http://wollaston.org/blog Thoughts on the environment, stock market, politics, wine and books Wed, 28 Mar 2007 14:16:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In case you haven’t heard, there are suddenly a lot of angry Mexicans these days.  I am not referring to the forced expulsion of illegal immigrants from this country, many of whom experienced disclocation from their families here in the States.  (Yes, they are illegal, and yes, it is a ... http://wollaston.org/blog/2007/03/28/the-market-tortilla-inflation/ Today’s market action goes beyond belief and expected reality.  The two percent increase across all indices simply because of the deletion of the words “additional firming” without a thoughtful analysis of the meaning behind the Fed’s statement, screams ignorance as the bulls and bargain hunters shoot first and think second.  ... http://wollaston.org/blog/2007/03/22/the-market-march-21-2007-day-of-disbelief/ Though the market has had quite a fall, I don’t think we have even seen a general selling panic and that suggests this recent fall simply reflects the closing of leveraged speculative positions. A tremendous amount of carry-trade speculation may have been built into this market! There is potentially another ... http://wollaston.org/blog/2007/03/03/the-market-a-speculation-sell-off/ An article from Bloomberg titled “Bonds Lose `Masters of Universe' as Volatility Falls” by Elizabeth Stanton, notes the following: “The annual inflation rate has averaged 2.8 percent since the start of 2000, down from 3 percent in the 1990s and 5.6 percent in the 1980s. Lower inflation has enabled the ... http://wollaston.org/blog/2007/02/20/33/ The Bank of Japan is about to make a rate decision that could have far-reaching ramifications.  If the BOJ does raise the overnight rate to 0.50%, the Yen carry-trade could face some significant unwinding and much of the market liquidity we currently have could dry up.  Though I find this ... http://wollaston.org/blog/2007/02/19/the-market-important-events-that-will-shape-the-market/ The US Mint is now issuing the new $1 coin collector series that will feature 4 presidents a year for a total of 43 presidents over 11 years. Not too long ago, the mint issued a new quarter collector series featuring all 50 states, and this series is still in ... http://wollaston.org/blog/2007/02/17/the-market-us-mint-a-profit-making-machine/ Here is a conspiracy theory for you.  Perhaps the Fed benefits by not releasing / utilizing the inflation numbers that are often higher than the Consumer Price Index (CPI) measure.  The Dallas Fed tracks inflation with a trimmed mean PCE rate and the Cleveland Fed uses a weighted median CPI, ... http://wollaston.org/blog/2007/02/14/the-market-the-fed-and-buffer-inflation/ Stock buybacks were recently reported as $325b in 2006 vs $200b in 2004.  If you assume total market capitalization was $11 trillion in 2006, stock buybacks would represents around 2.955% of the total market value.  As I don’t have data on 2006 total share count, let's simply assume $10 per share, ... http://wollaston.org/blog/2007/02/14/the-market-stock-buybacks/ A $14.00 bottle of wine that should be priced a bit lower.  To be honest, I bought because of the label.  An easy wine to drink, smooth and with little tannin taste, though the high alcohol content of this Zin causes a bit of a headache. http://wollaston.org/blog/2006/12/05/wine-review-toad-hollow-2004-cacophony-zinfandel/ Some articles on the internet have recently discusses the potential cost of climate change on our economy.  As I have stated before, humanity should start taking out insurance against global climate change by actively pursuing ‘alternative energy programs’ and actively reducing our current emissions of climate change particulate such as ... http://wollaston.org/blog/2006/11/17/the-environment-climate-change-and-insurance/