Michael Ashton

E-PIPHANY

Contributor since: 26 Feb 2010

Contact Contributor

• The Nation's Balance Sheet and Crowding Out

  Published 04 December 2012 | viewed 0 times

  Recently, I pointed out (in "Kissing Assets Goodbye" from November 1st) that disasters lower a country's net worth. Therefore, even though they will tend to…

• Fiscal Baby Steps Aren't Worth the Angst

  Published 04 December 2012 | viewed 0 times

  Unless today's unseasonably-warm temperatures in the New York area (through some metaphysical conservation-of-energy mechanism) means that Hell is freezing over, we are a long way…

• Is European Money Growth Helping Stoke U.S. Inflation?

  Published 30 November 2012 | viewed 0 times

  The monthly European M2 numbers are out (they are released with approximately a one-month lag), and so we can get a look at the monetary…

• The Gravity of the European Situation

  Published 29 November 2012 | viewed 0 times

  Markets continue to gyrate in what seems like wider and wider arcs as volumes gradually decline but the density of news headlines does not. Today,…

• Do Androids Shop With Electric Money?

  Published 27 November 2012 | viewed 0 times

  "Cyber Monday" sounds like something dreamed up by Philip K. Dick for his book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (which later, of course, became…

• Does 'Straight Up' Qualify As Volatility?

  Published 19 November 2012 | viewed 0 times

  The stock market gained 2% today, and commodities jumped 1.25% led by energy, metals, and softs. There was no news that could have rationally justified…

• Honest, Abe?

  Published 16 November 2012 | viewed 0 times

  Today was CPI day, which after Christmas and Thanksgiving is one of my most favorite of days. Here is what I tweeted earlier today (and…

• Clearer Communication in the Wrong Quarters

  Published 14 November 2012 | viewed 0 times

  Whether it is that the passage of the U.S. election released Europe to begin fighting amongst themselves again about Greece, or instead that they've been…

• Conservative Positions For A Liberal World

  Published 12 November 2012 | viewed 0 times

  Wow, where do we begin after a hurricane-induced hiatus? So much has happened. Since I last wrote, the U.S. elections have fallen into the rear-view…

• Kissing Assets Goodbye

  Published 01 November 2012 | viewed 0 times

  No, thanks for asking but the power is not back on, and not likely to be coming back on for some time. But one finds…

• Two Storms Coming

  Published 29 October 2012 | viewed 0 times

  Since the financial markets are almost shut today due to "Frankenstorm," and will in fact close early today, I am writing this article early on…

• Mounting Pressure

  Published 24 October 2012 | viewed 0 times

  The most striking facet of today's trading was that the stock market actually reacted to the Fed's announcement, which was precisely as universally expected: no…

• Conform Or Be Cast Out

  Published 22 October 2012 | viewed 0 times

  I like unloved assets. I can be a patient investor when I find an asset or an asset class that is unloved, but not truly…

• Mostly Molehills

  Published 18 October 2012 | viewed 0 times

  I suppose it is more interesting to have a whole plateful of interesting news and data to look at than to be fixated on one…

• A Summary Of My Post-CPI Tweets

  Published 16 October 2012 | viewed 0 times

  This is a summary of my Post-CPI tweets today. You can follow me @inflation_guy. Core CPI +0.146%, just barely missing the soft +0.2% people were…

• The Good News On Inflation Seems Likely to End

  Published 15 October 2012 | viewed 0 times

  In case you haven't yet heard, congratulations are due to the EU - the recipient of this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Hey, don't laugh; they…

• 'Scary' Analysis

  Published 11 October 2012 | viewed 0 times

  On Wednesday, I was trapped listening to CNBC because I was at one of our major consulting clients' offices and it was on. I was…

• Shifting Regimes And Those at Risk of Toppling

  Published 09 October 2012 | viewed 0 times

  Equities weakened today, while commodities strengthened (and especially energy commodities). Although it is only one day's trading, this messes around a little bit with the…

• A Summary of My Post-Employment Tweets

  Published 05 October 2012 | viewed 0 times

  Here is a summary of my post-Employment tweets (@inflation_guy on Twitter): Before any comments about unemployment, a note: it isn't the NUMBERS that affect the…

• Option-Like Payoffs

  Published 04 October 2012 | viewed 0 times

  It seems we have a lot of option-like payoffs looming in the next few months. By that I mean that we have a number of…