Archive - Dec 2009 - Blog entry

Unable to find any compelling valuations among US bank stocks I have taken my search north of the border to find the best of the Canadian banks. Based on my initial research that bank is Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE: TD). While it may not be a buy at the current levels, this is certainly a stock to keep an eye on if this incredible market rally ever reverses.

CalPERS may be paying a price for its decision to help financially strapped local California governments. Moody's Investors Service slashed the triple-A rating of CalPERS by three notches to Aa3. But the real story is how CalPERS' private equity and real estate portfolios got decimated last year. Will this influence future credit ratings?

Today there is still an unbelievable opportunity to invest in gold that will disappear over the next several years as this monetary crisis deepens. Despite the general widespread sentiment of Western financial advisers that they have missed the run-up in gold and now it is too late to buy, this is not true at all.

Paul Samuelson may have been a brilliant man, but he was the problem, not the solution. We can trace many of our current problems to his "scientific" econometric technocracy.

Strange bedfellows ...

Natural gas has become an almost forgotten commodity with poor market fundamentals keeping a lid on the price. But the fuel is not forgotten by Exxon Mobil (XOM). Exxon just announced this morning that it will buy XTO Energy (XTO) in an all-stock deal worth $31 billion as the oil giant moved aggressively towards the abundant unconventional natural gas source at home.

Heretic! Heretic!

Journalist thrown out of Copenhagen by UN security thugs, Dems to lift debt ceiling in game of currency Jenga, Sovereign debt crises emerging, Obama protects Bush torture lawyer Yoo, Afghan 'army' a bunch of pot-smoking teenagers, Chavez launches Telenovela.

Someone is making big bucks on the continuing Dubai story. I wonder who that might be.

I am back from my brief blogging hiatus and not surprisingly, all of the nutty things going on in the financial markets have not magically reversed themselves. So, after some separation from the markets I have made a list of the things I think make the least sense and would impact investors in a meaningful way if the current trends turned around.

Professor Samuelson was a giant in economics. His many articles, books and lectures are a true testimony to his intellectual breadth and depth. The world lost another great thinker today.

Just like football, life is a game of inches. As world leaders gather in Copenhagen this week to discuss measures to protect our climate, is there enough political will to do what's right for the environment and the global financial system?

Something to think about this weekend if you are freezing your ass off, or getting soaked. Is it global warming or global cooling? What have we done to change climate? What happens if we do nothing? What happens if we do something as outlined in Copenhagen? Here's a great summary of the science from Cato. Illarionov was Putin's chief economic advisor.

Some real estate insight at one of America's nicest addresses. Some other thoughts as well.