Archive - Mar 2010 - Blog entry

But NO ...

The velocity of money is collapsing. The end of a 50 year super cycle in lending. The government might as well be pushing on a wet noodle. The gold bugs have got it all wrong. The chances of the Fed being able to head off an inflationary burst are close to nil. But the bond vigilantes may have to wait a couple of years. Tax hikes of 3% of GDP next year will strangle the recovery in the crib. A wide ranging, in depth interview with John Mauldin on Hedge Fund Radio.

Well, title is the teaser, read on and find out...

They're back! Facing severe funding shortfalls, public pension funds are popping a few blue pills, horny as ever for hedge funds and other alternative investments touting absolute returns. They should be careful or else they risk catching the next systemically transmitted disease...

He said nothing, but a lot was said. My thoughts.

Ummm ... it already has ...

Paul Krugman now wants to start the economic equivalent of World War III. The man is dangerous.

I've been telling readers and subscribers that the housing market has a considerable amount to fall before we reach income parity and equilibrium in supply and demand. With income currently falling along with rising underwriting standards, that point is actually being pushed even farther into the (event) horizon! We are now at a point where interested parties would be remiss in not pursuing blogs (both in addition to and instead of the mainstream media) to get the nitty gritty analysis on a wide variety of topics. With that being said, I have finally decided to bite the bullet and expand BoomBustBlog by accepting partners in a bid to grow the business. Lethargic media and financial concerns, look out, here comes the BLOGS!!!

A (comprehensive) recap of news items scarcely seen in the mainstream media and relevant BoomBustBlog research from the past 7 days.

In today’s financial world, a real life, real-time economic World Series of Poker is being played out before our very eyes between the Central Banks of the world’s largest economies. As opposed to the annual Las Vegas World Series of Poker tournament, the buy in at the Central Bank World Series of Poker table is exponentially steeper, in the range of trillions of dollars, yen, and Euros that have been used to monetize the world’s debt, and the stakes are default of sovereign debt and the accompanying collapse of that domestic fiat currency.

An internationally known authority on Ponzi schemes gets cleaned out by Bernie. Believable modest returns and feigned exclusivity did the trick. Lessons for us all from Carlo. Better hire the "private dick"

Pension plans for state government employees today report they are underfunded by $450 billion, according to a recent report from the Pew Charitable Trusts. But according to one expert, this vastly underestimates the true shortfall, because public pension accounting wrongly assumes that plans can earn high investment returns without risk. His research indicates that overall underfunding tops $3 trillion. Will pension woes deepen the financial crisis?

A summary of two Jim Rogers interviews with Bloomberg & BNN regarding Greece, euro and how he would invest $100,000 now. Also included: a quick eruo technical analysis from yours truly.

We are on our third EU sovereign state review, and thus far everyone has lied, (scratch that) stretched the truth about the prospective path of their economies out of excessive debt situation. Once you see a pattern of, ahem,,, creativity in forging so called "austerity" plans, how long before the markets simply discount the over-indebted EU as a whole.

I am of the belief that Prepaid Legal, a publicly traded company, is actually running a pyramid scheme and a ponzi scheme (potentially illegal, but arguably legal due to the current laws of the land). They are also employing a self-destructive [pyramid] business model and instead of revamping that model and reinvesting heavily in marketing, they spend money on [ponzi] share buybacks to enrich management who are compensated in stock that is sold directly into the share buyback scheme. This is the opportunity to for the SEC to prove that it is not just the Shellgame Enablement Commission (SEC).