Even the normally mild- mannered Wall Street Journal called it “one of the most ambitious efforts to re-engineer American social and economic behavior in decades, presenting risks and opportunities for a wide array of businesses from Silicon Valley to the coal fields of the Appalachians.”
June 5th, 2009 | Chris Mayer | 13 comments | ContinuedArchive for Chris Mayer
Chris Mayer is a veteran of the banking industry, specifically in the area of corporate lending. A financial writer since 1998, Mr. Mayer's essays have appeared in a wide variety of publications, from the Mises.org Daily Article series to here in The Daily Reckoning. He is the editor of Mayer's Special Situations and Capital and Crisis - formerly the Fleet Street Letter.
Gold Bought by Some of America’s Most Successful Investors
David Einhorn, the hedge fund manager who predicted the downfall of Lehman Bros., recently bought gold for the first time. And then there is John Paulson, the guy who made billions of dollars by correctly anticipating the housing bust and credit crisis.
May 1st, 2009 | Chris Mayer | 20 comments | Continued
The World’s Largest Cities
It was a different way to look at Manhattan and its towering skyscrapers as far as the eye can see down any block you choose to look. Somehow, it all seemed a lot bigger in a rickshaw. Hard to believe that within six years, New York will no longer be among the world’s five largest cities.
March 18th, 2009 | Chris Mayer | 5 comments | Continued
Great Depression Survival Guide, Part II
Robert Sobel’s book is our chief guide for the second leg of the Great Depression Survival Guide. As his book’s title lets on, it was the larger companies that did the best. To illustrate this point, let’s start with the auto industry. In 1929, the auto industry sold more cars than it ever sold before – 5.3 million units. But the wrecking ball called the Great Depression hit the auto industry especially hard. By 1932, only 1.3 million units were sold…
March 12th, 2009 | Chris Mayer | 0 comments | Continued
The Magical Investment Corporation
“For the record, I must make a correction to the statement that all investment trusts look liked monkeys at the time of the boom and crash.” So writes Fred Schwed in his 1940 investment classic Where Are the Customers’ Yachts?
February 25th, 2009 | Chris Mayer | 0 comments | Continued
Get Rich Slow
Recently, I spent a few days in an old chateau in the countryside of Normandy, France. There is a tiny town about a mile from the chateau, but otherwise, it is a picture of things pastoral – green meadows… cows cropping grass and taking in the sun… a Jacobin farmhouse… miles of farmland all around… Since I’ve been writing and talking about farmland, I had a deeper appreciation for just how useful such land is. Really, I can think of no better asset to own during any kind of financial crisis…
January 22nd, 2009 | Chris Mayer | 2 comments | Continued
Invest in China’s Geeks and Guts
Trying to make any headway in this market is like trying to move around in a barrel of molasses. Meanwhile, there is a steady drumbeat of bad news in the press. One bit of news that grabbed Chris Mayer was that China officially passed Germany as the third largest economy in the world, behind the U.S. and Japan. Below, he explains why this is an important tidbit for investors to pay attention to. Read on…
January 21st, 2009 | Chris Mayer | 3 comments | Continued
Gold Fell $4
Believe it or not, over a long, long time gold has been extremely reliable. An ounce of it buys about as much bread in A.D. 2009 as it did in A.D. 9.
January 7th, 2009 | Chris Mayer | 0 comments | Continued
Globalisation Halt
Where trade flourishes, business is good. But trade does not always flourish. The linked forces of globalisation move in fits and starts…
January 7th, 2009 | Chris Mayer | 2 comments | Continued
What Will Happen When Oil is No longer a Viable Energy Source?
T. Boone Pickens’ new memoir, The First Billion is the Hardest, is better than I thought it would be. Based on reviews I’ve read, I thought it would spend a lot of time on Pickens’ plan to reduce U.S. oil dependency. I always find such discussions a bore. But that part of the book was only 10 of 250 pages. Mostly, it’s memoir material, with some peeks into the future as T. Boone sees it evolving…
December 4th, 2008 | Chris Mayer | 2 comments | Continued