Everything Bubble

Small Investors Exuberant, Margin Debt And Risk Of Crash Soar

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Small Investors Exuberant, Margin Debt And Risk Of Crash Soar

Small investors are having fun in the stock market again, after years of sitting out the most phenomenal rally. They’re leveraging up their portfolios. Margin debt is spiking beautifully. Alas, spiking margin debt has a nasty habit of ending in a crash. In one painful chart.

The Smart Money Quietly Abandons The Housing Market

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on The Smart Money Quietly Abandons The Housing Market

National averages paper over gritty details on the ground and are a crummy indicator as to what is happening in specific metro areas. But even with this caveat, a national average suddenly sounded an alarm for the housing market: the smart money is bailing out.

California Housing Bubble: Now Even Teachers Can No Longer Afford To Buy A Home

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on California Housing Bubble: Now Even Teachers Can No Longer Afford To Buy A Home

Teachers are a symbol of the middle class. In California, they earn on average $69,300 annually, fifth highest in the country. Not exactly a pittance. But it is a ludicrous pittance if they’re trying to buy a home.

Fed Lying About QE, Media Not Paying Attention

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Fed Lying About QE, Media Not Paying Attention

Since the introduction of QE 3, honest-looking Fed chairman Bernanke told the Wall-Street media circus after each FOMC meeting that the money-printing binge in the coming month would expand the Fed’s balance sheet by $85 billion. A fact cited worldwide. And a big lie.

IPO Highflyer Hits Sidewalk After Smart Money Bails Out

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on IPO Highflyer Hits Sidewalk After Smart Money Bails Out

The IPO scene is sizzling: 25 pre-IPO startups, dogged by puny revenues and hefty losses, have “valuations” from $1 billion to $10 billion. But post-IPO debacles, even in the immensely hyped Cloud and Big Data sector, are already hitting the sidewalk.

Stinking Corporate Revenues, Desperately Doctored Earnings-Per-Share

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Stinking Corporate Revenues, Desperately Doctored Earnings-Per-Share

Last quarter was tough on large US corporations – those in the S&P 500 index. Unperturbed, the index soared all year. But its 343 companies that have reported so far have exposed the ugly underbelly of the worldwide economy: revenue “growth.”

The Exquisitely Reengineered Frankenstein Housing Monster

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on The Exquisitely Reengineered Frankenstein Housing Monster

It’s back, a new and improved contraption, a synthetic structured security that on its polished surface looks like that triple-A rated mortgage-backed toxic waste that helped blow up the banks and your 401(k) in 2008. But this time, it’s different. It’s even worse.

A Very Unfinished Recession, For Most Americans

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on A Very Unfinished Recession, For Most Americans

Statistically speaking, the Fed’s heroic actions conquered the Great Recession years ago.The economy has been growing at a measurable clip, statistically speaking, with the unemployment rate inching lower over the years, though again, that’s just statistically speaking. But most Americans, struggling to make ends meet in the real economy far from the hoopla, hype, and buzz of Wall Street or Silicon Valley, have a more accurate answer.

Spiffy Hotel Rooms For The 85 Richest Folks Who Own As Much As Poorest Half Of Humanity

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Spiffy Hotel Rooms For The 85 Richest Folks Who Own As Much As Poorest Half Of Humanity

Now that we learned that the 85 richest folks own as much as the poorest 3.5 billion, we want to know where they’re staying when they come to town for dinner. We already know where the poorest 3.5 billion are staying: in shacks, hovels, and moldy apartment blocks.