By Robert Romano “[E]conomic growth slowed late last year.” That was the Federal Reserve in its most recent statement, published Jan. 27 at 2PM . At that point in the day, markets had been relatively unchanged. After that, the great sell-off of 2016 continued, with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 shedding […]

By Robert Romano China’s 10-year experiment with a strong yuan is over. After years of world markets complaining about China’s devaluation policy of a low, fixed exchange rate against the dollar, the People’s Bank of China finally allowed the yuan to begin appreciating in 2005. Fast forward […]

By Robert Romano Consider this. If Mitt Romney had beaten Barack Obama for the presidency in 2012, he more than likely would have been running for reelection into the jaws of the current major market correction in commodities and equities, and what may wind up being the […]

By Robert Romano West Texas intermediate oil is crashing through its $30 a barrel support level in search of a new bottom, amid the ongoing correction in China, weak demand globally and no signs of production slowing down. While that is generally good news for consumers of products like gasoline, the […]

  By Robert Romano “I believe we’re already entering a recession in the U.S.” That was investor and market analyst Marc Faber’s prognosis of the U.S. economy on Dec. 29 headed into 2016, speaking on Bloomberg Television . Since then, oil has dropped to about $34 a barrel, a level not […]

By Robert Romano Tucked into the omnibus spending bill for the remainder of fiscal year 2016 was a $56.7 billion increase in the U.S. quota subscription to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) . This will double the current U.S. quota to $115.2 billion at today’s exchange rate . The legislation also puts a 2022 sunset on the now-$95.8 billion New Arrangements to Borrow, a […]

By Robert Romano After 7 years of historically low near-zero percent interest rates, the Federal Reserve finally hiked its benchmark interest rate to the new range of 0.25 percent to 0.50 percent on Dec. 16. Long have economists and other market observers warned that this move by the Fed would lead to higher interest rates for […]

By Robert Romano “I do believe that the country is inexorably changing [demographically]… [and] when you combine that demographic change with all the economic stresses that people have been going through — because of the financial crisis, because of technology, because of globalization, the fact that wages […]

By Rick Manning The House has passed the omnibus spending bill 316 to 113. It hit cloture in the Senate by a vote of 72 to 26 . The $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill effectively funds 9 of the last 12 months of the Obama agenda at higher spending levels in exchange for very little. The bill includes by virtue of not defunding it, funds for the implementation of Obamacare, […]

By Robert Romano “The $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill effectively funds 9 of the last 12 months of the Obama agenda at higher spending levels in exchange for very little.” That was Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning ’s take on the now-released omnibus spending bill for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2016 and tax extenders package. The legislation, said […]