I love articles that do a great job of explaining at a high level current events or current workings on the economy.  Today, there is definitely a good one.  Peter Foster at the Financial Post has a great article called Keynesian Contagion.
Stock markets went briefly into free fall yesterday due to fears of Greek “contagion,” but neither the fecklessness and mendacity of the Greek government nor the unworkability of the European currency system are the real culprits. The heart of the problem is the unsustainability of the massive debts taken …

The reports on the typo that caused the massive drop in the stock market yesterday are just plain stupid.  The fact that CNBC ran with this story so quickly without any verification is just ridiculous and shows the level of journalism that they put out.
The idea that a trader can accidentally unload billions of shares of a stock simply by accidentally typing a B instead of an M is 100% false.  What if he typed in a T, would he unload trillions of shares????  It is outrageous to think that …

Many people explain stock market investing similar to owning an actual business, because in essence, when you buy and hold a share of a company, that is considered ownership.  Well, in today’s market with thousands of trading strategies, I definitely don’t consider all forms of stock market activity “ownership.”  Let’s look at this idea a little further.
When you consider starting a business or maybe buying a stake in a business, what is your motivation? I believe most people buy into a business because they believe in the business model and …

At one point, the Dow was down 998 points apparently.. until the man behind the curtain came in and “fixed” the market.  Not sure what that means.
Anyways, it looks like the programmed trading triggered major selling and plunged the market to scary levels in a matter of minutes.
All is well though as we’re “only” down 400ish on the Dow currently.
Who would trust this market on the long side?

The following is from Senator Jim DeMint
The International Monetary Fund board has approved a $40 billion bailout for Greece, almost one year after the Senate rejected my amendment to prohibit the IMF from using U.S. taxpayer money to bailout foreign countries.
Congress didn’t learn their lesson after the $700 billion failed bank bailout and let world leaders shake down U.S taxpayers for international bailout money at the G-20 conference in April 2009. G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors asked the United States, the IMF’s largest contributor, for a whopping $108 …

Financial reform is a hot topic these days in the corridors of the White House and the Capitol building.  Obama is pushing his reform agenda big time.  Today, let’s examine the motivation.  In doing so, let’s look at three areas where financial reform might be applied – note: only two of the following are actually being proposed.
Pay Day Loans
Under the umbrella of “consumer protection”, the Democrats want to put greater restrictions on Pay Day Loans.  The reason: they’re a rip off and they hurt people.  Ok, no problem there.  They …

Playing the currency game is tough.  Maybe you’re bearish on the dollar, or maybe you’re bearish on the Euro.  The problem is to short the Euro, you might be long the dollar.  Well, what if you are negative on all currencies?
I’m negative on all currencies, because the current global economic trend is a competitive devaluation.  A race to the bottom.  Many major economies around the world are attempting to devalue their currencies in an effort to drive exports.  Unfortunately, when the other guy is doing the same, isn’t it basically …