If
we really are plunging into a deflationary global financial crisis, we would
expect to see commodity prices crash hard. That happened just before the
great stock market crash of 2008, and that is precisely what is happening once
again right now. On Thursday, the Bloomberg Commodity Index closed at 79.1544. The last time that it closed this low
was 16 years ago. Not even during the worst moments of
the last recession did it ever get so low. Overall, the Bloomberg
Commodity Index is down more than 28 percent over the
past 12 months, and it has plummeted by more than half since mid-2011. As
a result of this stunning commodity collapse, extremely large mining companies
such as Anglo American are imploding, giant commodity trading firms such as
Glencore and Trafigura are in full-blown crisis mode, and huge portions of the
global financial system are in danger of utterly collapsing. (Read More....)
The extreme carnage that we are witnessing in the junk bond market right now is
one of the clearest signals yet that a major U.S. stock market crash is
imminent. For those that are not familiar with junk bonds, please dont get put off by the
name. They arent really junk. They simply have a higher risk and thus a
higher return than other bonds of the same type. And yesterday, I explained why I watch them so closely.
If stocks are going to crash, you would expect to see a junk bond crash
first. This happened in 2008, and it is happening again right now.
On Monday, a high yield bond ETF known as JNK crashed through the
psychologically important 35.00 barrier for the very first time since the last
financial crisis. On Tuesday, high yield bonds had their worst day in
three months, and JNK plummeted all the way down to 34.44. When I saw this I was
absolutely stunned. This is precisely the kind of junk bond crash that I
have been anticipating that we would soon witness. (Read More....)
On
Monday, the price of U.S. oil dropped below 38 dollars a barrel for the first
time in six years. The last time the price of oil was this low, the
global financial system was melting down and the U.S. economy was experiencing
the worst recession that it had seen since the Great Depression of the
1930s. As I write this article, the price of U.S. oil is sitting at
$37.65. For months, I have been warning that the crash in the price of
oil would be extremely deflationary and would have severe consequences for the
global economy. Nations such as Japan, Canada, Brazil and Russia have
already plunged into recession, and more than half of all major global stock market
indexes are down at least 10 percent year to date. The first major global
financial crisis since 2009 has begun, and things are only going to get worse
as we head into 2016. (Read More....)
As we approach the end of 2015,
researchers at both JP Morgan and Citigroup agree that the probability that the
U.S. economy will soon plunge into recession is rising. Just last week, a
member of the U.S. House of Representatives asked Janet Yellen about Citigroups assessment that there
is a 65 percent chance that the United States will experience an economic
recession in 2016. You can read her answer below. And just a few
days ago, JP Morgan economists Michael Feroli, Daniel Silver, Jesse Edgerton,
and Robert Mellman released a report in which they declared that the probability of
recession within three years has risen to an eye-catching 76%
(Read More....)
Doesnt it seem like there is
another Islamic terror attack somewhere in the world almost every day
now? Today, there was a throat slashing at a subway station in London,
and three female suicide bombers carried out a devastating attack in Chad that
killed at least 27 and injured at least 90. Inspired by the success of
ISIS, radical Islamists all over the planet are rising up and striking
vulnerable targets. According to Wikipedia, there have been dozens
of terror attacks worldwide so far this year, and the recent attacks in Paris
and San Bernardino were some of the biggest news stories of 2015.
Unfortunately, I believe that this is just the beginning. I am
fully convinced that the seeds of terror that have been planted up until now
will produce an increasingly bitter harvest as we head into 2016 and beyond. (Read More....)
Anyone that tries to tell you that
a global financial crisis is not happening is not being honest with you.
Right now, there are 27 major global stock markets that have declined by double
digit percentages from their peaks earlier this year. And this is truly a
global phenomenon we have seen stock market crashes in Asia, Europe,
South America, Africa and the Middle East. But because U.S. stocks are
only down less than a thousand points from the peak earlier this year, most
Americans seem to think that everything is just fine. (Read More....)
Economic activity is slowing down
all over the planet, and a whole host of signs are indicating that we are
essentially exactly where we were just prior to the great stock market crash of
2008. Yesterday, I explained that the economies of Japan, Brazil,
Canada and Russia are all in recession. Today, I am mainly going to focus
on the United States. We are seeing so many things happen right now that
we have not seen since 2008 and 2009. In so many ways, it is almost as if
we are watching an eerie replay of what happened the last time around, and yet
most of the experts still appear to be
oblivious to what is going on. If you were to make up a checklist of all
of the things that you would expect to see just before a major stock market
crash, virtually all of them are happening right now. The following are
11 critical indicators that are absolutely screaming that the global economic
crisis is getting deeper
(Read More....)