You should, by our reckoning, own a small portfolio of stocks leveraged to positive Black Swans (low probability but high magnitude events that drive a share price higher…like the discovery of a new ore body or the development of a new drug). These are the sort entrepreneurial ventures that will create new wealth.
March 5th, 2010 | Dan Denning | 25 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "federal reserve"
Federal Reserve Increases Rate at Which Banks Can Borrow From It
In a debt drugged, liquidity obsessed world, a change in interest rates can go from affecting profitability to affecting solvency very quickly. And it’s not just the banks that are high on cheap credit.
February 27th, 2010 | Nickolai Hubble | 0 comments | Continued
Ponzi Scheme
Let’s face it, the government-bond market in the West is a gigantic Ponzi scheme. Most governments in the ‘developed’ world are drowning in debt, they are running mind-boggling budget deficits and printing money…
February 19th, 2010 | Puru Saxena | 3 comments | Continued
Banks Could Face Serious Trouble from Losses on Residential and Commercial Real Estate
“For the North Atlantic economies,” Debelle concludes, “this was a big recession which, combined with large falls in both commercial and housing property prices, should result in large losses.” He goes on to point out that the government-guaranteed larger lenders might survive these larger losses. But smaller regional banks might not.
February 18th, 2010 | Dan Denning | 50 comments | Continued
An Insider’s View of the Real Estate Train Wreck, Part II
The current volume of defaults is already alarming. And the volume of commercial real estate defaults is growing every month. That can only keep going for so long, and then you hit a breaking point, which I believe will come sometime in 2010.
February 17th, 2010 | David Galland | 31 comments | Continued
The Case for Higher Treasury Yields…and Lower REIT Prices
I’m a bear on Treasury bonds. Prices should go down and yields should go up as the creditworthiness of the US government deteriorates.
February 4th, 2010 | Dan Amoss | 2 comments | Continued
Inflation: Distorting the Economy
In fact, inflation acts as a poison for retired people since they are no longer able to earn more money in order to maintain their standard of living.
January 19th, 2010 | Puru Saxena | 7 comments | Continued
Sustainability of U.S. Deficits Reason Why Investors Own Some Gold
“If the world goes to hell like you say, you can’t eat gold. You can’t sleep on it, although you could sleep with it I suppose. How useful is it really going to be as a medium of exchange or a store of value if economic activity grinds to a halt?”
“I don’t know. I’m not Nostradamus…
December 17th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 38 comments | Continued
The Economy is Like a Complex Ecosystem
You cannot alter one piece of it without causing effects elsewhere in the system. Investors who understand this reality can also understand (and avoid) the hazards of over-confident investing.
December 15th, 2009 | Chris Mayer | 1 comment | Continued
Debt Going Down Because Households are Defaulting
“Figures released this week by the Federal Reserve showed that Americans owed $10.8 trillion on home mortgages at the end of the third quarter, down 2.2 percent from a year earlier and the lowest level since mid-2007.
December 15th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 3 comments | Continued
Congress Slams Ben Bernanke and Fed Reserve
Because the mainstream press wouldn’t want people thinking bad things about the Fed Reserve. They are here to save us. They are the cavalry riding over the hilltops to our rescue.
The myth of the purity of the Federal Reserve’s motives is jealously guarded by the mainstream press. Any dissenting voices are quickly dismissed as cranks and extremists.
December 8th, 2009 | Murray Dawes | 16 comments | Continued
Optimists Expect Mild Inflation in a Decent Recovery
Pessimists fear the feds may have waited too long; they think they see higher rates of inflation coming. Here on the back page we see no recovery…nor any inflation.
December 7th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 3 comments | Continued
China Will Rule the Business World While America Finds Itself Heavily in Debt
The 19th century belonged to Britain, the 20th century belonged to America and in the 21st century, China will rule the business world. Whether you like it or not, this transition is already underway…
November 18th, 2009 | Puru Saxena | 10 comments | Continued
Harding the Last American President to Deal Honestly With a Major Financial Crisis
Just look up Warren Harding on Wikipedia. The first entry you will find is not the 29th president of the United States of America, but a rock climber with the same name.
October 26th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 12 comments | Continued
Separating the Short-term Trends in Financial Markets from the Long-term Trends in Geopolitical History
The Dow Jones slipped under 10,000 at the end of the day Wednesday largely because analyst Dick Bove changed his call on Wells Fargo from “neutral” to “sell.” Bove said the quality of the company’s third quarter earnings was, “pretty poor.” “If you take a close look at the earnings, what you can see is that the improvement is due to a hedging profit…
October 22nd, 2009 | Dan Denning | 4 comments | Continued
