Juggling Dynamite

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.”

Here is a direct link to the video report.

Good summary of selling forces at work today. Participants are seeing the downside of phantom liquidity courtesy of levered traders that have been toying with world markets over the past several months.

Insight on the day’s major selloff, with Ira Epstein, The Linn Group; Frank McGhee, Integrated Brokerage Services; Stephen Schork, The Schork Report and Komal Sri-Kumar, Sri-Kumar Global Strategies. Here is a direct link.

A major sell off is underway on over-inflated global commodities and stocks that were looking for any excuse to trade lower from liquidity induced mania over the past several months. A good excuse arrived in the form of weak global economic data over the past few weeks. But the inevitable contagion amongst risk markets is predictable thanks to a dominance of over-levered “players” who are being forced to liquidate assets in bulk in order to meet margin calls across the world. The Canadian market is being hit particularly hard of course, thanks to our rocks and trees focus; but Canadian financials–the last leg of support the past few months–is also faltering. The effect is that the Canadian market has now broken its Q’Eternity support as shown here below.  The 11,000 range becomes the next test area for potential support.

Chart source: Cory Venable, CMT, Venable Park Investment Counsel Inc.