Discursive MonologueDiscursive MonologueContrarian investing and economic news. Decrying the credit bubble and the monetary policy that created it. Articles
Mom, check out the snow
2008-03-09 22:07:00 It snowed pretty hard on Friday. I’m not sure how much snow officially fell in the area, but it was enough that I can’t really go anywhere. The sidewalks are a disaster (people are just walking on the road) and the roads still are not cleared (come on folks, it’s been two days!). I didn’t ... More About: Life , Check , Snow
Credit ?turmoil,? ?turbulence? in pictures: Commercial Paper Spreads, TED S
2008-03-08 01:08:00 This is not a short term hiccup, as the Long Term Capital Management collapse was in late 1998. The credit markets have been showing signs of extreme distress for more than six months now (more on that below). Everyone is crying uncle–Uncle Sam, that is. Wall Street and Main Street, alike, have begged for various ... More About: Pictures , Commercial , Credit , Spreads , Paper
The Federal Reserve, M3, and Inflation
2008-02-11 02:57:00 In the past, I have made references to M3 and its effect on inflation. You might remember that the Federal Reserve discontinued the series several years ago. The Federal Reserve stopped reporting M3 because the governors believed that “M3 does not appear to convey any additional information about economic activity that is not already embodied ... More About: Inflation
Nothing like Japan: Why the global economy will not experience 1990s Japane
2008-01-19 17:40:00 I have heard a lot of pundits calling a commodities top and I want to address several of the popular theories about why commodities are overpriced at these levels. To be sure, I think that commodities are slightly overbought in the short term (i.e., they have gone up too quickly in too short of a ... More About: Economy , Japan , Experience , Global
2008 predictions for the U.S. dollar, equities, and commodities
2008-01-01 16:25:00 Happy New Year! Clearly, I haven’t written anything since Thanksgiving. Some readers have emailed me asking what happened and I’ve responded the same way to each. I’ve been spending time doing other things (work, educational, and entertainment) and I have not had the energy to write here recently. This is still the case, but I ... More About: Commodities , Dollar , Predictions , Equities , 2008
Hot Commodities, by Jim Rogers
2007-11-19 13:59:00 Several months ago, I read a book, by Jim Rogers , called Adventure Capitalist in which Rogers described his circumnavigation of the globe in search of entertainment, adventure, and investing opportunities. I really enjoyed Rogers’ writing style and commentary (so much, apparently, that I forgot to do a book review?). But, Jim Rogers is probably known ... More About: Books , Commodities
To all E*TRADE FINANCIAL customers
2007-11-12 23:24:00 November 12, 2007 This is a challenging time for the financial services industry. Bad news in the credit, housing, and stock markets continues to dominate and E*TRADE is not immune to these market conditions. However, you, our customers, should know that we continue to be well capitalized by regulatory standards. As a matter of fact, we ... More About: Customers , Financial , Trade
Funny Video Friday: George W. Bush funnies
2007-11-09 13:06:00 When he’s not lying, screwing things up, or clubbing a hornet nest, the president can be funny. Watch the video this week and you can laugh with him and at him. This one is a collection of all sorts of over the top behavior in speeches, including winking, stuttering, jokes, and unintended innuendo. Some of ... More About: Video , Bush , Funny , George W Bush , Funnies
October Site Statistics - the last one before returning to real content
2007-11-08 13:06:00 I looked at my site statistics for the month of October and I’m pretty pleased with the growth of my site. I received record traffic for the sixth month in a row. My blog went from a Page Rank of 0 to a Page Rank of 4 (I don’t really know what that means, but ... More About: Life , Site , Content , Statistics , Real
October Expenses - The Usual Suspects
2007-11-07 13:31:00 My expenses for October came out a little higher than September, but still lower than my average for the year. I spent $1288.69 on groceries, dining, gasoline, clothes, insurance, rent, and ‘others.’ The following pie graph and table itemize the aggregate expenses for the month into their respective categories. I spent $168.42 on groceries, down ... More About: Life , Expenses , Suspects , The Usual Suspects
Steve Forbes: ?The Federal Reserve is a big villain in this crisis;? the Fe
2007-11-06 13:29:00 I saw a video on moneyshow.com today in which Steve Forbes actually made a lot of sense. He was explaining that the Federal Reserve is largely responsible for the liquidity problems that appeared in July and August (and still weigh on investors decisions). He suggests letting free markets regulate interest rates rather than the Federal ... More About: Crisis , Villa
Redefining the debate on buying vs. renting now that the chickens are comin
2007-11-05 13:40:00 It’s that classic question hurled at renters by smug buyers who have shielded themselves with untenable (yet widely accepted) assumptions: Why throw your money away on rent when you could be building equity in a place to call your own? Buy a home now or the market will leave you behind. After all, home prices ... More About: Buying , Debate , Renting
How to analyze a stock and the latest MFI stock roundup: Salzgitter AG, BT
2007-10-31 13:37:00 In my continuing saga of researching Magic Formula stocks, I have written an anecdotal analysis of three more stocks from our list that I researched last week: Salzgitter Ag (Germany), BT Group Plc (UK), and Heelys (USA). I’m including them all in this single post because they do not include details like I wrote for ... More About: Roundup , Investing , Stock , Analyze , Anal
A Vision of Students Today
2007-10-30 14:40:00 Someone sent me a youtube video called A Vision of Students Today , created by Michael Wesch, assistant professor at Kansas State University. The video focuses on the state of university education today and how it has been affected by computers and the Internet. The ideas are supposed to represent a large collection of responses given ... More About: Life
Ladies and gentlemen: Comic relief provided by Bill Fleckenstein
2007-10-28 16:01:00 Two weeks ago, I gave my opinion about the monster-SIV concept being floated around Wall Street. I said, “I don?t really understand how this super fund, being orchestrated by the Treasury and financed by a consortium of big banks, can possibly work. It sounds like the idea is to buy a ton of the illiquid ... More About: Comic , Relief , Ladies , Bill , Comic Relief
Snappy Comebacks for office fresh-mouths
2007-10-19 15:11:00 For the work-stressed of the world who are challenged daily to produce biting retorts but sometimes can come up with no more than an “oh yeah!?” I don’t know what your problem is, but I’ll bet it’s hard to pronounce. How about never? Is never good for you? I see you’ve set aside this special time to humiliate ... More About: Office , Timeless , Fresh , Snappy
China: So what if the bubble pops? The economy will roar on, says Andy Xie
2007-10-18 14:50:00 I just read an interesting editorial by Andy Xie (regular readers know that I always enjoy reading his columns) in which he argues that neither a recession in the United States nor a burst in the Shanghai equity bubble will stop China ’s economy from growing. He says, “Burst or not, China’s high growth is likely ... More About: Economy , Bubble , Roar
This week in bail-out euphamisms: ?super fund,? ?support fund,? ?super cond
2007-10-17 15:12:00 I have been a vocal critic of the financials this year, suggesting that I would not touch most of them with a 10-foot pole. Most recently, JPMorgan and Bank of America wrote down $3 billion in loans and Citi posted a 57 percent decline in earnings for the third quarter, due to (among other things) ... More About: Super , Support , Week , Fund , Euph
Six months of Commercial Paper: risk appetite returning after 2-month hiatu
2007-10-16 14:05:00 The capital markets have certainly taken us for a wild ride this year. Risk appetite reached a point in July where I was about to have a heart attack–spreads were squeezed to tight that the resulting combustion reverberated through global capital markets. How far have we come since the liquidity raft was caught in rapids. ... More About: Commercial , Paper , Months , Month
Money: you don?t make it by spending it
2007-10-15 15:51:00 Yahoo! Finance recently featured an article, by Anya Kamenetz, called Staying Frugal in the Age of the iPhone. The motif of the article is avoiding the consumer culture trap. It’s hard to avoid consumerism when the media constantly glamorizes buying the latest and greatest, even if one has to finance that spending with revolving debt. ... More About: Life , Money , Spending , Make
My latest stock purchase: Enterprise Oilfield Group
2007-10-10 14:28:00 Yesterday morning, I called the compliance department at work and then decided to pull the trigger on a stock that I’ve been eyeballing for a while. Before I introduce the stock (ha, it’s already in the title of this post), I have to say that this one is a little out of character for me; ... More About: Investing , Stock , Group , Enterprise , Purchase
Funny Video Friday: George takes a nap at work on Seinfeld
2007-09-28 23:34:00 It’s Friday again, and I’m ready to relax for a few days; but, I can’t. Ohio LinuxFest 2007 is going on all day tomorrow and I will be attending the Fark Party with Drew Curtis this evening. I am hoping to snag some free Linux gear between the presentations tomorrow and the Google after-party. Until ... More About: Video , Funny , Funny Video , Work , George
Remember gold ? that ancient relic that has no place in modern banking? I l
2007-09-27 15:15:00 The recent rise of gold past $730 per troy ounce begs for a review of the virtues of the gold, commodities, and other hard assets in this age of loose monetary policy and market excesses. There are bubbles in most asset classes across the globe?equities, real-estate, art and other collectibles, even commodities. The potential for ... More About: Gold , Banking , Modern , Place , Ancient
Transcript: Jim Rogers Interview (Bloomberg) 18 September (Part 2)
2007-09-26 14:53:00 Yesterday, I posted the the first part of a long interview with Jim Rogers , Chariman of Beeland Interests, aired on Bloomberg September 18–the morning before the Federal Reserve was set to announce a key decision on monetary policy. In the first part, Rogers explained that he thinks the Fed should be raising interest rates to ... More About: Interview , Part
Transcript: Jim Rogers Interview (Bloomberg) 18 September - right before th
2007-09-25 15:03:00 Jim Rogers is not an eloquent speaker, by any means. Still, he has a way of putting things into words and he didn’t beat around the bush in an interview with Bloomberg the morning before the Federal Reserve was set to announce its interest rate cut decision. Jim Rogers explained his opinion that the rate ... More About: Interview , September
A look back at Long-Term Capital Management to understand the Federal Reser
2007-09-24 15:10:00 In August 1998, the brainiest group of hedge fund managers ever to grace Greenwich, Connecticut created one the worst liquidity crunches in history. The secretive group of Ph.D.s and financial engineers at Long -Term Capital Management (LTCM) did what hedge fund managers have been doing for years–making what amounted to speculative bets on market directions. The ... More About: Back , Understand
Funny Video Friday: Conflicts between Jim and Dwight on The Office
2007-09-21 12:39:00 It’s time to wind down for the weekend with a little comedy. This week’s funny video is a clip taken from NBC’s The Office in which Michael, the office manager, raided the human resources files only to discover a series of reports recorded when employees vented to the human resources representative. Michael tried to play ... More About: Video , Funny , The Office , Funny Video
A look at the U.S. Trade Deficit with Asia - the destination for the strong
2007-09-20 12:23:00 I have been reviewing the U.S. trade deficit for the last two days, beginning my review by looking at the U.S. trade deficit with various European countries and the European Union. Next, I presented the U.S. trade deficit with Canada, Mexico, South American countries, Africa, and the Middle East. Today, I will present the last ... More About: Asia , Trade , Destination , Strong , Deficit
U.S. Trade Balances with Europe?Who will hurt the most when the Empire fall
2007-09-18 12:33:00 Several people have requested that I post some charts of the U.S. Trade Balance with China (and the related current account balance). I like the idea, so I want to take some time this week to post charts of the U.S. trade balance with countries all over the world. But, China will have to wait; ... More About: Europe , Hurt , Empire , Fall
Funny Video Friday: Mel Gibson apology to Jews on Family Guy
More articles from this author:2007-09-14 14:11:00 Guess what. It’s funny video Friday and I’m in the mood for Family Guy. The Family Guy has some pretty edgy comedy, and nothing on the show (as far as I’m concerned) has been more edgy than the Mel Gibson apology satire. The Family Guy creators created this mock-apology to laugh at Hollywood’s constant production ... More About: Video , Funny , Funny Video 1, 2, 3 |
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