Archive - Feb 2013 - Blog entry

Buy Apple till $1,000! Hurry & get this Facebook IPO while its hot! Short Google to go long Apple! I short the sell side & storm CNBC! Guess how it turned out.... 

Two examples today of the strange way things work here in the Netherlands regarding conflicts of interest. Of course we know that things are getting increasingly blurry whereever you are between government, regulators and corporations. I'll be interested to hear what you think about the whole issue.

The first example is for a business that tests LED lamps and publishes the results on the internet. The people that run the tests both work full time at Philips. Maybe not on the lamps themselves.

Bush and Obama Have Set Us Back 800 Years

"Retrophrenology says why not change a man's personality by hitting him on the head with a hammer, till you raise the right bumps in the right places."--Simon Green

Everything is going to be on easy street....Chicken in every pot.

Worldwide, politicians are not exactly famous for honesty. However, Europe is a very special case… where just about everyone is lying on just about everything involving the economy and banking system.

Press conference from hell, slugfest about corruption, even in Germany

What I think of Eric Holder's carnival crusade against S&P...

Work in the mortgage market?  Never read about Kamala Harris or the  CA "Home Owner Bill of Rights?"  Read on....

Gold climbed $5.70 or 0.34% in New York yesterday and closed at $1,673.50/oz. Silver inched up to $31.86 in Asia, then it fell back to $31.38, and then rose to a high of $31.91, but eased off in afternoon trade and finished with a loss of 0.35%.

Gold rose to a new record nominal high on the TOCOM at 0.156 million yen per ounce. The resignation of Bank of Japan Governor, Shirakawa on March 19 is pressuring the yen as is increased tensions in the Pacific between China and Japan -  Japan accused China of targeting a Japanese naval vessel and helicopter.

Unfortunately, the spectacular rise of Wall Street’s securitization machine will likely forever frustrate attempts to ascertain the extent to which the Fed is responsible for what happened to the U.S. housing market and financial system in 2008.  After all, it wouldn’t be fair to short sell (no pun intended) all the Special Purpose Vehicle sponsors, CDO asset managers, investors, and ratings agencies who, for at least five years, worked so hard to collapse the system.

The last time prices reached only $95 a barrel WTI the Whitehouse started talking up the SPR release only six months ago.  Now that gas prices are higher than ever for this time of year and set to go higher, and we haven`t heard a single mention of the SPRs? 

It’s curious, isn’t it?  So-called “paper gold” (a futures contract) has a price that is not only very close to physical gold, but it remains locked to it.  This is despite the fact that “paper gold” is reviled in the gold community.  Why?  What is this mysterious force that binds them tightly together?

Back to square one. Spain is in the spotlight once again with data unsettling enough to shatter the Euro’s 4 month rally against the dollar. Record unemployment coupled with depressing growth data and political woes paint Spain to look like a sinking ship.

Break the markets to save themselves...