Video-o-rama: Five in a row for stock markets

By Prieur du Plessis, on April 10th, 2009 posted in: Investment, Markets, Money 2 people had their say - chime in!

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The holiday-shortened week witnessed relatively few news and economic reports, but the major US stock indices nevertheless scored their first five-week stretch of gains since October 2007.

A mixed bag of video clips was produced. First up is Pimco’s Mohamed El-Erian, saying, “Fundamentally we are in a volatile journey to what we call the new normal, the new destination. The world is changing.” Also featuring prominently are a series of must-see interviews by Aaron Task (Yahoo Finance, Tech Ticker) with George Soros about a wide-ranging number of issues.

Spicing up the week’s video footage was a fairly lively debate between UBS’s George Magnus and the G7′s Len Komileva, with another interesting discussion coming from Nouriel Roubini and Goldman’s Jim O’Neill.

Also make sure to watch Argentinean economist Adrian Salbuchi’s video clips, putting the financial collapse in context by referring to historical examples from Argentina.

CNBC: Pimco’s power player
“The markets are on a volatile journey to a ‘new normal’, says Mohamed El-Erian, Pimco CEO.”

Source: CNBC, April 7, 2009.

Financial Times: Roundtable – the road to recovery
“Nouriel Roubini of New York University and Jim O’Neill, chief investment economist at Goldman Sachs, talk to John Thornhill about the G20 summit, and the road to economic recovery.”

Source: Financial Times, April 6, 2009.

Face the Nation: Geithner talks recovery
“Bob Schieffer spoke with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner about economic recovery and a possible auto industry bailout.”

Source: Face the Nation, April 5, 2009.

Financial Times: A heated debate on G20 and fiscal stimulus
“In a special View from the Markets, Gillian Tett, capital markets editor, chairs a debate on what the G20 did and didn’t achieve. In the hot seats were George Magnus, chief economist adviser, UBS and Lena Komileva, head of G7 market economics.”

Click here or on the image below for Part 1 of the interview.

Part 2: They agree the G20 didn’t go far enough in finding measures to fix the banks and end the financial crisis.

Click here for Part 2 of the interview.

Part 3: They discuss whether credit markets will follow glimmers of hope in the equity markets and if securitization has any future after the crisis.

Click here for Part 3 of the interview.

Source: Gillian Tett, Financial Times, April 6, 2009.

Yahoo Finance, Tech Ticker: Soros says Fed in a bind – beware stagflation, bursting of bond bubble
“After the financial market collapsed last fall, the Fed responded with a massive injection of liquidity and expansion of the monetary base. Eventually, Ben Bernanke & Co. will face the challenge of having to remove that liquidity from the system. ‘That’s a big and difficult task and probably the authorities will not be able to do it well,’ says legendary financier George Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management. ‘That’s the fear that drives people into gold.’

“Soros wouldn’t say whether he’s actively trading gold but certainly implied it’s a good bet; more explicitly, he agreed with the view there’s a ‘bubble’ in Treasuries that’s likely to burst sooner rather than later.

“‘The moment this fear of deflation turns into a fear of inflation, you’ll find interest rates rise in the long end which is going to choke off the recovery,’ he says. ‘If we are successful [in reviving the economy] we are heading from the prospect of deflation to stagflation.’”

Source: Yahoo Finance, Tech Ticker, April 7, 2009.

YouTube: Elizabeth Warren introduces COP’s April report
“Elizabeth Warren introduces the April oversight report of the Congressional Oversight Panel: Assessing Treasury’s Strategy: Six Months of TARP.”

Source: YouTube, April 7, 2009.

Bloomberg: Geithner addresses mortgage fraud

Source: Bloomberg (via YouTube), April 6, 2009.

Business News Network: Richard Koo -  Lost decade
“BNN interviews Richard Koo, chief economist, Nomura Research Institute.”

Source: Business News Network, March 23, 2009.

YouTube: Salbuchi – global financial collapse

“Part 1: An Argentine opinion on the Global Financial Crisis, describing the whole Global Financial System as one vast Ponzi Scheme. Like a pyramid, it has four sides and is a predictable model. The four sides are: (1) Artificially control the supply of public State-issued currency, (2) Artificially impose banking money as the primary source of funding in the economy, (3) Promote doing everything by bebt, and (4) Erect complex channels that allow privatizing profits when the model is in expansion mode and socialize losses when the model goes into contraction mode.”

“Part 2: How will the global financial collapse end? Are we on the way towards global war and world government?”

Source: YouTube, April 3, 2009.

Charlie Rose: A review of President Obama’s trip to Europe with Zbigniew Brzezinski & Henry Kissinger
“A review of President Obama’s trip to Europe with Zbigniew Brzezinski, United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter, and Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State.”

[PduP: The duration of the video is 53 minutes.]

Source: Charlie Rose, April 6, 2009.

Forbes: Meredith Whitney predicts new crisis in consumer credit
“Star analyst Meredith Whitney warns Steve Forbes to avoid big bank stocks like Wachovia, Bank of America and Citigroup as she predicts a new crisis in consumer credit.”

Source: Steve Forbes, Forbes, April 3, 2009.

John Authers (Financial Times): Climbing the wall of worry
“The rally of the past month has been impressively broad. More impressive still, it has been achieved in spite of a string of awful superlatives, says John Authers.”

Click here for the article.

Source: John Authers, Financial Times, April 8, 2009.

Yahoo Finance, Tech Ticker: Soros – “danger of collapse has passed,” but stock rally not sustainable
“‘The real danger of collapse has passed,’ says legendary financier George Soros. But the ‘fallout of the collapse’ of the banking system ‘will linger’.

“In the wake of Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, authorities were forced to put the financial system remains on ‘artificial life support, which is where it is now,’ says Soros, the chairman of Soros Fund Management and author of several books, including most recently The Crash of 2008 and What It Means.

“As a result, the billionaire speculator says the stock market’s recent rally is doomed to fail. ‘Now we will face reality,’ he says, referring to a belief policymakers ‘did not succeed in recapitalizing the banks to the point where they can lend freely.’ He added, ‘talk of zombie banks – unfortunately that’s where we are now,’ Soros says. ‘Instead of providing lifeblood of credit, [banks] are effectively drawing the lifeblood of activity of profit to themselves.’

“That, in turn, will keep the economy from producing anything more than a fleeting bounce for the foreseeable future, says Soros.”

Source: Yahoo Finance, Tech Ticker, April 7, 2009.

Bloomberg: Marc Faber says stocks may see correct by 10%
“Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom and Doom Report, talks with Bloomberg’s Susan Li, Arnold Gay and Patricia Lui about the outlook for global stocks. Faber, speaking from Singapore, also discusses his forecasts for the bond market, gold price, dollar and his investment strategy.”

Source: Bloomberg, April 7, 2009.

CNBC: Bear market rally is halfway through, says chartist
“‘All European markets are in the middle of a rally, which is probably about halfway through,’ Robin Griffiths from Cazenove Capital said. When analyzing the chart for the Xetra DAX index, he suggests the German index has another 20% higher to go.”

Source: CNBC, April 6, 2009.

Yahoo Finance, Tech Ticker: “The tide is turning,” says Prieur du Plessis
“There was a general sense of optimism this weekend in San Diego, where I attended a hedge fund conference and separate tribute dinner for newsletter legend Richard Russell. Among those in attendance – and feeling at least cautiously optimistic – was Prieur du Plessis, noted blogger and executive chairman of Plexus Asset Management, a South African-based firm with about $2 billion of assets.”

Source: Yahoo Finance, Tech Ticker, April 6, 2009.

Yahoo Finance, Tech Ticker: Soros – dollar’s strength a measure of system’s “sickness”, euro will remain viable
“George Soros is a man of many skills. The billionaire has been very successful as an author, philanthropist, and as a force in liberal politics.

“Arguably Soros’ greatest skill – and undoubtedly where he made his fortune – is as a speculator, specifically in the realm of currencies. Soros is best known as ‘the man who broke the Bank of England’ for his infamous short bet against the pound in 1992. Less known but nearly as successful was his 1985 ‘Plaza Accord’ bet that the dollar would fall against the yen.

“So when George Soros talks currencies, people listen. In the accompanying clip, he provides insights on three of today’s big currency questions:

Will the dollar maintain its status as the world’s reserve currency?

Is there are risk of a breakup of the Eurozone?

Is he still short the British sterling today?”

Source: Yahoo Finance, Tech Ticker, April 7, 2009.

John Authers (Financial Times): Gold loses lustre
“Gold is an inflation hedge but inflation expectations cannot explain its recent sell-off, says John Authers.”

Click here for the article.

Source: John Authers, Financial Times, April 7, 2009.

CNBC: Yergin – oil headed to $40?
“Investors should brace themselves for the long aftershock of oil trending towards $40 a barrel, says Daniel Yergin, Cambridge Energy Research Associates chairman.”

Source: CNBC, April 6, 2009.

CNBC: Irish Finance Minister cuts growth outlook
“Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan cut his growth forecast for the country’s economy on Tuesday, to -8% for 2009. Dan O’Brien from Economist Intelligence Unit has the analysis.”

Source: CNBC, April 7, 2009.

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