Update: Today is Not Like 1929! No, It's Worse

Ben Bernanke says that today's current economic and financial woes don't compare with the Great Depression in the late 1920s and 1930s. Too bad he can't see what Bob Prechter sees – that today's problems are actually worse.

3 Things You Could Have Known 1 Year Ago
Plus 1 Prediction Today for Our Financial Future

It's a sign of hard-fought wisdom when you hear yourself say, "If only I knew then what I know now." In fact, many of us are saying to ourselves right now, "If only I knew a few months ago that the stock market would turn so bearish…"

Cotton: Futures Forerunner

There's a Big Reason To Keep Your Eye on Silver

Watching a market like silver rise or fall dramatically does take the breath away.Yet Bob Prechter has explained why silver's moves are important not only to investors and traders but also to the U.S. economy as a whole.

Is Gold REALLY a Safe Haven in Recessions?
With claims like these, we at EWI always do the same thing: We look at the data.

"Gold always goes up in recessions and depressions." Is it true? Should you own gold because you think the economy is tanking? Whenever we hear some claim like this, we always do the same thing: We look at the data. The results speak for themselves...

3 Reasons Not To Speculate in Stocks …
… if the U.S. is headed for a deflationary depression

Most people have begun to accept that the U.S. economy is in recession whether or not the National Bureau of Economic Research has labeled it a recession yet. If you, too, think that the economy is headed for hard times, the next question is, how do you prepare for it?

The Generals Survey their Battlefields: Iraq and the U.S. Economy

General David Petraeus and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke are both dealing with Gordian knot problems -- one on the war front and the other on the economic front, And George Soros has some of his own thoughts on the subject of the financial system turned into Godzilla.

Headed For Recession: Are We or Aren't We?

From the “Today Show” to the “Tonight Show,” the Situation Room to the locker room, and the cocktail party to the carpool lane, one issue has taken center stage: U.S. recession -- Are we OR Aren’t we there yet? 

How To Cope with Economic Times That Try the Soul
Our Current Financial Crisis as Seen Through the Eyes of Thomas Paine

These are the times that try men's souls, wrote Thomas Paine in 1776, referring to the North American colonists' revolt from British rule. And now, referring to the U.S. economy, we can equally say that these are the economic times that try the national soul. Whereas last year and in years earlier, we here at Elliott Wave International warned about the tough times to come in the economy, today's news stories are full of woe.

A Non-Guarantee Put to the Test (part 1)
The Ballad of Fannie & Freddie

Once upon a time, the U.S. government created the secondary mortgage market. (During FDR's New Deal, if you're dying to know). With help from the agency known as Fannie Mae, this government creation grew tall and strong. What's more, the government held a virtual monopoly over its creation for several decades -- and after all, the market was its creation....

European Stocks: Fear and Greed
Elliott Wave International discusses how the current stocks sell-off is driven more by fear than rational thinking.

You watch financial news, you know what's going on. Spooked by "concerns over a potential U.S. recession," investors are dumping shares on both sides of the pond. But if you ask us, what's going on here is as old as investing itself: fear and greed. Fear and greed move investors. Fear and greed move market prices, too.

The REAL "First Big Book on the Credit Crunch"
After the Fact Acclaim: Irony Speaks for Itself

Yesterday I said that the Economist magazine had just published a favorable review of a book about the housing market crisis. The author is a respected financial journalist, and a thumbs up from a publication like the Economist suggests a book that deserves to be taken seriously. But consider these other quotes, specifically the "who" & "when" behind them...

There's More Than One Monetary Policy "Villain"
Greenspan's Reversal of Fortune

The Economist magazine published a favorable review today of a book about the housing market crisis, and one comment from the review kind of jumped off the page: "The story has no single villain, but Alan Greenspan comes close. Under him, the Federal Reserve fuelled the housing boom by sharply cutting the cost of short-term money." So, from "Maestro" to "Villain" -- how's that for a reversal of fortune?

Super Bowl to Super Tuesday to Super Economic Letdown

The Super Tuesday primaries are history, and we still don't know who will be the Democratic and Republican nominees for the U.S. presidency this year. It's a situation similar to not yet knowing whether the U.S. economy has already slipped into a recession.

Growing Trend in "Bank Failure" Stories?
"Experts say you shouldn't panic"

It's safe to assume that the "experts" really don't see this news as bad enough for me to jump out a window. So, when they say "don't panic," they probably mean something along the lines of: "Don't remove your money from the bank... or, for that matter, from the stock market either"....

"Stocks Rise" on the Worst Housing Market "Since the Great Depression"?
All the Rubbish That's Fit to Print

Now, all this data sums up a clear-enough picture of the housing trend. It's uniformly bad. If your home's value stands anywhere near today's median price, you are approximately $30,000 poorer than you were 20 months ago. So why spell all this out? Heck, everyone knows the housing situation is ugly, with our without reading the particulars. My reason for putting the facts before you begins with this quote, which was typical of what stock market stories were saying around 11:00am this morning...

What If You Hold an Auction, and Nobody Comes?

The U.S. government held an auction of its 30-year Treasury bonds today, but hardly anyone wanted to buy them at the anticipated 4.41% yield. They ended up going at 4.449%. One dealer called it a "massive boycott."

How Low Can Wal-Mart's "Lower Prices" Go?
Fear of Recession Lures Shoppers

Some analysts point out that during recessions, people often trade down from the stores they normally shop at. By that token, as Target loses sales, Wal-Mart and wholesalers like Costco gain sales.But the question may become, where will cash-strapped consumers go to buy their goods when they can't even afford Wal-Mart's usual low prices?

Looking for the Real Fairy Tale?
Why the Fed Can't Head Off Recessions

Does the Fed really know what it's doing? It seems like that's the fairy tale that most people want to believe.