Submitted by Abe Townsend: This makes you think! Will the end of QE2 result in a stock market correction? I think it might. See: http://seekingalpha.com/article/276458-where-will-stocks-go-after-qe2-the-fed-s-balance-sheet-holds-the-key.

The big economic event of the early summer will be the conclusion of the Federal Reserve’s second round of quantitative easing, known as QE2. Speculation is at a fever pitch in financial circles about what will happen when QE2 ends. And it isn’t only a Wall Street story; every worker and investor will be affected.  (Read the rest of the article as it appeared in The Register-Guard on Thursday, June 23, 2011 here: http://www.registerguard.com/web/opinion/26404701-47/rates-fed-inflation-interest-higher.html.csp).

Submitted by Josh Nolan: See the following link for an interview on CNBC with Bill Gross, the “bond king”.  http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?play=1&video=3000027178

Templeton Asset Management’s Emerging Markets Group Executive Chairman, Mark Mobius, recently addressed the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan in Tokyo.  He predicted that another financial crisis was definitely around the corner because we haven’t solved any of the things that caused the previous crisis.  Mobius highlighted the derivatives market as a potential source of financial fragility.  According to Mobius the total value of derivatives in the world exceeds total global gross domestic product by a factor of 10.  It is inevitable that with that volume of bets in different directions, volatility and equity market crises will occur, he said.  Read the rest of this entry »