Archive for the ‘Roche Record’ Category

FRANK ROCHE COMING TO RADIO – WRDU FM 106.1 RUSH RADIO

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

THE ROCHE RECORD

June 28, 2011

EARLY ANNOUNCEMENT:

GET READY AMERICA, FRANK IS HITTING THE AIRWAVES

I’LL BE HOSTING MY OWN SHOW ON WRDU FM 106.1 IN RALEIGH, NC.  A CLEAR CHANNEL POWERHOUSE AND THE HOME OF RUSH RADIO.

I’LL BE BRINGING THE EVENTS OF NORTH CAROLINA AND THE COUNTRY TO YOU FROM A FINANCIAL MARKET ECONOMICS POINT OF VIEW WITH A TOUCH OF HUMOR, SARCASM, AND CALM…MAKING THE FRANK ROCHE SHOW ON WRDU 106.1 THE GO-TO CHANNEL FOR UNDERSTANDING THE FINANCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND POLITICAL WORLD AROUND YOU.

FINAL DETAILS REMAIN TO BE WORKED OUT…STAY TUNED FOR START DATE (LESS THAN 3 WEEKS), AND THE PROGRAM NAME (IS THE FRANK ROCHE SHOW TO SIMPLE?).

PERHAPS:

THE ROCHE RECORD

CONNECTING ECONOMICS, FINANCE, AND POLITICS

STAY TUNED FOR FORMAL ANNOUNCEMENT

www.therocherecord.com

Frank Roche
The Roche Record

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CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS STILL BEING TRADED

Saturday, June 18th, 2011

THE ROCHE RECORD

by Frank Roche

June 12, 2011

CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS STILL BEING TRADED


The Credit Default Swap (CDS): an insurance product to protect an investor in corporate or government bonds from default by the issuer of the bonds.  Buyers of CDS get the protection, and the seller of the swap takes on the risk of the bonds defaulting.  As the price goes up, insurance is getting more expensive and the implication is the issuer of the bond is increasingly likely to default on their interest or principle payments.

Introduced to the financial markets by AIG, the CDS is a product of financial engineering which blossomed in the 1990’s as a way for financial services companies to create new “trading” products to increase revenue from the both the selling of the product, and then the speculative gains brought from daily trading of the new product.  The CDS has become a toxic product for the financial markets.  Sadly, little attention was paid to the CDS market in the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, and daily trading volume is back on the rise with nearly $16 trillion worth of CDS’s, and over 2 million contracts traded in the week ending 6/3/2011.   (more…)

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THE ROCHE RECORD – THE IMF AND STRAUSS-KAHN

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011
THE ROCHE RECORD
by Frank Roche
May 16, 2011

IMF AND STRAUSS-KAHN ARE NOT INDISPENSIBLE


As you may have heard, the leader of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was arrested Sunday night in New York City on rape and sexual abuse charges stemming from a sexual romp he attempted with a maid at the Sofitel in midtown Manhattan.  Thankfully the women involved is physically OK.  The IMF head was removed from his Air France first class seat by Port Authority officials shortly before take-off.  I’ll leave the reporting of the story to professionals.

Of interest for now is the reaction of the financial media to Kahn’s arrest.  The globalists and one worlders in the media, CNBC, Wall St. Journal, the Economist, are already questioning if the institution and their programs can survive without Kahn, or the negative PR impact of the sex scandal.  They’re wondering if the Greek financial bailout will fall apart and if a potential domino effect will develop for the rest of Europe.

Really?

Realize only this, the IMF, nor the man who was at it’s helm as late as Sunday evening, Kahn, are indispensible when it comes to international finance and national debt management.

The IMF, created in the wake of World War II, was one of the first efforts at establishing an international institution that would lead to global governance and the elimination of independent countries constrained by protected boundaries.  The IMF has a 24 member-country board, with the US the largest contributor to the institutions budget.  It was established to manage the new fixed exchange rate system which was established at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference.  The IMF would be a sort of lender of last resort, lending reserves to countries that could not otherwise maintain their required fixed exchange rate values.  As we know now, this didn’t work.  The IMF, from the mid-1970’s to late 2008, had largely been relegated to the role of dealing with the financial problems of third world countries, more often then not making things worse for those countries rather than better.  They had a cookie cutter solution for all:  slash government spending, devalue your currency and then peg the currency to the US dollar or some basket of assets (typically other currencies).  (more…)

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THE ROCHE RECORD – VALUE OF THE DOLLAR

Saturday, May 7th, 2011

THE ROCHE RECORD

by Frank Roche

HEADLINE

THE EXTERNAL VALUE OF THE DOLLAR VS. DOMESTIC PURCHASING POWER

Financial market economics can be very complex involving many correlations between differing financial products, economic data, and differing national interest rates levels and economic performances.  Layer over that the complexities of the foreign exchange…READ MORE


THE WEEK AHEAD

Time

Forecast

5/5 Initial Claims 4/30

08:30am

400k vs. 429k prior

5/6  April Non-Farm Payrolls

08:30am

185k vs. 216k prior

5/6  April Unemployment Rate

08:30am

8.8% vs. 8.8% prior

MARKETS PRICE QUOTES

Last

Previous Wk

USD Index

72.93

74.00

EUR/USD

1.4814

1.4580

US 10yr yeild

3.30

3.39

NYMEX Crude Oil

$113.93

$112.76

CRB

94.80

?

(more…)
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THE ROCHE RECORD – MONEY AS THE ROOT OF ALL GOOD

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

Frank Roche
March 27, 2011

‘MONEY AS THE ROOT OF ALL GOOD’
These words are excerpted from a book of fiction written in the 1950’s by a woman who came to America having freed herself from the grip of Communism in the Soviet Union.  While likley uncomfortably phrased for some, the economic implications are real and relevant today nonetheless.

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, Copyright 1957, pages 410-415.

Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them.  Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value.  Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or by the looters, who take it from you by force.  Money is made possible only by the men who produce.

When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others.

Not an ocean of tears nor all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow.  Those piece of paper…are a token honor-your claim upon the energy of the men who produce.  Your wallet is your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money.   (more…)

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A RUDDERLESS WHITE HOUSE MISUSING THE MILITARY?

Thursday, March 24th, 2011
THE ROCHE RECORD

March 21, 2011

Frank Roche

A RUDDERLESS WHITE HOUSE MISUSING THE MILITARY?

Was the US military issued orders to play third fiddle to the French & the UK and join in on the attack of another sovereign nation involved in civil war?  Isn’t one of our allies still taking toll of the damage from a record earthquake and the ensuing tsunami?  Isn’t there a related significant nuclear incident?  Isn’t there an ongoing debate regarding continuing resolutions to fund the government until Congress can get its act together and pass a budget?  Iraq?  Afghanistan?

Aren’t our President and his family on vacation in South America?

Only three more questions.  Is the executive branch of the US government rudderless?  Did the Obama administration adhere more closely to our responsibilities under the UN Charter, Chapter 7, Articles 39-51, rather than to the US War Powers Act?  Is the US military being misused in Libya?    (more…)

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THE ROCHE RECORD – AMERICA’S ECONOMIC HEALTH

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011
March 14, 2011

STANSBERRY’S “END OF AMERICA 33” EXPOSED AS MARKETING PLOY

Frank Roche, Economist

Tea Party patriots and the conservative blogosphere have been abuzz recently over a video describing the end of America.  The video, “The End of America 3”, published by Porter Stansberry of Stansberry & Associates Investment Research, is a dire warning from Porter that America as we have known her will collapse this year, the collapse is already underway, he knows why, he knows how you can personally protect yourself, and he’s happy to share the information.  Well, sort of.  The information you need to avoid the end will cost you at least fifty bucks.

I’ve recently received emails and phone calls from unnerved Americans asking if I’d seen the video.  What I thought of it?  And, could this really happen?

Having taken the hour and sixteen minutes to watch the video a few things come to mind.  First, he offers nothing new.  No new economic insights, no unknown data, no new perspective, no new theories, no new research methodology, no new news of any kind.  Second, he connects disparate dots that logically and economically cannot be connected.  Third, this is a blatant marketing ploy based on arousing fear.

The premise of his argument is the massive government debt burden built up at the local, state, and federal level has reached critical levels. This will cause a collapse of the US dollar on the foreign exchange market, an end to its’ reserve currency status, and plunge America into social and economic chaos.  In the aftermath will be left a third world nation. (more…)

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THE ROCHE RECORD

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
Frank Roche
February 15, 2011

ONE WORLDERS AND SUPPORTERS OF BIG GOV’T SMILING TODAY


Another emblematic national asset is about to fall under the control of foreign nationals.  The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is being taken over by the German stock exchange, Deutsche Boerse.  The German group will take 60 percent control of the combined company, leaving 40 percent control to the NYSE.  The board will consist of 10 Deutsche Boerse seats and 7 NYSE seats.  The Chairman will be from Deutsche Boerse, and the Chief Executive will from the NYSE.

The immeidate concern of those who like this deal are political and national.  There was a time when foreign takeovers of US assets caused national debate.  While the degree of that concern has clearly dissipated over the decades, such a high profile takeover of a national brand is likely to draw unusual scrutiny by todays standards.

Those in the media, led by CNBC (CNBC has been a front runner in the effort to convince their viewers there isn’t a US economy anymore, there is only a global economy), are quick to jump out in front to tamp down nationalistic concerns through derision by using terms like xenophobic and jingoism to describe sentiments that might lead to objections, and explaining how nationalism has no place in the debate about the efficient allocation of financial resources across the globe.  (more…)

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THE ROCHE RECORD

Friday, February 11th, 2011
THE ROCHE RECORD  –  by Frank Roche
February 10, 2011

SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS NEED SOME HELP


While it is statistically accurate to say the US economy is growing and recovering from the worst of the 2008-2009 economic downturn, many small business owners are still reeling, haven’t witnessed any recovery, and still wonder where their bailout is.

Whether I’m out with friends, or during Q&A sessions after speaking, I’m often told by small business owners that banks aren’t lending, the government isn’t doing anything to help them as they did for big business with the TARP money, and how they should have more clout given that they are part of a group that has hired approximately 60 percent of all new hires over the past ten years and employ just over 50 percent of all private sector employees.  They’re frustrated, some are angry, their livelihoods are at risk, and they don’t have many places to turn.

Not surprisingly, most of those I speak with are connected to the housing, construction, automotive, or retail sectors.   (more…)

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THE ROCHE RECORD – BLOWBACK: THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

February 2, 2011

by Frank Roche

Chalmers Johnson’s book, “Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire” was published in 2000.  Johnson tells us the title referred to a term adopted by the CIA to refer to “…the unintended consequences of American policies.”  Johnson cites examples of “Blowback” in the book including Okinawa, North & South Korea, Iran, Iraq, and China.  Watching the video coming out of Egypt today, Egypt may well be added to this list.

The pursuit of protecting American interests, which includes supporting our allies, has for decades involved US policy makers dealing with leaders of countries that are an affront to what America stands for.  Egypt, led by President Hosni Mubarak, has been such a country.  Since President Jimmy Carter was in office, each US President has lent a helping hand to Egypt, praising her as our ally and an important player in Middle East peace working closely with Israel to keep the Sinai demilitarized.  To help maintain balance in the region Egypt has received tens of billions of US dollars in aid ($2 billion per year), mostly directed towards the military.  They have an impressive arsenal of American military hardware and the know how to use it.

While we watch the uprising in Egypt with unease, and we hope that a proper democracy will emerge, one cannot deny there also exists the possibility new leaders may oppose America and our role in the Middle East.  New leaders may gain control who wish to see the end to Israel, who may be willing to once again challenge Israel militarily.  (more…)

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