Jack the Pipper

Recently, a newsletter guru (who shall remain nameless) listed several reasons why he believed real estate would be a great place to put cash. We were surprised because we don’t believe real estate will be a haven after another major washout in global markets if global demand doesn’t materialize soon.

A friend called me up a couple weeks ago. He wanted to know when would be a good time to buy some gold coins.

“I am not sure I get what the ECB tries to convey with this,” said Deutsche Bank senior European economist Gilles Moec.

As you likely know, there has been a lot of damage to emerging market stocks, bonds, and currencies on a relative basis compared to the developed world markets. And you may remember that not too long ago emerging/developing market (EMs)finance ministers were beating the drums of “currency war.”

On Friday I discussed the potential European Central Bank President Mario Draghi would open his mouth.

Perhaps the odds are increasing and Draghi will offer reassurances on the eurozone economy.

US exports slouched in October. Actually, they tanked so badly the trade deficit widened despite a drop in imports.

To some degree, it seems Saudi Arabia is alleviating some geopolitical premium in crude prices, as the world’s top producer has not pared back its production despite a pullback in demand.

Corn prices have gone ballistic in the last two weeks as supplies are hurt and further threatened by a heat wave. But the move in corn prices is primarily due to traders running away screaming “Auntie Em! Auntie Em!” … rather than jumping on any prospects for a sustained bullish uptrend.

We get a sense global liquidity is draining back to the center from the periphery. We know we are not alone in this view, as many have warned about the European banking system’s deleveraging globally, i.e. reducing loan exposure.

Pontificating from our “armchair economist” perch today; with a two-handed analysis: On the one hand, Germany’s grand strategy of forced austerity in order to create low cost manufacturing zones for German industrialists across the Eurozone (or “Greater Germany” as realists are implicitly viewing it) and its continuous captive market export demand form said Eurozone are in jeopardy.