The economic slowdown has been characterized as “consumers are de-leveraging”, which is an interesting turn of phrase that means that people are not borrowing money to spend. The importance is dependent on your perspective. Those people who are not borrowing money to spend are thus suffering the pangs of a lowering of their lifestyle, which depended on borrowing money to spend; and then they come around, whining about stupid things…
September 30th, 2008 | Mogambo Guru | 1 comment | ContinuedCurrencies
Commentary on worldwide currencies by your Daily Reckoning editors in Melbourne, Australia. Still haven’t subscribed to the Daily Reckoning? What are you waiting for… sign up here, it’s free!
A chronological listing of articles is below.
How Will the Next President Handle This Dire Economic Crisis
I saw both John McCain and Joe Biden on CNBC last week, and I was astounded by the shallowness of their answers on how to address the current economic crisis. Both offered the typical Capitol Hill solution to any problem - more regulations. Each tried to disguise his answer in fuzzy language - McCain said he didn’t want “over-regulation” and Biden said he wanted “common-sense regulation”…
September 24th, 2008 | Frank Holmes | 2 comments | Continued
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Investors Have Already Lost 80% of Their Money
Fannie and Freddie did not go gently into conservatorship. Although their access to badly needed equity capital had dried up and their borrowing costs had increased…
September 9th, 2008 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
The Rise in the Dollar Doesn’t Have Everyone Convinced
Byron steered the conversation to what he believed is the REAL story: the dollar strengthening for 8 weeks…
September 8th, 2008 | The Daily Reckoning | 0 comments | Continued
Hyperinflation and the Dollar’s Monetary Destiny
Have the markets already gone through their inflationary melt up phase? Are they now giving way to debt deflation, in which cash is hoarded and the price of all assets (tangible and otherwise) falls? Well…no. It’s true that gold prices tripled in the last eight years. The oil price went from a ho-hum mid twenties to nearly $150. And across the commodities complex, from energy to grains to base metals to precious, nearly everything went up. But that was not hyperinflation.
August 19th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 0 comments | Continued
U.S. Dollar Rallies as Economic Foundation Crumbles
There are at least four reasons we can think of that explain the U.S. dollar’s resurgence (although none of them suggest permanent new strength). The first is that the short-dollar trade is being covered. A lot of institutions were short the dollar. The suddenness and swiftness and simultaneity of the short covering explains the explosiveness of the rally (and the similar carnage in commodity prices). Second, there’s an emerging trading thesis that as Europe and Japan post negative…
August 18th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 2 comments | Continued
Rare Coins as an Informal Way of Estate Planning
I looked at the coins and told him he had about $350,000 worth of coins in his hand. He practically fell over…
July 28th, 2008 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
1 Out of 10 American Mortgages Are Owned by Other Countries
The dark twins of the mortgage market have foreign investors nervously chewing their fingernails, as one out of 10 American mortgages are…
July 22nd, 2008 | Kate Incontrera | 0 comments | Continued
A Word About the Dollar’s Decline from Our Intrepid Correspondent, Byron King:
There are lots of reasons for the dollar’s decline. No. 1 is chronic deficit spending by the federal government. And No. 2 is chronic trade deficits that have flooded…
July 22nd, 2008 | Kate Incontrera | 0 comments | Continued
Vietnam Stock Exchange Plunges, Investors Trading in What Little Dongs They Have
Vietnam had recently become the world’s largest importer of gold bullion. Investors and householders bought the yellow metal for the same reason people always have - as a way to protect themselves from paper. The paper at issue is called the “dong,” the official currency of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. With the Vietnam stock exchange in shambles, the dong has lost value.
June 30th, 2008 | Bill Bonner | 4 comments | Continued