The Trashiest Stocks Are On Fire (FNM, FRE, AIG)

(businessinsider.com) Since the market hit its lows in early March, the trashiest, most beaten-down stocks have been the big winners. Some are arguing that the trash stocks have to slow down soon. But in the meantime, it looks like investors are reaching for the trashiest of the trash. Check out the crazy runs in Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE).

See the charts here

Grant's Summer Break Issue

To the readers of Grant’s: This compilation of recent articles, the first annual Grant’s Beachhead issue, is for you. And it’s for your friends, co-workers, clients, classmates, shipmates, brothers-in-law and maids-of-honor, too. Please pass it along, with our thanks, to any and all prospective members of the greater Grant’s family.


(www.grantspub.com)

Go here to read the Beachead Issue

Gartman Starts First Hedge Fund Betting on Stocks, Commodities

Will Gartman be more successful than other's with CNBC ties?
(bloomberg.com) Dennis Gartman, an economist and the editor of the Gartman Letter, said he is creating his first hedge fund to speculate on assets including global equities and commodities.

The River Crescent Fund, created Aug. 17, seeks to raise $200 million over the first year, Gartman said today in an interview from Suffolk, Virginia. The fund already includes some “well-known hedge-fund managers,” he said, without identifying them. Gartman has managed guaranteed notes since 2007 and an exchange-traded fund since April in Canada.


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Pimco Says Dollar to Weaken as Reserve Status Erodes

(www.bloomberg.com) Pacific Investment Management Co., which runs the world’s biggest bond fund, said the dollar will weaken as the U.S. pumps “massive” amounts of money into the economy.

The dollar will drop the most against emerging-market counterparts, Curtis A. Mewbourne, a Pimco portfolio manager, wrote in a report on the company’s Web site. The greenback is losing its status as the world’s reserve currency, he said.

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NY Times/Warren Buffett OP/ED

(www.nytimes.com) IN nature, every action has consequences, a phenomenon called the butterfly effect. These consequences, moreover, are not necessarily proportional. For example, doubling the carbon dioxide we belch into the atmosphere may far more than double the subsequent problems for society. Realizing this, the world properly worries about greenhouse emissions.

The butterfly effect reaches into the financial world as well. Here, the United States is spewing a potentially damaging substance into our economy — greenback emissions.

Read the entire OP/ED here

PIMCO's El-Erian: Stocks Have Hit A Wall

(www.businessinsider.com) Mohamed El-Erian has called the recent Wall Street rally a "sugar high." Now, he says U.S. stocks have hit a wall.

The chief executive of bond-king PIMCO said on Reuters TV that U.S. stocks had topped out because valuations have shot up too quickly.

Read the entire story here

“The White House, a Subsidiary of . . .”

(www.ritholtz.com)

Go here for the answer!