Bond guru Bill Gross of Pimco has made his share of forecasts, which usually do not sit well with investors. The one that caused a bit of an uproar was when he forecast the Dow to be falling to the 6,000 level, or thereabouts. I think that one was made sometime last year. A few days ago, he said the …
What Is A Credit Crunch?
With all the talk about the Subprime crisis and the resulting credit debacle, you may have been wondering as to what exactly the definition of a “credit crunch” is. Minyanville’s Kevin Depew defines is as follows: “The simple answer is that a “credit crunch” is a general decline in the supply of, and demand for, credit. Under ordinary circumstances, the …
Sunday Musings: Downgraded To “Mean”
Minyanville had a hilarious piece in Kevin Depew’s “Five Things You Need to Know.” This one was number five and it dealt with General Mills’ move back in June to raise the price of its cereal while decreasing the box size so that customers would hopefully be fooled by the cost increase. Some applauded the move, upgrading the stock from …
New Mortgage Rules
With all of the hastily arranged government plans to resolve the credit crisis and/or solve the mortgage/housing debacle, there were bound to be some solutions offered that makes you wonder how somebody could actually have the guts to put some of the proposals in writing. I was reminded of that when I read the story “Fed proposes mortgage rules to …
No Load Fund/ETF Tracker updated through 12/20/2007
My latest No Load Fund/ETF Tracker has been posted at:http://www.successful-investment.com/newsletter-archive.phpToday’s rebound rally pulled the major indexes out of the doldrums and into positive territory for the week. Our Trend Tracking Index (TTI) for domestic funds/ETFs has moved to +4.81% above its long-term trend line (red) as the chart below shows: The international index dropped to -1.82% below its own trend …
Subprime Municipal Bond Fallout
The Subprime/credit crisis of 2007 was bound to move into unexpected areas as well. MarketWatch’s feature “Moody’s warning ripples through municipal bond market” describes the unprecedented effect on the muni bond market. Moody’s put the triple-A ratings of Financial Guarantee Insurance Company (FGIC) and XL Capital Assurance on review for a possible downgrade after re-evaluating the companies’ exposure to potential …