Capitalism
« Previous EntriesThe Main Elements that are Wrong with our Economic System I will divide my comments into parts, and will comment in due course on each of the parts. One blog is too brief to comment on all. If the reader can stand away and look at the system from a distance, it becomes much clearer. [...]
Why Gold Fell – The Pros Harvesting Cash from the Unsuspecting
Gold Plummets and Investors Suffer Published below are gold charts reproduced from Kitco (http://www.kitco.com/charts/) on Thursday April 17, 2017. What they clearly show is someone taking advantage of a market. Probably perfectly legal, but highly offensive to the average investor in the market. What Really Happened This is a story about someone watching the market, [...]
The Basis of Capitalism – Republicans & Libertarians
Libertarians are fiercely anti-government. They believe there should be no rules of commercial conduct and that every person should have the right to conduct themselves as he/she wishes. They believe that wrongful acts by anyone will result in actions by others to mitigate against those wrong acts. Just let people do what people do. Republicans [...]
Fiscal Cliff Nonsense Abates and Economy Continues to Improve
A Sense of Drama Stuck between a hard place and a rock, the Republicans finally relented and an agreement concerning the Fiscal Cliff was reached. The issue seems to have been a holdover from the sudden rise of the Tea Party, which during the last administration promoted a nonsensical pledge among Republicans to never agree [...]
The Financial System’s Death Knell? Or an Over-Reaction?
An Over-Reaction to Current Debt Issues Those that are sophisticated enough and experienced enough, know that after every exuberance in an economic cycle, financial matters become so difficult that many come to the conclusion that “This Time It Is Different”. Analysts come to the conclusion that there is no escape from the inevitable and doom [...]
Irrational Exuberance – the thinking of financial analyst Jeremy Grantham
Advisers to Investing Readers will know that we often comment on the motivations of those that advise on where to invest, and what to invest in. They have their motivations and it is essential for investors to understand why your investment adviser recommends an investment and why a media pundit touts some stock or other. [...]
Expect the Unexpected – Similarities between Japan and the US Presidential Race
Kyle Bass – the Bet Against Japan Kyle Bass founded hedge fund Hayman Capital in Dallas, Texas, in 2006. He made millions betting against the sub-prime mortgage bond market – and now he’s betting on the collapse of Japan. In simplistic terms, Mr Bass feels that the debt accumulated by Japan is so enormous, that [...]
Income Tax Havens
Are Income Tax Havens a Good Thing The real negative effects of tax havens are not that paying taxes in the US are avoided. The real issue is that US policy is driving US $$$ away from the US. When money is put in a tax haven to avoid taxes, that money stays offshore. It [...]
Politics and Economics are Never Far Apart – The Strength of the USA Economy
Sept 24, 2012 The Telegraph Beijing hints at a bond attack on Japan A senior adviser to the Chinese government has called for an attack on the Japanese bond market to precipitate a funding crisis and bring the country to its knees, unless Tokyo reverses its decision to nationalize the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the [...]
The Resurgence of Reason in USA Politics
As an observer of the current USA Presidential election, while listening to the rhetoric from the Democratic and Republican camps, certain encompassing observations are inescapable. The Move Towards the Center The rhetoric of the Tea Party has moved the Republicans to the right – seemingly. In fact a fiscal ‘conservative’, U.S. Congressman Paul Ryan, has [...]
The Debt Jubilee – A Method to Reset the Debt
The Age of Instant Communication A feature of the revolutionary change in communications that has transformed society, is the almost instant universal awareness of every event, or concept. A recent discussion is a relatively new concept of governments printing a massive sum of money and depositing a proportionate amount of it in every citizen’s bank [...]
The Essence of Portfolio Management is the Management of Risks. Not Returns
Most investors are looking for the stock or investment that will show a large increase in value. That is perfectly reasonable, as long as those attempts are viewed in context of an investor’s entire portfolio. A reasonable portion, such as 10% of a portfolio, can usually be regarded as ‘risk’ capital. The essence of making [...]
The Glory of Investing in an IPO is Financially Painful
How Investors Buy Hype Rather Than Reality As each new hot stock goes to market, there is a rush of investors scrambling to buy IPO stock at the offering. The calls to brokers from their clients asking for an allotment rises and the brokers scramble to get an allotment themselves in order to fill the [...]
Sell in May & Go Away – How the Wisdom of the Ages is Time Sensitive
May 2, 2013 Sell in May and Go Away A tried and true investing maxim is “sell in May and go away.” Loosely translated, this means that in most years, the stock market has a seasonality to it that is quite reliable in predicting the rise and fall of the market. Essentially history has taught [...]
Ron Paul on Lobbyists & The Faults With Capitalism
The Faults with Capitalism In my blog of March 13, 2011, as part of a series of 10 recommendations to improve our economic system, I spoke to the impropriety of public servants leaving public service and immediately becoming highly paid “consultants” or “lobbyists”. The Effects of Government Intervention and a Review Cymorfund’s Track Record for [...]
A Toxic View on Greg Smith’s Departure from Goldman Sachs
The Hunt for Muppets While most Americans associate the Muppets with Jim Hensen’s furry creatures, it turns out that “muppets” is slang for “stupid people” in Britain, where GregSmith worked in the bank’s London office. Most people on the street are focusing on Goldman’s Response, and on whether #Goldman Sachs is really still trying to [...]
A Hindsight View of Opinions Expressed in this Blog
Weakness in China Someone sent a note to me about China, in which they pointed out current weakness in China, fear of housing deflation, and some other weaknesses. They then complimented me on publishing Blogs long ago on the coming troubles in China, on the massive undisclosed debts of state-owned enterprises, and the inefficiencies in [...]
Is Oil Overvalued? Could the USA become Energy Sufficient?
The Amount of Oil Used by North America In a recent blog, I talked about how shale gas is changing North America’s energy needs, and how that could change the way that the world works. The effect is starting to be felt. A quote from “MISH’S Global Economic Trend Analysis” Another Plunge in 3-Month Rolling [...]
The US Economy is Showing Strong Signs of Recovery
We Point Out the Obvious – The Next Economic Cycle is Starting We have repeatedly advised readers to look at the history of economic cycles since the dawn of the industrial revolution. There have been repeated cycles that all mirror each other, and as long as we are around, these cycles will continue. A Brief [...]
You Can’t Solve a Debt Crisis with More Debt – or Can You?
How to Deal With Overwhelming Debt We have written a number of times of how Canada solved it’s debt crisis which it incurred through successive Liberal Party excesses. It simply adjusted its spending so that the increase in expenditures continued, but at a lessor rate. Then as the US and Japan, and then Korea and [...]
Political Correctness – Dealing with the Barney Frank’s of Finance (Cont’d)
Continued from Blogs of January 26 & 29, 2012 Dealing with the debt problem means firstly understanding the economic powerhouse that is the USA. The US $ remains the world’s currency and is accepted universally. Fixing the US $ is PRIORITY #1. In the previous blogs, we discussed – Bringing government expenditures under control – [...]
Dealing With the Debt Problem & the US$ – Some Simple Steps (Cont’d)
Continued from Blog of January 26, 2012 Dealing with the debt problem means firstly understanding the economic powerhouse that is the USA. The US$ remains the world’s currency and is accepted universally. Other currencies float in relation to the US$. Fixing the US $ is PRIORITY #1. In the last blog, we discussed – Bringing [...]
Dealing With the Debt Problem – The US$ Remains the World’s Currency – Some Simple Steps
How to Deal with the Debt Problem Dealing with the debt problem means firstly understanding the economic powerhouse that is the USA. The US$ remains the world’s currency and is accepted universally. Other currencies float in relation to the US$. Stability and a return to currencies floating within expected ranges vis-a-vis the US$, brings a [...]
A True Free Market Over Greenspan/Bush/Obama Quantitative Easing – Creating More Debt
The Hindsight Comparison of the Banking Crisis in the Weak Sisters in Europe As the world gradually turns against printing ever more money, we see Germany refusing to loan ever more to the weaker members of the EU; we see the Republicans in the USA turning against the policies of George Bush in printing money [...]
New Jobs Improvement Data in US “Stunning”
The Financial Post today reports that US private sector hiring surged in December as employers added 325,000 new workers, while claims for jobless benefits fell. This come from the ADP National Employment Report. As a comparison, in November 2012, 204,000 private jobs were created. “The number is stunning” quote by Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst [...]
