believing they’re being cut in on a great deal - The Fortress IPO - need we say more? (Well, yes - are these people stoned?)
Everybody and their mother is getting [...]

Cache (-15%), Limited (-7%) and Bebe Stores (-10%) got slammed today for poor Decemeber Sales.
Meanwhile New York & Co rocketed up almost 9% with that number positive.
The point is that these are very hard to predict – the numbers clearly weren’t priced in. Gamblers may enjoy these – traders who don’t have any advantage [...]

After Fridays legislative sneak attack on the online gaming industry, stocks in the sector got slammed across the board. Yesterday PartyGaming, Sportingbet, and 888 Plc all lost at least half their value. Besides the gaming companies, payment processors also took a hit. NETeller and FireOne Grp. both saw declines of more than 50%.
Today the gaming [...]