Geopolitical update

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Oct 16, 2009 in Blog | 2 comments At the very moment U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is visiting Moscow to defuse tensions between the U.S./Israel and Russia/Iran, Russia announced yesterday that it is changing its nuclear doctrine. Specifically they have changed the doctrine to include the pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons. This changes a doctrine that has been in place since the 1950s. Furthermore, the Rules of...
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Brief financial analysis pointer

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Oct 15, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments To tune into the state of the market does not always require a deep intuitive insight. Sometimes it just requires a brief, but accurate reading of information. For example, I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal’s news alerts and yesterday they sent out the following e-mail: “Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s September policy meeting indicate that members expressed differing...
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Again, incremental economic improvement

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Oct 15, 2009 in Blog | 1 comment Several more economic indicators came in favorably this morning: the Consumer Price Index and initial jobless claims. CPI: In September the CPI rose just 0.2%. Why this is important: We have discussed before that a little inflation is good for an economy. Deflation creates an environment where people wait to make purchases because they know that things will be cheaper in the future. That drives...
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When floating gives you that sinking feeling

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Oct 14, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments Today at Bank of America my wife and I made a deposit for Kate’s, my step-daughter, college tuition. Interestingly enough B of A just changed the length of time until a check posts to your account from 3 business days to 5. That’s very strange because that was the length of time for checks to post back in the 1980s. A dark little secret of the banking world is that checks are cleared...
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Positive earnings reports

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Oct 14, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments Good morning everyone! The third quarter earnings season is shifting gears and accelerating. Two bellwether companies have reported and the results look good. I am speaking about JP Morgan and Intel. JP Morgan Revenues were up 81% (!) to $26.6 billion. Profits were $3.59 billion vs. last year’s third quarter profit result of $527 million. These results exceeded analyst estimates of per...
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Global crisis foment, slight return

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Oct 12, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments In the comment section, super loyal Nate says… “Whoa whoa whoa. I gotta comment on this article, ESPECIALLY after your next newer one. You haven’t sounded this worried about the economy since the blog began, and the comparison makes it striking. This isn’t April 1, is it?Are you yanking our cranks with your talk to pulling the majority of your money out? It seems like you...
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Economic data coming in nicely

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Oct 9, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments Happy Friday everyone! Economic data continues to roll in and it is largely positive. For example… September Retail Sales September retail sales showed a lot of improvement with same-store sales up 0.6%. While a modest gain, this compares to big declines for the last 13 months. That number also compares to a 0.9% decline a year ago in September. Many retailers posted positive gains,...
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