The Obama administration yesterday (Wednesday) continued its assault on highly paid Wall Street executives, announcing plans to appoint a “pay czar” to oversee compensation at financial firms receiving Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds.
Another Treasury auction today… Spending habits come back to haunt reps…Some healing in the currencies…10 Banks to repay TARP today…And Now… Today’s Pfennig!
Another Treasury auction today… Spending habits come back to haunt reps… Some healing in the currencies… 10 Banks to repay TARP today… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!
Gold had tacked on about $8 by late Thursday afternoon in Hong Kong…which was shortly after the Thursday morning open in London. But four hours later [8:00 a.m. in New York], even this gain was gone. But from that point, however, both gold and silver began spirited rallies. These rallies lasted throughout the entire Comex floor session, but both traded sideways after that…which they’re still doing eight hours after the Globex close in New York. Here’s the current Kitco silver chart. The red line shows yesterday’s trading. You can see that all of the gains were during Comex hours in New York.
Banks aren’t getting out of the TARP as easy as they got in. According to Bloomberg, the feds have demanded that banks “raise specific amounts of new capital before repaying taxpayer funds, applying a more stringent assessment than the stress tests in May.”
Euro goes back and forth over 1.43…Eurozone unemployment rises to 9.2%…Australia’s GDP surprises! Is it protectionism? And Now… Today’s Pfennig!
The ratio of the US budget deficit to GDP is at the highest it’s been at any point since World War II. Except there are no Nazis to fight. The only war going on is Team Obama’s war against capitalism.
What will the recovery look like? It’s a question we are not able to answer. We think it won’t be much like the past, though. The political class has abandoned the free market for something else. This didn’t happen overnight. But the process began to accelerate rapidly under the Bush and Obama administrations.
The toxic tentacles of recession seem to extend into every imaginable – and unimaginable – pocket of the economy. As these tentacles release their toxins, the resulting distress affects both individuals and industries alike, often in ways we might not have imagined in advance. But so too do recessions impart the occasional surprising benefit. Our advice: Enjoy the benefits when and where you can because this recession is likely to get much worse before it gets better.
The low for gold was at the Sydney open, and from there it rose slowly and steadily through Far East, London and Comex trading in New York. The high came in electronic trading about an hour after the Comex close. Gold managed to make it to $928…but was not allowed a sniff of $930 yesterday. Maybe today.
