Category Archives: Wall St.

Senate Stock Market Tycoons

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White House and Senate agreed to a $2 trillion stimulus deal for the economy. And the economy likes it. The Dow shot up 11% for its best day since 1933.

Speaking of stocks and Senators, some senators dumped stocks just before Corona virus market meltdown.

Senate Stock Market Tycoons

Here’s Professor Jonathan Turley writing in The Hill:

Senators Richard Burr, Kelly Loeffler, James Inhofe, and Dianne Feinstein together are responsible for as much as $11 million in recent stock sales. It turns out that many lawmakers become market investment geniuses after they enter Congress. A University of Memphis study found that 75 percent of randomly selected members had made “stock transactions that directly coincided with legislative activity.” A Georgia State University study noted that, from 1993 to 1998, senators beat the stock market by 12 points with their portfolios and outperformed “corporate insiders” by 8 points.

Cure Worse than Disease?

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Is the cure worse than the disease? The war against the Covid-19 virus is destroying businesses and jobs. The Wall Street Journal in an editorial titled Rethinking the Coronavirus Shutdown thinks maybe so:

In a normal recession the U.S. loses about 5% of national output over the course of a year or so. In this case we may lose that much, or twice as much, in a month.

Our friend Ed Hyman, the Wall Street economist, on Thursday adjusted his estimate for the second quarter to an annual rate loss in GDP of minus-20%. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s assertion on Fox Business Thursday that the economy will power through all this is happy talk if this continues for much longer…

And David Katz, the founding director of the Yale- Griffin prevention research Center, wrote in the New York Times

I am deeply concerned that the social, economic and public health consequences of this near total meltdown of normal life — schools and businesses closed, gatherings banned — will be long lasting and calamitous, possibly graver than the direct toll of the virus itself.

…A pivot right now from trying to protect all people to focusing on the most vulnerable remains entirely plausible. With each passing day, however, it becomes more difficult. The path we are on may well lead to uncontained viral contagion and monumental collateral damage to our society and economy. A more surgical approach is what we need.

401-K Infected with Corona Virus as Dow Dives

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Is your 401-k infected with the Corona virus? The Dow is facing its biggest loss since 2008 according to the WSJ .

Stock Market Coronavirus Crater Fear

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The Dow cratered over 1,000 points on Monday. The stock market appears to have declared a Coronavirus pandemic.

Stock Market Coronavirus Crater

The girl in the picture isn’t any more real than the bull. They’re both statues. But she does have a name. It’s Fearless Girl.

Trillion Dollar Operators in America

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Google’s parent company, Alphabet, became the fourth American tech operation to reach a trillion dollar market value. Meanwhile President Trump released his budget, making Uncle Sam the only American operator with a trillion dollar deficit.

So, sorry Google, since this is only a 4 panel cartoon – you didn’t make the cut.