Welcome to the 19th Century everyone as Russia reminded Europe and the US that “soft power” cannot stand against boots on the ground.  Longer term it is a foolish maneuver given Russia’s economic challenges and the poverty of the Crimea, but for now it serves Putin’s purposes.  As long as…

Uncertainty hit the equity markets in January as the tone of headlines turned slightly more negative.  Weaker-than-expected US jobs growth caused hesitancy and the Federal Reserve continued its incremental reduction of the amount of debt it was buying, slowly removing its direct support from [artificially] low US interest rates.  Bernanke…

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times / it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.”  It is hard to think of a better cliché than that one of Dickens’ to describe our world.  After a 30% gain in the S&P…

The mixed economic messages continued with our reiteration that one should expect multiple attempts by various governments to boost “good news” to try to overcome the sagging holiday shopping (despite the super-hyped Thanksgiving sales flop), fiscal tomfoolery by entities ranging from Detroit to Greece to Chinese banks and nervous financial…