Discursive MonologueDiscursive MonologueReporting on the massive torrent of wealth from the United States to East Asia, the depreciation of the U.s. Dollar, and hedging strategies. Articles
The mirage of wealth?How Americans? credit-acquired ?stuff? only makes them
2007-06-08 19:07:00 Pop quiz! If you have a BMW M5 parked in front of a McMansion with custom furniture and a couple of big-screen televisions, are you rich? It depends on how much debt was required to purchase all of that stuff. It seems like many Americans are fooling themselves (and their neighbors) into an illusion of ... More About: Economics , Wealth , Credit , Stuff
Speculative Bubble: IPO mania and LBO mania leave companies, hedge funds, o
2007-06-07 19:32:00 How do I know that we are in the middle of a market mania? I?ve mentioned a few things about low volatility, risk not being discounted, valuations, etc. Today, I want to mention two other things: IPO mania and M&A mania. Near the apex of a bubble, IPOs and mergers and acquisitions become more and ... More About: Economics , Companies , Leave , Bubble , Hedge
Falling production, a paucity of capital investment, over-consumption leave
2007-06-06 19:15:00 Over the past several years, my stock picks have beat all of the major U.S. indices. However, I don?t consider myself a stock picker. My performance record is short term and likely a product of investing in value companies during a bull market. I was speaking with a friend yesterday about my success investing in ... More About: Investment , Investing , Leave , Production , Invest
How overvalued is the NASDAQ 100 and how can you take advantage of the down
2007-06-05 19:52:00 Several of the users at stokblogs.com have been getting nervous about our credit bubble and have taken defensive positions in what they consider to be a dangerous market climate. The most recognized overvaluation in U.S. equities is the NASDAQ 100 index, which features the largest companies in the NASDAQ. I decided to do some research ... More About: Investing , Nasdaq , Value , The D , Advanta
Top Ten bizarre Google search terms that bring people here
2007-06-04 19:37:00 Google Analytics has the feature of allowing a site owner to view the search terms used to arrive at one?s web site. I was looking through them today to get an idea of which of my columns were drawing the most search traffic and noticed some really bizarre search terms. I?ve compiled a top-ten list ... More About: Google , People , Search , Google Search , Bizarre
Who will fund the government?s spending addiction? it looks like foreigners
2007-06-03 19:35:00 I mentioned that there is something I need to get off my chest before I start my vacation this week. It has to do with a segment on CNBC’s Kudlow and Company that I saw on Friday where the ethnocentric hyper-bulls suggested that there is no other place for foreign countries to invest their enormous ... More About: Economics , Government , Addiction , Spending , Fund
Vacation time; Changes; Readings
2007-06-03 01:39:00 Vacation To kick off my summer, I’m taking a vacation from work next week. Don’t count on insightful pieces (albeit, something happened on Friday that I might need to get off my chest). I have some web projects in my pipeline that I have been neglecting for a while. I need to get started on them ... More About: Life , Books , Readings , Time , Vacation
China tires of American IOUs; sets targets on equity and hard assets as Ame
2007-06-01 18:35:00 Several months ago, I read a book called Crash Proof, by Peter Schiff. In Crash Proof, Schiff argues that the United States economy is in a dying state hidden by misleading statistics such as ?core inflation? and GDP. Meanwhile, American s continue to support their dysfunctional lifestyles by falling farther and farther into debt. The past ... More About: Politics , China , Sets , Hard
The anti-inflationary monetary policy advocated by John Maynard Keynes; A l
2007-05-31 19:34:00 Yesterday, I wrote about the contemporary economic paradigm, where inflation is seen as a positive economic stimulus and is practiced religiously (and conveniently) by modern central banks. Today, I want to take a look at inflation from a Keynesian perspective. John Maynard Keynes considered money supply growth equal to taxation, ?just as much taken from ... More About: Politics , Monetary Policy , Policy , Anti
The source of inflation is bad monetary policy; A look at inflation Part I
2007-05-30 19:09:00 Bad policy can only become public policy with the complicity of the people. One need only recall the concentration of power in Washington, D.C. during recent years by means of a very simple device?rhetoric. Rally terms like ?freedom? and ?liberty? are expedient and subversive means of corralling the masses into the nationalistic group-think required to ... More About: Politics , Monetary Policy , Inflation , Source , Policy
Asia Squawk Box transcript ? Market commentary by Sean Callow; more gloomy
2007-05-30 00:02:00 While I tend to admonish CNBC for its hyper-bullish, hyper-bubbly market cheerleading, I do tune into CNBC Asia occasionally because the atmosphere is different. The anchors are more objective and the guest commentators, spending most of their time in Asian financial centers, tend to have a less United States-centric view on global markets. Thus, it ... More About: Commentary , Money , Market , Trans
Do you remember the 1980s? This should jog your memory
2007-05-28 19:24:00 It’s still a holiday weekend in the U.S. (Ha Ha Canadians) so that means another lite post. Believe it or not, this is an e-mail forward that I received in 1999 and has remained in a folder at my hotmail account all of this time (talk about a relic of the past). I was pretty ... More About: Memory , Timeless , Memo , 1980s
Husband?s ultimatum gone awry; Construction worker?s sick idea of a joke; A
2007-05-27 21:42:00 For my third lite holiday weekend post, I present to you some funny pictures from an email forward direct from the Philippines. First in line is a picture representing a hellish morning commute to work. I’ve seen the nerd version where the text “31337 h4X0r” made it onto one of these signs. This one is ... More About: Joke , Construction , Idea , Timeless , Sick
Are you a socialist or a capitalist? Keep your sense of humor.
2007-05-27 05:02:00 Keeping with the theme of simple posts for the holiday weekend, here is another time killer (not too much time). This is a short survey in which you check the box next to opinions with which you agree. Some kind of algorithm determines the proportion of socialism and capitalism in you. The end result is ... More About: Humor , Sense , Timeless , Ense , Humo
Darwin Dating - Dating for beautiful people
2007-05-26 05:14:00 I’m taking it easy this holiday weekend so I will (hopefully) have time for site maintenance and writing some quality material for next week. This post will add some much needed levity to the overwhelmingly gloomy climate here. I came across a site called darwindating.com and had a good laugh. Darwin Dating is an online dating ... More About: People , Beautiful , Beautiful People
Decaying economic fundamentals and unbridled optimism lead to 1929 crash wa
2007-05-25 02:09:00 I have mentioned my personal believe that the current economic climate has moved to a 1929-like state and have featured several commentators issuing the same stern warning. Add Bill Fleckenstein to the list of market commentators writing about the similarities between contemporary economic trends and those in 1929. Fleckenstein points out the unregulated pool operators ... More About: Money , Menta , Economic , Crash , Fundamental
Ron Paul Part II: Internet Demagogue (for now)
2007-05-23 22:41:00 In my first look at Congressman Ron Paul , I introduced him as a strict Constitutionalist who wants to bring the United States government back in line with its charter. Dr. Paul’s opinions on monetary policy are sensible and were best expressed in the transcript I provided of his speech given before Chairman Bernanke in a ... More About: Politics , Internet , Part
Ron Paul Part I: Fiscally conservative and Constitutionally deferent; a lig
2007-05-20 19:15:00 Who is Ron Paul ? If you have been following my blog, you have seen a reference to his weekly column, Texas Straight Talk, where the veteran politician writes about the appropriate role of the federal government in the United States and denounces the mutation from Constitutional authority. I have been reading his column or over ... More About: Politics , Conservative , Part
Same store sales are down for the big retailers, but Mastercard surprises t
2007-05-19 17:55:00 April turned out to be a terrible month for American retailers. The bulwark Walmart reported a 3.5 percent decline in same-store sales for April–the worst performance the company has ever reported. This number was signigicantly worse than the analysts’ expectations of 1.1 percent. Meanwhile, Target reported a 6.1 percent decline in same-store sales for April. ... More About: Money , Sales , Store , Master , Rise
Courtesy call ? Sites that have referenced me
2007-05-19 17:54:00 Wordpress has the ability to report incoming links and I always take the time to visit sites that link to me. This is important to me because it reveals places from which potential traffic might be redirected and it gives me a chance to respond to an opinion about me or to clarify a quote ... More About: Wordpress , Sites , Have , Call , Reference
Officer confiscates marijuana from suspect; bakes brownies; freaks out and
2007-05-18 19:24:00 This video was too funny not to share. The news report from Dearborn, Michigan features a 911 call from an officer who made brownies with marijuana confiscated from a suspect and shared them with his wife. He became frightened that he and his wife might have overdosed and called 911 for rescue. The dialogue in ... More About: Brownies , Freak , Freaks , Marijuana , Cate
Betting big on a dollar crash; Warren Buffett sets FOREX markets ablaze on
2007-05-18 03:47:00 Last week, Warren Buffett drove investors crazy by revealing that he was betting big on one currency. The catch was that he did not reveal which currency he is actively buying. “I’ll let you know next year.” The Benjamin Graham disciple is well known for eschewing macro-economic forecasting. After all, Mr. Market can remain irrational ... More About: Money , Markets , Dollar
Likelihood of trade sanctions against China; Washington?s foolish gamble an
2007-05-17 03:08:00 Congress has a repertoire that includes the creation and mismanagement of a financial system that is responsible for global trade imbalance and many bubbles over the past twenty years. It’s ironic, now, that Congress is attempting to propitiate a battered middle class (or at least pander to voters) with protectionist legislation. This could be the ... More About: Politics , China , Washington , Trade , Gamble
The middle class is between a rock and a hard place; not between poor and w
2007-05-15 01:39:00 I just finished reading an article at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about pressures on the middle class. In this inflationary environment, it is becoming harder and harder for middle class families to pay their ways. Bill Bonner discussed this in his books, Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt, where he argues that rising wages don’t ... More About: Rock , Hard , Middle , Place , Class
Fiat flaws; Why I love gold and why you should too–gold is the best r
2007-05-14 02:48:00 Some people say that I have a Gold finger complex. I talk about gold the way people talk about dollars. In a sense, we are talking about the same thing–money. The only difference is that I will put my reputation on the line and promise you that gold will be valuable in ten; one hundred; even ... More About: Love , Fiat , Should , Dash
The Lost Dr. Seuss Poem - I Love My Job
2007-05-12 15:24:00 I received this as a forward at work today. Typically, I don’t pass along forwards, especially ones like this that come packaged with a warning that I will by pushing up daisies if I don’t send this to xx people within xx days of receiving the forward. Still, this one was cute and most of ... More About: Lost , Love , Poem , Seuss
John Hussman on mutual fund cash positions and short interest v. margin deb
2007-05-11 21:38:00 John Hussman’s weekly market commentary, titled ‘Spot the Pigeon,’ reports on the over-valued, over-bought, over-bullish market conditions that have produced an historically high percentage of advancing sessions for U.S. equity indices. I respect Dr. Hussman’s market analysis and especially like the way he looks at price-to-peak-earnings in analyzing valuations in addition to the more traditional ... More About: John , Mutual fund , Margin , Interest , Cash
Home prices under assault; 2007 ushers in a new era of high inventory, fall
2007-05-10 23:09:00 According to the National Association of Realtors, existing home sales in March fell 8.4 percent. 1989 was the last time a monthly drop like this was experienced. The NAR blamed bad weather in February for the drop in March sales. What?! More likely causes are stricter lending models and debt laden consumers uncertain about the ... More About: Assault , Home , Inventory , High , Hers
Yikes! I was requested to remove content
2007-05-10 19:11:00 I received an email from someone whom I quoted recently explaining that his commentary was in violation of his firm’s code of conduct. He was working to eliminate any vestiges of this commentary from the web and asked me to expunge his name and commentary from my web site. While I was within my rights ... More About: Content , Move , Quest , Este , Tent
The S&P 500 is only up against depreciating currencies; why current unb
More articles from this author:2007-05-09 23:30:00 Recently, the S&P 500 index, which represents a large majority of American equities’ market capital, returned to its previous high level set near the turn of the century. America lauded this event as verification of the resilience of the American economy. But, is this really a return to previous levels? After all, the money supply ... More About: Current , Again , Only , Currencies , Rent 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
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