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You Should Be Getting Excited About 2009
Sometimes it seems there’s just no light at the end of the tunnel. Even those of us who try to look at the bright side of things are getting worn down a bit. On the surface, it seems like there is nothing good coming around the corner.
Housing prices continue to drop. Commercial real estate prices are catching up fast. State budgets are facing deep deficits and a couple of them (Michigan for sure) are headed for bankruptcy. Retailers are cannibalizing each other by slashing prices just to get any sales at all (ain’t capitalism grand – if you’re prepared?).
To top…
30Dec2008 | Q1 Publishing | 0 comments | ContinuedWall Street Holidays
This is an enjoyable time of the year. It’s when families gather together to share a wonderful holiday meal and exchange presents. After all, who does not love to tear the wrapping off their presents to see what’s inside? It is really fun to see the excitement of small children as they open their presents.
This type of excitement was on display this past week as little Ben Bernanke unwrapped his present. It brought a tear to my eye as I saw the sheer joy on little Ben’s face as he gazed at his present – a shiny, brand-new helicopter! Little…
22Dec2008 | Oxbury Research | 0 comments | ContinuedWill Calls for a “New Global Financial Order” Result in a Second Bretton Woods and the End of U.S. Dominance?
The leaders of 20 of the world’s most developed nations, the G20, will convene in Washington D.C. on Nov. 15 for an emergency financial summit considered by many to be the 21st century version of the Bretton Woods initiative of 1944. This will be the first chance for European leaders – many of whom blame the current financial contagion on U.S. free market capitalism run – to press for an overhaul of a global financial system the United States has dominated for more than 60 years.
The summit will “seek agreement on principles of reform needed to avoid a repetition of…
24Oct2008 | Money Morning | Comments Off | ContinuedStaring into the Abyss
The Philosopher Nietzsche wrote, “When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back into you.”
And as the new week’s trading approaches, we also peer down from that yawning precipice to a barely visible bottom and ask: could it be the end?
Nietzsche’s intention in the above quote was to warn us against the allure of gazing trance-like into the seemingly bottomless, vertigo-inducing wastes of doom, lest they become mirrors into our own meaningless lives. For it is the abyss within ourselves that so terrifies.
Without the anchor of faith, Nietzsche wrote – without belief that life has a purpose and a…
6Oct2008 | Oxbury Research | Comments Off | ContinuedHow Complex Securities, Wall Street Protectionism and Myopic Regulation Caused a Near-Meltdown of the U.S. Banking System
There’s no time to beat around the bush. Let’s flush out the three credit-crisis catalysts that have remained hidden for too long, thanks to Wall Street protectionism and myopic regulation. Those catalysts – which brought us to the brink of a financial meltdown – are structured collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps, and the horrific offspring of the two – credit default swaps on structured collateralized debt obligations.
An asset-backed security (ABS) is a type of tradable debt security that’s derived from a pool of underlying assets. We could be talking about a pool of mortgages, of automobile leases, or loans…
24Sep2008 | Money Morning | Comments Off | ContinuedGod, Guns and Gold
Give capitalism a chance…
Last night, we attended a birthday party for our old friend, Lord Rees-Mogg. Tout London was there – Maggie Thatcher and David Cameron, for example.
We had heard that Mrs. Thatcher had been unwell; but she looked spry…even sturdy. It was not the occasion to ask a serious question…but we wondered how she must feel. She, along with Ronald Reagan, did so much to set capitalism free. But now, it is being put back in a cage…
All the world’s major markets are in major declines. The worst hit so far are those in the Far East – which…
16Jul2008 | Daily Reckoning | Comments Off | ContinuedWarren Buffet to the Rescue
You have to admire Warren Buffett.
He’s offered to relieve the ailing monoline bond insurers of their very best assets, leaving them with all the subprime rubbish that got them into trouble in the first place. It’s a viciously cut-throat offer to a group of crippled opponents, kicking them when they’re down and defenceless.
He cheerfully admits that this is capitalism, red in tooth and claw, at its finest. “I’m not doing this so that St. Peter will let me in at the pearly gates. We are doing this to make money,” he said.
And still the market applauds him as a hero – “Buffett…
13Feb2008 | Anonymous | 1 comment | Continued
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