U.S. stocks ended modestly higher Friday, wounding up a week of solid gains as investors braced for the third-quarter financial results.  Sentiments also got a boost after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated that the central bank will be ready to tighten monetary policy once the economy improves.  Bernanke’s tightening comments helped the dollar regain some lost ground.  Bond prices fell sharply. 

After a two-week selloff, fueled in part by concerns that the seven-month old rally had gotten ahead of any economic recovery, stocks got a boost last week following better-than-estimated economic numbers and Alcoa’s (NYSE:AA) surprise quarterly profit.  That helped investors set aside worries and extend the rally.  Meanwhile, White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers reiterated the Obama administration’s commitment to a strong dollar, citing recent comments by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

This morning’s stock futures show markets are headed for a higher opening as the busy

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This post provides links to a number of thought-provoking articles I have read over the past few days that you may also find interesting.

• Richard Bernstein (Financial Times): America is for now still blowing bubbles, July 20, 2009. By preserving capacity to avoid taking pain today, the US is following the approach that led Japan into a lost decade.

• Kenneth Scott and John Taylor (The Wall Street Journal): Why toxic assets are so hard to clean up, July 21, 2009. Despite trillions of dollars of new government programs, one of the original causes of the financial crisis — the toxic assets on bank balance sheets — still persists and remains a serious impediment to economic recovery. Why are these toxic assets so difficult to deal with? We believe their sheer complexity is the core problem and that only increased transparency will

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The Obama Administration is expected to release a comprehensive financial regulation reform plan this week, the summary of which was revealed in an op-ed piece by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Chairman Lawrence Summers, published in The Washington Post this morning.

The administration has focused on five key areas:

Raising capital and liquidity requirements for all institutions, consolidated supervision by the Federal Reserve for "too big to fail" firms and establishing a council of regulators for better coordination Robust reporting requirements on the issuers of asset-backed securities, reducing reliance on credit-rating agencies, harmonizing the regulation of futures and securities, and strong oversight of "over-the-counter" derivatives Stronger framework for consumer and investor protection Resolution mechanism for the orderly resolution of "too big to fail" financial holding companies Improving regulation and supervision around the worldWe totally agree that the regulation of the financial system urgently needs to be ...

By Michael McKee and Matthew Benjamin

April 17 (Bloomberg) — The Obama administration’s bank- rescue efforts will probably fail because the programs have been designed to help Wall Street rather than create a viable financial system, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said.

“All the ingredients they have so far are weak, and there are several missing ingredients,” Stiglitz said in an interview yesterday. The people who designed the plans are “either in the pocket of the banks or they’re incompetent.”

The Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, isn’t large enough to recapitalize the banking system, and the administration hasn’t been direct in addressing that shortfall, he said. Stiglitz said there are conflicts of interest at the White House because some of Obama’s advisers have close ties to Wall Street.

“We don’t have enough money, they don’t want to go back to Congress, and they don’t want to do it in an open way and

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Asian stocks recorded hefty gains on Thursday, including a 4% rally in Tokyo's Nikkei as Japan unveiled a big stimulus package aimed toward stimulating economic growth.  The Nikkei 225 stock average jumped 321.05 points or 3.74% to 8,916.06, after the government announced a $154 billion economic stimulus package and data showed an unexpected increase in the country's machinery orders. The Bank of Korea, which kept the rates unchanged at 2%, said it was keeping the option of cutting rates open. The comments sent benchmark Kospi up 4.3% to 1316.35, a six-month closing peak.  Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 2.3%.

U.S. stocks showed resilience yesterday as investors took heart from reports the Treasury will allow some troubled insurers access to remaining funds under the TARP program.  Today's post of retailers' March same-store-sales figures will also be closely watched for indications of consumer spending trends.

Premarket futures improved

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I was captivated by the Wall Street Journal headline “Bearish Big Investors Catch Gold Bug” by Gregory Zuckerman, because I don’t ever expect to see anything favorable about gold in the WSJ…

…since it is concerned primarily with providing information and news about stocks and bonds so that you will be motivated to constantly buy and sell stocks and bonds.

So I was surprised to read where it starts out with, “Large investors, including some who anticipated deep troubles for the housing and financial sectors, have been buying gold, concerned that moves by governments world-wide to shovel money at problem areas could cripple leading currencies.”

This is exactly true! That is exactly why I am buying gold, and why smart people are buying gold and why large investors are buying gold!

Well, since the WSJ is traditionally concerned with stocks and bonds and so is historically unconcerned and disdainful of gold, I figure

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Submitted by cpowell on Sat, 2009-03-14 00:10. 8:13p ET Friday, March 13, 2009

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold (and Silver):

Warren Bevan, editor of Precious Metals Stock Review, was unfortunately not well prepared when, the other day, he interviewed renowned investment fund manager Jim Rogers and raised the question of manipulation of the precious metals markets.

Rogers dismissed the possibility, remarking, in part: “It would just take a massive, massive conspiracy that would have come out by now. Nothing that would have been that big could remain secret that long.”

Bevan was unable to produce specifics for Rogers and ask him to respond to them, unable to note that of course the gold price suppression scheme has come out — many times, sometimes even as official acknowledgements. But Rogers believes that it can’t

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A quiet Friday… Euro hits 1.30…  Chinese concern…  This week in data… And Now… Today’s Pfennig! Good day…And a Marvelous Monday to you. Its hard to believe that Monday morning is already upon us, where does the time go? Just as the currency market took a breather, our cold weather from last week decided to follow suit as it turned out to be a nice late winter weekend. Friday was fairly uneventful as the currencies traded in a tight range throughout the course of the day so it will be interesting to see how this week shapes up. Let’s see if the currencies can build from last week…

Volatility was basically non-existent during Friday trading with less than a .50% difference between the high and the low of the dollar index. The overall bias, however, was a weaker dollar and the euro held onto 1.29 for a majority of the day

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As Housing Starts Fall… Lenders Putting “Final Screws” Into Homebuilders

by Don Miller, Contributing Writer, Money Morning

Editor’s Note: We’ve been talking a lot about real estate in Investment U recently, specifically how it relates to Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). One of the other aspects of REITs that’s making them look more attractive is the housing market for new construction. As it declines and the financing dries up for builders, old construction will start increasing in value. That bodes well for REITs. Our colleagues over at Money Morning have taken a look at some of the issues facing builders that we feel are extremely relevant to the real estate market right now.

New Housing Starts Hit 50 Year Lows

New housing starts fell in December to the lowest levels since the government started compiling statistics in 1959, as surging unemployment continued to rock the real estate market. The numbers offer more evidence

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It took a moment for it to sink in that things are going to be ‘hard’, and that we will have to ‘do right’ to prove our character. When it did, I thought to myself, ‘It’s worse than we thought! We’re freaking doomed!’

The news just keeps getting more terrifying by the day, perhaps no more terrifying than when Bloomberg.com reports that President Obama is issuing “a ‘call to service’ to Americans” to help “confront the nation’s problems.” We’re all getting drafted! Gaahhhh!

He did not say that in so many words, of course, but he did say, “The true character of our nation is revealed not during times of comfort and ease, but by the right we do when the moment is hard. I ask you to help reveal that character once more.”

It took a moment for it to sink in that things are going to be “hard”, and that we

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