Business

Submitted by Pam Martens and Russ Martens via WallStreetOnParade.com,

Last night ABC began its two-part series on the Bernie Madoff fraud. Viewers will be reminded about how investment expert, Harry Markopolos, wrote detailed letters to the SEC for years, raising red flags that Bernie Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme – only to be ignored by the SEC as Madoff fleeced more and more victims out of their life savings.

Submitted by Eugen Bohm-Bawerk via Bawerk.net,

With President Obama unveiling his $10/Barrel tax plan to fund government-subsidized public transportatation (versus an individual's choice over his method transportation), we thought a glimpse at the pros and cons of such a choice may be useful...

Weighing factors such as convenience, time commitment, and enviornmental impact, deciding whether to commute via your own fossil-fuel-powered car or government-provided unicorn-fueled public transportation can be difficult.

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the two options...

Submitted by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

Over the last two months, the deterioration in the economic data has become much more prevalent despite the ongoing hopes of the more “bullishly biased” mainstream media.

Furthermore, as I predicted early last year, the Federal Reserve likely made a mistake in hiking interest rates when the economic and inflationary backdrop were exceedingly weak. To wit:

The centrally-planned party is over. Here is BofA's Kama Sharma explaining why

The sense of calm which had descended on markets in recent weeks has come to an abrupt end.

This time it has been the USD which has been the focal point. Investors continue to rotate through a vicious circle of concerns on China, commodities and US growth and with a still large long position, further near-term USD losses are likely as broader US data momentum remains weak.