Folks, with quadruple expiration taking place on Friday and the holidays just around the corner, this week is essentially the last week of the year to trade. On the one hand, we have portfolio managers who are underinvested. And on the other hand, we have books about to close for the year—there’s something of a [...]

Folks, when you really boil it down, the question that’s been at the center of this whole European situation has always been pretty simple: How can you be a monetary union without being a fiscal union? And the answer is equally simple: you can’t be. If you share a currency, you have to share other [...]

Folks, the market opened up this morning with a bang. One of the reasons for this is the $1.3T bailout package they’re talking about over in Europe, which would take care of much of what’s ailing their sovereign financial institutions. I’ve mentioned quite a few times that the Europeans have slowly been moving from denial [...]

Folks, after nine straight sessions of gains and an 11% move in the S&P, the markets are in the red this morning on news from—you guessed it—Europe. Germany once again lowered expectations on finding an end to the European Union’s debt crisis, saying that a summit of European finance leaders wouldn’t be likely to produce [...]

Folks, it’s a happy Wednesday indeed when everything once again opens up in the green. This little rally we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks is really creeping up on people. What’s behind the rush to risk? As I see it, it’s two things. The first is Europe, where there’s finally a perception that [...]

Folks, now that quadruple expiration is behind us, we’re entering into what I’m calling the beginning of the end of the quarter. These next couple of weeks will have a direct effect on what happens through the end of the year, and could also give us a glimpse of where things might land in terms [...]

Folks, yesterday, Jim Cramer interviewed Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on CNBC. I probably don’t need to remind you that I think Mr. Geithner is a little long in the tooth as far as that position is concerned, but he said something very important that I wanted to make sure you all caught: there is no [...]

Folks, if you’re thinking about anything besides what’s going on in Europe these days, you’re missing the picture. I’ve said before that I don’t think the EU will break apart, but I do believe that we’ve gotten to a point where we need the other shoe to drop. And that shoe is a Greek bankruptcy. [...]

Folks, it appears like we’re on the verge, once again, of a Greek bankruptcy or default. I still maintain that this does not portend a breakup of the European Union. A default in Greece would be roughly the equivalent of, say, California or New York City going bankrupt—we’ve seen municipalities and states default before. Dysfunction [...]

Folks, last week I told you to look for hints that Germany would come to the rescue of the European Union, and today we got another one. The German Constitutional Court has upheld the legality of bailout packages for member nations stricken with debt. That’s good news for European banks that are holding that Greek [...]