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About Jeffrey P. Snider

Give us a call at 1-888-777-0970 or via email at info@alhambrapartners.com to discuss how his unique approach informs our investment decisions. We'd be happy to discuss our investment strategies and provide a complimentary portfolio review.

When You Stop Reading After The Second Sentence

By |2017-07-18T16:14:36-04:00July 18th, 2017|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

On June 27, ECB President Mario Draghi opened that central bank’s international conference in Sintra, Portugal. Most media never made it past the first two sentences of his prepared remarks. For them, the verdict was already delivered in those few lines. They declared that Draghi declared monetary policy was working and the world was on its way at long last. [...]

A Decade of Fallacy

By |2017-07-18T14:19:24-04:00July 18th, 2017|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Ten years ago yesterday, Bear Stearns sent a letter to shareholders of two specific hedge funds that it sponsored. Whenever anyone brings up the name now, you immediately know where this is going. That wasn’t the case in 2007, however. Whatever the world may think of Bear in hindsight, a decade ago it was a highly reputable firm. These two [...]

China’s Ghosts Are A Future Property

By |2017-07-17T13:12:58-04:00July 17th, 2017|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

The term “ghost city” is a loaded one, often deployed to skew toward a particular viewpoint. In the context of China’s economy, it has become shorthand for perhaps the largest asset bubble in human history. While that may ultimately be the case, in truth China’s ghost cities aren’t about the past but its future. There is a great deal that [...]

Industrial Drag

By |2017-07-14T17:32:50-04:00July 14th, 2017|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Completing a busy day of US economic data, Industrial Production was, like retail sales and inflation data, highly disappointing. Prior months were revised slightly lower, leaving IP year-over-year up just 2% in June 2017 (estimates for May were initially 2.2%). Revisions included, the annual growth rate has been stuck around 2% now for three months in a row, suggesting like [...]

Fool Risk Realized

By |2017-07-14T13:36:19-04:00July 14th, 2017|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Legendary football coach Bill Parcells once said, “you are what your record says you are.” It was a pearl of wisdom plucked from wherever Yogi Berra used to wander, made into a brutal truth delivered cunningly as a blatant tautology. We’ve all heard of how sports teams are “good on paper” or “better than their record”, but Parcells succinctly dismissed [...]

Retail Sales Conundrum

By |2017-07-14T11:37:39-04:00July 14th, 2017|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Retail sales were thoroughly disappointing in June. Whereas other accounts such as imports or durable goods had at least delivered a split decision between adjusted and unadjusted versions, for retail sales both views of them were ugly. Seasonally-adjusted first, spending last month was down for the second straight time. Worse than that, estimated sales were just barely more than in [...]

All Conundrums Matter

By |2017-07-13T19:50:41-04:00July 13th, 2017|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Since we are this week hypocritically obsessing over monetary policy, particularly the federal funds rate end of it, it’s as good a time as any to review the full history of 21st century “conundrum.” Janet Yellen’s Fed has run itself afoul of the bond market, just as Alan Greenspan’s Fed did in the middle 2000’s. But that latter example wasn’t [...]

The Ghost Recovery

By |2017-07-13T16:37:41-04:00July 13th, 2017|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

To the naked eye, it represents progress. China has still an enormous rural population doing subsistence level farming. As the nation grows economically, such a way of life is an inherent drag, an anchor on aggregate efficiency Chinese officials would rather not put up with. Moving a quarter of a billion people into cities in an historically condensed time period [...]

Oh No, Not ‘Dovish’ At All

By |2017-07-12T15:46:30-04:00July 12th, 2017|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

It is hypocritical, I suppose, to claim that Janet Yellen is irrelevant while at the same time constantly writing about the oblivious things she says. The Fed doesn’t matter but we need to obsessively focus on monetary policy anyway. Often the reasoning is upside down. By that I mean, we hope that by highlighting how little authorities know that someone [...]

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