Archive - Apr 2011 - Blog entry

Other than that, everything is great!

Would you qualify for a QRM? I think few will.

I’m fresh back from my trip to Amsterdam where I lectured hundreds of ING institutional clients/staff on the potential of a European banking collapse. Below are a few clips from the first of two lectures. The admonitions look to be quite timely as Greek spreads to Bunds break the millenium mark and head to the North Star. For those who haven't connected the dots, these bonds are held on many EU bank balance sheets as risk free in the hold to maturity category, and are levered up many, many times. Who's larger, the peripheral EU states or Lehman Brothers?

One should expect to consider political risk as a much greater part of the equation when investing in mining stocks in coming years. So where are the riskiest mining jurisdictions in the world and where are the safest?

There goes the European neighbourhood...

Oh it will be said when the Great Ship goes down...

The market rallied a bit in the afternoon as rising new claims for unemployment missed analyst guesses by...

Eliot Spitzer challenged investment banker Goldman Sachs: "Sue me. You lied to the public. You should be prosecuted". Is Spitzer right?

You don't have to break the bank buying some new fad "superfood" ... common and inexpensive foods can contain high amounts of antioxidants (which help fight disease and protect against radiation)

Land of the Free, Home of the Zapped?

Every major country is experiencing price inflation as a result of monetary inflation and it is starting to impact their economies. US Ex-Im prices and trade indicate that we are experiencing price inflation, regardless what the CPI says, and that it is weakening the economy.

Our recent discussion of whether deflation or hyperinflation will lay waste to the economy elicited hundreds of responses. Two of particular interest are featured below. The first, from blogger Charles Hugh Smith, explains why it may be impossible to know with any certainty which of the two forces will prevail. The second, the thoughts of a Wyoming rancher, suggests that in a crisis, we may discover that our need for protein trumps concerns over gold, silver, Treasury paper and the dollar.

Announcing the findings of a Senate panel investigating the financial crisis, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) called Goldman Sachs “a financial snake pit rife with greed, conflicts of interest, and wrongdoing,” adding that C.E.O. Lloyd Blankfein should possibly face perjury charges...This must be yet another job for...

Rising living costs are causing hardship for British pensioners, with 58% saying they are "just getting by" or worse, according to research. And things aren't better for pensioners living on a tight budget in Europe, Canada and the US...

Suspense....[Please put down all food and beverages]