Does the Fed Think Old People Are Really that Stupid?

By Dennis Miller

The Federal Reserve is, of course, a bank. So after it has a meeting, it issues a statement outlining the discussion – a "bank statement." Hmm... Now that I think about it, that must be where the acronym "BS" comes from.

Notwithstanding what we read and hear, when Congress established the Federal Reserve as a central bank 100 years ago, its primary purpose was to protect the banking system. The Federal Reverse shifted risk from the private sector to the public, and through the slow devaluation of the dollar, the cost of this shift fell on the average Joe rather than on banking tycoons. Today, an entire generation is paying for this system with a good portion of their life's savings.

I pride myself on explaining complex financial situations in everyday language. However, when it comes to the Federal Reserve, I readily admit that I am sometimes befuddled. I used to watch Alan Greenspan testify before Congress when he was Chairman of the Fed, and I often ended up asking myself, "What did he just say?" The Fed's code and doublespeak is Greek to me, as it is to most folks. Continue reading "Does the Fed Think Old People Are Really that Stupid?"

Gold Chart of The Week

Each Week Longleaftrading.com will be providing us a chart of the week as analyzed by a member of their team. We hope that you enjoy and learn from this new feature.

Weekly Gold Report (April 8th through April 12th)

After the worst weekly decline of the year in US equities, we are slowly on the mend as we enter a week full of FED activity.

A few standouts from last week included a terrible Non Farm Payroll number on Friday and a full throttle campaign from the BOJ to continue to crush the Yen. Fridays jobs number was a big miss as 88,000 jobs were added and some real numbers regarding the drop in individuals that are actively looking for jobs was revealed. Even after these figures were announced, the stock indexes were only rattled for a short period of time before the realization that the FED will step up Quantitative Easing set back in. Since then, the stock market seems to be holding up fairly well. Continue reading "Gold Chart of The Week"

When Should You Take Social Security? 62 or Full Retirement Age?

My wife, Jo, started receiving Social Security as soon as she could. When she wondered aloud how much larger her checks would have been if she'd waited, I said, “It makes no difference! You are already four years ahead of the game.”

When we applied at the local office, the agent kept reminding her of the big raise she would get if she waited until full retirement age, or better yet until she was 70. Stop with the hard sell; she wanted it at 62, period!

Why did she take it early? To illustrate, I did a little investigating on the Social Security Administration's website and used its retirement planner. Continue reading "When Should You Take Social Security? 62 or Full Retirement Age?"

Weekly Futures Recap W/Mike Seery

We’ve asked Michael Seery of SEERYFUTURES.COM to give our INO readers a weekly recap of the Futures market. He has been Senior Analyst for close to 15 years and has extensive knowledge of all of the commodity and option markets.

Michael frequently appears on multiple business networks including Bloomberg news, Fox Business, CNBC Worldwide, CNN Business, and Bloomberg TV. He is also a guest on First Business, which is a national and internationally syndicated business show.

Coffee Futures--- Coffee futures in New York are trading higher for the 3rd consecutive session currently in the July contract at 142.70 a pound looking like a possible bottom may have been hit a couple weeks ago at 135 on the fact of possible crop production cuts in Vietnam and  Central America due to drought and rust which could consume up to 20 to 30% of next year’s crop while this year’s crop should be very large coming out of Brazil and that is one of the reasons why prices have been going lower right near a new 2 ½ year low. Many of the commodity markets in recent weeks have been heading lower as the U.S dollar has rallied but coffee seems to have stabilized here at this level and remember coffee traded above 300 a pound over 2 years ago and has really fallen out of bed so eventually I do think if you’re longer-term investor these prices are very attractive down at these levels. Continue reading "Weekly Futures Recap W/Mike Seery"

Chart to Watch - Live Cattle

We've asked our friend Jim Robinson of profittrading.com to provide his expert analysis of charts to our readers. Each week he'll be be analyzing a different chart using the Trade Triangles and his experience.

Today he is going to take a look at the technical picture of Live Cattle (LE.M13.E).

I hope you are having a GREAT week !!!

Live Cattle looks to be setting up a possible trading opportunity with the MarketClub Trade Triangles.

MarketClub recommends using the weekly Trade Triangle for trend and the daily Trade Triangle for timing when trading futures. Continue reading "Chart to Watch - Live Cattle"