Wall Street Pit

A Congressman from Illinois Wants the IRS to Do Your Taxes for You

WSP — Sat, 18 May 2013 01:17:05 +0000

Former acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service Steven Miller was rolling along pretty good on Friday, bravely facing down his inquisitors from the House Ways and Means Committee. And then he had to go and admit it. Time and time again when asked Miller insisted there was nothing politically maniacal about IRS agents singling [...]

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Strong May Market Flipping Old Trading Adage on Its Head

John Darsie — Fri, 17 May 2013 23:14:29 +0000

The old trading adage “sell in May and go away” is being flipped on its head this month, and the rally shows no signs of abating. Many traders sit on the sidelines on options expiration Fridays, but not even even that could slow down this market today. While many stocks rested and perhaps saw some [...]

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Confidence Boom?

Tim Duy — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:45:19 +0000

The early read on the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment index jumped to 83.7 in May, up from 76.4 in April. Just a quick reminder before we get too excited – sentiment has tended to be low relative to actual spending. May’s sentiment bounce just returns us to trend: (click to enlarge) (click to enlarge) [...]

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Treasury Sec. Jack Lew on the IRS Controversy

WSP — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:31:13 +0000

On this week’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing tonight at 9:00PM/ET, Bloomberg TV anchor and Bloomberg View columnist Al Hunt interviews Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on the IRS controversy and the economy. Secretary Lew told Hunt on when he found out about the IRS controversy: “I didn’t know any of the details of it [...]

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The Real Scandal and Systemic Abuse of Power

Robert Reich — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:30:34 +0000

“This systematic abuse cannot be fixed with just one resignation, or two,” said David Camp, the Republican chairman of the House tax-writing committee, at an oversight hearing Friday morning dealing with the IRS. “This is not a personnel problem. This is a problem of the IRS being too large, too intrusive, too abusive.” David Camp [...]

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No, It Looks Like the House Has Not Unintentionally Eliminated the Debt Ceiling After All

Dan Kervick — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:22:56 +0000

In my previous post I argued that, in passing H.R. 807 on May 9th, the House of Representatives might have unintentionally eliminated the debt ceiling “as a serious political and operational consideration going forward.” But upon further reflection, and benefiting from the insightful reactions of several commenters, I now think my reading of the act [...]

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Abenomics and the Supply of Safe Assets

David Beckworth — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:39:52 +0000

One of the big challenges facing the global economy is the shortage of safe assets. These are the highly liquid, information-insensitive assets that function as money. The financial crisis raised the demand for these safe assets just as many of them were disappearing. This cyclically-driven safe asset shortage (or excess money demand) that emerged continues [...]

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It’s Not The End of OPEC…But Might As Well Be

WSP — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:57:29 +0000

If you could safely turn $8 dollars into $40, would you? What about turning $800 into $4,000? Same question, right? If you answered yes to those questions, which I’m sure you did, then you’re already onboard with half of today’s energy story. That is, most American shale oil wells are set to payout at the [...]

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Tesla (TSLA) Stock Looks Like Something Out of 1999

Tom Lindmark — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:27:07 +0000

This is a post I started to write last week, got sidetracked and now it seems a bit timely once more. I’m talking about Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA), the electric car manufacturer, and frankly I don’t see what the hype is about, why the stock has gone through the roof and why anyone would buy into [...]

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Top Pre-Market Stock Upgrades/Downgrades May 17, 2013

WSP — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:21:48 +0000

UPGRADES General Motors (NYSE:GM) upgraded to Buy from Underperform at CLSA – CLSA upgraded General Motors two notches to Buy from Underperform and raised its price target for shares to $40 from $31. The firm is positive on GM’s product cycle in the U.S. and its turnaround in Europe DOWNGRADES Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) downgraded to [...]

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