Archive - 2012 - Blog entry

A graph is worth a thousand words.  Here's three grand worth:

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.--Lao Tzu

In real terms, if a continued rise in US markets is accomplished through covert or overt QE, ironically one will grow poorer as the nominal dollar amount of one’s US portfolio rises but one's purchasing power of said dollar plummets. So rise or bust, either way you lose.

A scandal before construction has even started.

As I reminded you the other day, Ben Bernanke isn't worried about inflation. That's good to know, but what are some other facts that we can look at to determine where prices and / or purchasing power are headed. Two indicators that are relevant to this topic are core inflation (everyone's favorite to point to, since it excludes those pesky inflationary items food & energy), and income.

Lots of motion, little progress. 

This is the weirdest “bubble” I have seen. 

It's all good and well to help struggling underwater homeowners, but for those of us who will not receive a dime of this measly settlement, the restoration of trust in the markets is of greater concern. In this regard, accountability for the flagrant and intentional disregard of the rule of law continues to be profitably ignored.--WB7

It takes a central banker from Goldman Sachs to conceive of the world's largest CLO, and enlist the Eurozone's central banks to do the credit analysis.

Here comes the (re)crash and the search for shortable stock is on! The good thing about bankruptcy is that despite silly manilly market, bankrupt is bankrupt and the stock will act accordingly. Ask GGP/LEH investors.

This is not a drill...

Iran has the capability of creating a world of hurt for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

One of the few sane economists out there is Michael Pento of Pento Portfolio Strategies (formerly of Peter Schiff's Euro Pacific Capital).

Here is an interesting interview he did with Bloomberg back in December where he discusses his typical range of topics: Gold, Inflation, and Interest rates

Notable comments:

There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: as Government expands, liberty contracts - Reagan