Investment Watch Blog

via Zerohedge: The parade of weak bank earnings continued on Tuesday when UBS, one of the first major European banks to report, announced that it had missed analysts’ profit estimates (though it did record a rise in full-year profits) due to outflows from its key global wealth management division.   Here’s a summary of its … Read more

via mishtalk: Corporate America is doing far better than most expected under Trump’s tax cuts. But the cuts didn’t pay for themselves. I am a firm believer the ideal corporate tax rate is zero. Yet I was against Trump’s tax cut. Why? I also believe in balanced budgets and I was certain the Tax cut would … Read more

by Michael Snyder IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde made headlines all over the globe this week when she declared that “the risk of a sharper decline in global growth has certainly increased”.  As you will see below, signs of economic trouble are popping up all over the planet, and pretty much just about everyone is now … Read more

by Michael Snyder If you add together all of the money owned by the poorest 3.8 billion people living on this planet, it would roughly equal the wealth controlled by the 26 wealthiest men in the world.  Oxfam has just issued a brand new report on global inequality, and what they have discovered is making … Read more

by Charles Hugh-Smith The social media/search giants have mastered the dark arts of obfuscating how they’re reaping billions of dollars in profits from monetizing user data, and lobbying technologically naive politicos to leave their vast skimming operations untouched. I’ve been commenting on the cancerous disease that’s taken control of the Internet– what Shoshana Zuboff calls Surveillance … Read more

Wolf Richter wolfstreet.com, http://www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter But first-time buyers cling to hope. Sales of newly built detached houses in Australia plunged 6.7% in December 2018 from November, to just 4,622 houses, according to the Housing Industry Association (HIA), easily whizzing by the prior record low of 4,769 sales in August (chart via TradingEconomics.com): In the fourth quarter of … Read more

Here is today’s articles mentioned in this news update: 1. A Weakening Global Expansion Amid Growing Risks https://blogs.imf.org/2019/01/21/a-we… 2. Davos 2019: What you need to know about ‘the world’s most exclusive business bash’ https://www.thelocal.ch/20190121/davo… 3. IMF cuts growth forecasts for second time in three months as global elite gather for Davos https://www.theguardian.com/business/…      

by TFittonJW Enjoy the Judicial Watch video: Was on Fox ten years ago talking about Air Pelosi…. Back when I was 40…there was controversy about Speaker Pelosi’s travel (caused by JW”s investigations and litigation). And now, thanks to President Trump, the same issue is back in the news. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q82V2YnOHUA This Twitter thread is key: .@SpeakerPelosi … Read more

by Charles Hugh-Smith The net result of a rigged system is the vast majority of the gains in income and wealth flow to the very tippy-top of the wealth/power pyramid. We often hear how the system (i.e. our economy) is rigged to benefit the few at the expense of the many, but exactly how is … Read more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBWMouLSwJQ It’s a shame so many Americans don’t understand what’s going on in Europe. Between Brexit, the yellow vest movement, the Eastern Europeans, Italy, Greece, etc, it’s a whole new ballgame. And it all started with Trump. The EU is freaking out and the mainstream globalist corporate media are becoming irrelevant. What an amazing time … Read more

The [DS] is pushing their agenda with their latest event involving boys from a religious school.Fox accidentally puts up a graphic showing RBG already gone. Blueprint Q lay out the plan to get rid of the swamp. Strange messages, tweets that are coded.The [DS] is planning and they talking to each other, Patriots on Guard. … Read more

By Tsvetana Paraskova Last year’s heightened volatility in energy markets—typically a welcome background for fund managers to make profitable trades—proved to be less than stellar news for energy-focused funds. Energy-exposed funds have been suffering since 2016—first because of subdued volatility, then because of increased volatility. But most of all—because of bets on crude oil and … Read more