Business

America’s largest banks and their shareholders were quick to celebrate a recovery in trading revenues over the past year. But they may have spoken too soon.

Wall Street vets know they can’t fight the Fed – especially with the ostensibly “data-dependent” central bank committing to returning the Fed funds rate to 3% over the next two years.  But with the arrival of the summer doldrums ushering in low trading volumes across markets, traders are acknowledging that they can’t fight the seasons, either.

Long walks on the beach, holding hands in a hottub overlooking the ocean, working on your golf game...in Hawaii, treating the kids and grandkids to treats and trips - we have all seen the commercials of how great 'retirement' can be (or could have been), if you just put a little more money into the stock market via your friendly local asset gatherer.

Well, sad to say, as Bloomberg reports, more and more Americans are spending their golden years on the job.

Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

Are we on the verge of a rebellion against technology?

Yesterday I was taken aback when I noticed an elderly Wal-mart greeter amusing herself with a fidget spinner.

What the hell is a fidget spinner? It’s a toy you just spin with your fingers.

It’s the hottest selling summer entertainment item that retails between $2.99-$8.99 depending on wether it lights up or makes noise.

While on the surface the market last week did nothing all that exciting, below it things were in abrupt turmoil - driven by the decoupling between stocks and bonds and the volatile, countertrend move in commodities and oil in particular - which was nowhere more evident than in the world of Risk-Parity funds and CTA, which suffered their worst two-week plunge since 2003.

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

An investment that can be gutted by financial rules changing overnight is not safe.

What's the safest investment as the global economy enters increasingly risky, troubled times? I've reviewed hundreds of academic papers, investment reports and newsletters and researched long-term strategies and backtests and reached one conclusion.