The American people voted for change, and within months, we’ll have a better idea of what kind of change we can expect. Dan Amoss explores what President-Elect Obama has in store…After an historic election and inauguration, president-elect Obama will enter office with a huge list of challenges.
November 12th, 2008 | Dan Amoss | 4 comments | ContinuedArchive for Dan Amoss
Dan Amoss, CFA is managing editor for Strategic Investment and a contributing editor for Whiskey & Gunpowder. Dan joined Agora Financial from Investment Counselors of Maryland, investment advisor for one of the top small-cap value mutual funds over the past 15 years.
The Government’s Response to the Credit Crisis Will Ultimately Impact Our Lives
My week off allowed plenty of time to think about the future of this credit crisis from a much broader perspective. Driving though Vermont’s scenic Green Mountains and New Hampshire’s White Mountains, we had plenty of time to listen to audio books. One in particular - David McCullough’s excellent book 1776 - offered perspective on how far the U.S. has strayed from its founding principles…
September 19th, 2008 | Dan Amoss | 4 comments | Continued
Gazprom, the State-Controlled Natural Gas Monopoly
The Russian government is pushing a plan to invest $1 trillion, roughly the size of its entire GDP, in modernizing its infrastructure over the next 10 years. It’s likely that some of this money will find its way to Gazprom, the state-controlled natural gas monopoly. Some suspect Vladimir Putin’s stake in the future of Gazprom extends well beyond his relationship with chairman Medvedev.
February 27th, 2008 | Dan Amoss | 0 comments | Continued
T. Boone Pickens Backs Natural Gas as Transportation Fuel
High diesel prices promote investment in alternatives. It makes sense to replace diesel engines with natural gas engines in many applications. So several companies and cities are remaking their truck and bus fleets to run on natural gas. Waste Management (NYSE: WMI) operates a fleet of nearly 500 gas-powered trash trucks. Several cities are shifting [...]
January 11th, 2008 | Dan Amoss | 0 comments | Continued
Citigroup & Thornburg Mortgage Grouping Losses into “Kitchen Sink” Quarter
One month ago at the Lehman Brothers’ Financial Services Conference, Citigroup’s CEO of North American consumer operations, Steven Freiberg, boasted, “Where you think there would be a fire — in our subprime portfolio — it actually looks pretty good.” He even provided a chart showing Citigroup’s industry-beating mortgage-delinquency stats.
Three weeks later, Citigroup (NYSE: C) announced [...]
Securitization and the Labyrinth of Cheap Credit
Credit used to be as free as love in the 1960s. But the days of free credit ended about three weeks ago… and the days of expensive credit arrived. As credit becomes more expensive, asset prices will deflate. And that will not be very much fun for investors.
During this particular credit cycle, investors might suffer [...]
Oilfield Technology and the Race Against Peak Oil
Since the advent of the oil business, scientists and engineers have developed a series of very remarkable technologies. Oilfield technology tends to compound at a steady rate, extending the boundary of what was long considered the absolute limit of exploration and production. Oil and gas resources once thought completely out of reach have now arrived [...]
April 13th, 2007 | Dan Amoss | 1 comment | Continued
Profit Opportunities in US Oil Production Decline
Imagine an army of “nodding donkeys” scattered across windswept plains.
These pumping units toil without fanfare. Up and down, day and night, most draw less than a dozen barrels daily from wells long past their prime. Yet combined, they account for a shockingly high percentage of the oil produced in a country that was once the [...]
Paper Money Is Not Wealth
Paper money is popular under democracies. Under the control of a central bank, paper money provides modern economies with the illusion of great flexibility and resilience. Without the rigidity of the gold standard, bad bank loans are easily swept under the rug. This prevents the possibility of setting a Depression-era bank failure into motion.
Contrary to [...]
Easy Credit and the Demise of the Specialty Retailer
Year after year, the American consumer lives and breathes the quote originally attributed to Mark Twain: “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” Your local landfill is now making compost of predictions warning about the imminent demise of the American consumer. These predictions will likely prove correct one day, but the timing is [...]
December 29th, 2006 | Dan Amoss | 0 comments | Continued