Articles

The market is more skittish than it has ever been. Upsand downs of hundreds of points daily have become common occurrences. The slightest news causes ecstasy or panic. There is very little reflection, very little tempered reaction. Many say the volatility that we are becoming used to is the result of the spread of technology and the speed with which herd behavior happens. Whatever the reasons, we are in dangerous times where the herd can literally take the market and the economy down significantly. It is a hell of a time to be rounding the corner of the 6th anniversary of 9/11.

There really ought to be a law against a former Fed chair making public pronouncements on the market or the economy. This is especially that case for Alan Greenspan whose words were watched so carefully for so long and, consequently, who still has the power to shake and shape events. He did it again last night.

The payroll numbers are out and they looked pretty dreadful. Instead of a gain in payrolls, employment actually fell by 4,000, the first time the number has dropped in four years. I took a stand saying the numbers would come in better than expected and was wrong.

Before the onslaught of the credit crunch, it was widely believed that the Fed would raise rates to cool inflation fears. I remember on BestCashCow reading quite a few articles discussing fears of inflation and real inflation versus core inflation, etc.

The New York Times announced that Amazon is launching a new e-book reader The Kindle. My first reaction to this was, why? I applaud Amazon for trying but I don’t see this as a big business, even with their book buying heft behind it.

Apple, a company which never drops their prices, has now dropped the price on the 4GB iPhone to $299 barely two months after introducing the product.

I'm taking a hand and predicting this Friday's employment numbers will be better than expected. So good, the Fed may decided not to cut rates.

The private equity community is preparing a defense of the 15% carried interest tax loophole that relies of big names and celebrities to defend themselves.

The launch of a new credit card for Second Life underscores the growth of truly digital financial services products. This is a trend which should continue to grow.

The WSJ offers five reasons why the Fed will cut rates but I'm not sure sure. Here's some of my analysis on this.

Home Depot just bought back 290 million shares. There is no surprise here as this has been in the works for months. And, it has been widely viewed as a positive move by the company. Nonetheless, its share price dropped 5% as a result of two phenomena – both very short term. Tomorrow, if not later today, HD’s price will recover and a quick 5% return can be made by even the most conservative investor.

It's really hard to fathom how a CEO can be worth 364X that of an average worker at his or her company. I'm sure if 364 people got together they could make better decisions than 1 CEO