Via Seabreeze Partners' Doug Kass,
"I begin every day by asking three important questions. One among them is this: 'In a paperless and "cloudy" world, are we as investors and citizens as safe as the markets assume?
Early on Saturday morning, the largest containership ever to visit North America arrived at the port of Los Angeles, marking the U.S. debut of a new breed of ‘mega ships’ that have until now only been seen in Asia and Europe. The 398-meter, 18,000 TEU capacity MV CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin arrived just after 4 a.m. at APM Terminals’ Pier 400 at the port of Los Angeles after sailing from China according to a gcaptain report.
Santa Claus is cutting it close: after stocks closed down yesterday, and just fractionally red for the year, the jolly old gift-giver (who now has activist investors breathing down his neck) has just three trading days to push if not stocks then the market into the green for the year.
Submitted by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,
Moments after the Fed announced it would hike rates for the first time in 9 years on December 16, the ink on Yellen's statement was not yet dry and one after another bank announced it would hike its respective Prime rate - the benchmark rate on everything from small business loans to credit card monthly fees - from 3.25% to 3.50%.