Blog Posts by Stacy Curtin

The Federal Reserve begins its two-day policy-making meeting today and not much news is expected, as has been the case ahead of many of the most recent meetings.

Why?

Related: The Bull Case for Gold Hasn’t Changed One Iota: Michael Pento

The central bank has clearly stated it will continue its $85 billion per month bond-buying program until the unemployment rate drops to 6.5% and as long as inflation remains stable. The jobless rate for fell from 7.7% to 7.6% in March and remains well above the Fed's threshold for drawing back its monetary stimulus.

That said, inflation has been falling and may be even more reason for the Fed to continue its current program. The Wall Street Journal's Jon Hilsenrath details as much in a recent article:

The Commerce Department reported Friday that its personal consumption expenditure price index—one of the Fed's favored measures of consumer price inflation—was up 1.2% in the first quarter from a year earlier, well below the central bank's target. It was

Gold prices have finally stabilized after falling roughly 11% over the last week.

The yellow metal closed Thursday up 1.84% to $1,417 an ounce.

The reason for the recent drop in gold prices is unclear but some cite Cyprus selling its gold to cover the cost of its bailout as a factor or central bank manipulation.

Related: Gold Tumbles Again: Is the Era of Gold Over?

Barry Ritholtz of Fusion IQ made a prescient call last December when he sold all his gold. He has recently been writing on his The Big Picture blog about the "New Great Rotation" from commodities into bonds (versus the "old rotation" from stocks to bonds).

In a recent blog post entitled "The Rules of Goldbuggery", Ritholtz noted the "cognitive dissonance" of gold bugs around the recent gold crash. He writes:

"The reaction to Gold’s crash has produced some astonishing rationalizations. The refusal to acknowledge basic trading facts leads us to recognize that Gold bugs and traders have very specific rules that they MUST

CEO pay was 354 times that of the average worker last year, according to the AFL-CIO's new Executive PayWatch database. The labor group asserts that this is "by far the largest pay gap in the world."

In 2012, the chief executives of some of the country's largest companies earned an average of $12.3 million in compensation compared to the average worker who took home a salary of $34,645.

“American chief executives continued to do very well for themselves last year, while workers struggle to make ends meet,” said Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO. “We are calling out the hypocrisy of rich CEOs who have the gall to ask for corporate tax cuts to be paid for by squeezing the retirement security of working America. The American public deserves to know the truth about their self-serving agenda.”

The three executives who earned the most last year, according to the AFL-CIO, include:

• Oracle's (ORCL) Larry Ellison: $96.1 million
• Credit Acceptance Corp.'s (CACC) Brett Roberts: $54.2

The last financial crisis catapulted the U.S. economy into the worse recession since the Great Depression. Since then, much time and discourse has been dedicated to blaming the big banks for engaging in risky business.

Michael Pettis, finance professor at Peking University in Beijing and senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, recently wrote in the Financial Times that reckless banking is actually good for economic growth.

He writes:

"No growing economy has sustained a stable financial system. In fact, long-term wealth creation accrues most to societies in which the financial system most willingly funds risk-taking entrepreneurs. But the more a financial system is willing to finance risky new ventures, the greater the likelihood of banking instability. That, perhaps, is why the system that delivered the subprime crisis also funded the computing and internet revolutions."

The Daily Ticker's Lauren Lyster caught up with Pettis at this year's 2013 Wine Country

Even though the S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) are hovering at all-time highs, Chris Martenson, author of PeakProsperity.com and the “Crash Course” Series, is forecasting a major market correction.

Martenson predicts the S&P could fall 40% to 60% to the 600-800 level by this fall. His last major market call was in March 2008, before the financial crisis.

Related: U.S. Stock Market Is 'Overvalued, Overbought and Overbullish': John Hussman

The Daily Ticker’s Lauren Lyster sat down with Martenson at the 2013 Wine Country Conference in support of Les Turner ALS Foundation to get his market and economic predictions.

"I see recessionary signs all over the landscape. In particular, Europe is already in recession [and] Japan is already in recession," he says. "We are looking at global economic slowdown."

As for corporate earnings, a stronger U.S. dollar could bring down profits this year, Martenson believes. Corporate profits currently account for 11% of GDP, which

While the American economy may continue to be sending investors mixed signals about a potential recovery, famed short-seller Jim Chanos still believes the U.S. is "the best house in a bad neighborhood." He's been bullish on U.S. markets for three years.

Related: March Jobs Disaster: It’s a Bad Report But Don’t Panic, Brusca Says

"Boy the U.S. market has gone up quite a bit since then," says Chanos of his prediction. "A lot of what we thought might happen three years ago has sort of now been reflected in prices."

To his point, both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) and S&P 500 (^GSPC) are trading near all-time highs. As a result, he is finding "fewer attractive long hedges in the U.S."

As of the fourth quarter of last year, his largest long positions included United States Natural Gas (UNG), SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), SPDR S&P MidCap 400 ETF (MDY), SanDisk (SNDK) and Deere & Co (DE).

The Daily Ticker’s Lauren Lyster sat down with Chanos, also president and managing partner of

Google (GOOG) plans to assemble its highly sought after Google Glass technology here in the United States with the help of Taiwan's manufacturing powerhouse Foxconn, according to The Financial Times. Reportedly, the assembly plant will be based in Santa Clara, CA -- not far from Google headquarters -- and employ U.S.-based employees.

While that sounds like a big score for American workers, Google will continue to source many of the components for Google Glass from Asia.

James Altucher, managing director of Formula Capital, says this is a "very smart" idea.

"Once you send your technology and your intellectual property oversees, who knows what is going to happen with it," he says. "I'm not accusing China of anything, but China steals everything. So Google is being very smart - they are going to micromanage the development of these glasses."

Beyond that, Google will also be able to micromanage the working conditions at its plant. For years, Apple has come under fire for horrible working

On the heels of Lululemon's see-through yoga pants flap, Victoria's Secret is under fire for its latest PINK line campaign "Bright Young Things" which targets young girls. While the clothing line includes a variety of apparel including t-shirts, sweatshirts and pants, the items causing the biggest stir are underwear featuring sayings like "call me" and "dare you" and "feeling lucky."

Parents are incensed and have taken to the Internet to petition the company to pull the racy lingerie line. More than 3,400 people have signed on to a petition at Change.org started by Diana Cherry, a mother of three young daughters and a son. Cherry writes:

Victoria's Secret may claim that PINK is for college women but their Chief Financial Officer Stuart Burgdoerfer made it clear when asked about Victoria’s Secret’s PINK lingerie line that they are trying to reach a teen audience. “When somebody’s 15 or 16 years old, what do they want to be? They want to be older, and they want to be cool like the girl