James Levy

Why I'm (Cautiously) Optimistic About the Future

Thanks for sharing this very personal insight, and for introducing me to the concept of ¨psychic income¨. Congratulations to you (and expecially your wife!) for your large family, built with the addition of the special love demonstrated by adoption. God bless you all may your optimism prove well founded!

Quant Easing: Central Banks Unleash the 'Nuclear' Option

The European Central Bank cannot use the ¨nuclear option¨, as their are now bonds issued by the European Union to purchase. All debt is issued by the individual countries of the European countries which share the Euro. Any intervention on the part of the European Central Bank would be very complicated and political, as they would have to decide which bonds of which countries to purchase. Should they support Greece and Ireland and Spain and buy their higher yielding sovereign debt, or stay with AAA rated, lower yielding French and German debt?

A political nightmare. Europe is doomed to become the new Japan.

Five Ways the Global Economy Is Rebounding

Thanks Jim for a dose of optimism when most needed. I´ve added Index Universe to my watchlist. You list five solid factors backing the global recovery which will come eventually, as surely as spring follows winter.
Keep up the good work!

ETFs, Commodities and Dubai

The great thing about Canada as compared to Dubai is NOT the weather...It the rule of law, democracy, separation of powers and religious freedom. All of these are missing in Dubai, and the rest of the Arab world. Dubai is an enormous bubble. When the petroleum age finally ends, they will go back to smuggling and goat herding, where they began. Nothing more is possible in a dictatorial regime which is run essentially on imported slave labor.