Doubling money supply to get a 3.5% growth is a joke. For one thing, it is all pretty much fake. For another thing, it is not lasting or sustainable. Japan will remain a QE zombie even longer with policies like this with the US joining in to the QE fake capitalism zombie land. It's rather laughable to see the US embrace anti-capitalistic policies closer to the USSR and still call itself the leader of capitalism.
Making money to enrich member banks with no real value for doing so defies common sense and destroys the concept of money itself. Last, it undermines the market signalling and makes the economy dependent on the Federal Reserve's moves rather than economic ones.
And then there is capitalism. It destroys encouragement to keep capital and destroys the value of holding money and along with punishing people for saving by destroying and fair means of making interest on your money. Seniors revolt against the Federal Reserve or you will be destitute long before you die no matter what you saved.
Intel Can Give Apple The Edge In Mobile [View article]
Apple's leaving Samsung may end up being the biggest business mistake it makes in the coming years. Much of the wonderful development and innovation came from Samsung and Apple working together. Denying Samsung's role in it is a sad act in itself. Trying to block Samsung from also benefiting from the technology by attacking it in the mobile market is ridiculous.
Given Apple's drying up of innovation since Jobs (save all his last grand ideas like iPhone 5) Apple needs Samsung more than ever. So now we are left to ask, where will the innovation come from? Certainly not Intel.
The True All-In Cost To Mine Gold: Complete 2012 Figures [View article]
Sadly the biggest cash costs for miners in recent years is things like salaries (esp executive), marketing (I wonder why you must spend so much to sell a commodity at a discount), and other overhead. Thus, I'd say the big cost these days is management padding and paying off friend's companies that work with you. Should we add this into the cost of gold.
I don't believe expansion and infrastructure besides what it takes to mine should be included into the cost, especially since a lot of the discovery doesn't materialize into anything but is also management's side get rich schemes (especially in Canada) where they try to sucker others to become partial investors into areas they know won't yield gold to start with.
Gold mining is one of the most suspect businesses around.
Actually, given the looseness of news leaks these days, I figure that perhaps someone knows some aspect of the study isn't going well. I'd avoid until the next batch of results is released.
Gold miners (GDX -3.2%) take another beating as gold continues to lose its allure amid disclosures of reduced bets by hedge funds, a World Gold Council report showing gold demand at a three-year low, and a surging dollar. For the miners, it's an ugly world of lower production, higher costs and falling prices. At least nine miners hit 52-week lows: NEM -3%, GG -2.7%, AUY -4.8%, HMY -6.3%, AU -2.5%, BVN -1.1%, ANV -7.4%, NG -2.7%, GSS -5.8%. [View news story]
The Federal Reserve can create deflation just as easily as they did with the great depression if their investment in QE starts to go stale from higher interest rates. Given QE they can make a depression much worse than the great depression now that they truly do control money supply with no restraints at all. We are all foolish to let Congress give away our rights to control money supply. Without a fair method of creating and distributing money supply (or at least democratic) we can not call this monetary system capitalism at all.
The Most Misleading Words In Investing: You Can't Go Broke Taking A Profit [View article]
I agree that selling your winners and keeping your losers will eventually leave you with nothing but a bunch of poorly performing or straight out loser stocks.
It's Official: Gold Is Now The Most Hated Asset Class [View article]
It is interesting, the growth in paper gold and gold in the last decade exceeds the growth in money supply. The fall of gold due to a glut of paper backed by nothing is not a surprise, in fact it is largely inevitable and I'm sure the ones writing it were counting on it since they obviously had no intention of ever fulfilling even a large fraction of the paper contracts with real gold (their simply isn't enough of it in the world).
Advanced Micro Devices: Is Goldman Sachs Right? [View article]
Certainly if GS wants to downgrade AMD they should downgrade Intel as well if not the whole segment. I don't find their single targeting plausible, however if AMD goes down in a cyclical downturn they are likely to tout how right they are even if they are wrong still recommending the rest of the semi equipment sector. I would call this selective hedging so they can't be too wrong no matter how this segment goes (plus it does a lot for kissing up to Intel).
I believe it's very wrong to buy semi equipment at this point of time given a semi downturn is all but inevitable. Coupled with weak PC sales and no new revolutionary developments in networking or handsets, the downturn looks to be a nasty one when it comes.
Cash is not Zynga's problem, their risk is they become irrelevant in the market and lose their faddishness as fast as Facebook is. Simply put, the old social media is dying due to their faddishness. Remember Friendster? Remember Myspace? Facebook may share their fate and along with it those who spawned from them such as Zynga. Sure Zynga has moved away from them but the rotting smell is still attached to them, esp since Facebook spams their customers and asks them to play games incessantly.
Cisco After Earnings: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly [View article]
There has been nothing new or exciting at Cisco for years even though cloud computing and SaaS has been on a tear. Stability is good but sooner or later, without much change their lunch and margins will be eaten by Asian and domestic competitors selling at more affordable prices. I don't know anyone who has bought Cisco for years now. Simply put, they are overpriced with no technology to justify the price anymore.
This helps fund keeping some of the most expensive real estate in the US to house even their most basic functions. As I mentioned years ago when they started doing bad, all I see is waste and more waste crossed with bad management that never changes. Entrenched management is the worst.
Yawn another weight loss drug.... In the drug market partners are golden, especially when you haven't been in a market. Management is greedy and the ramp will be slow and arduous even if the stuff works. There simply are way too many alternatives in this market. It's all up to marketing hype.
Gold (GLD -2.1%), (IAU -2.2%) sinks back below $1,400 as the bounce since mid-April is officially over. At work here, suggests RBC Capital, is the strong stock market. To participate, foreign investors sell gold, buy dollars (UUP is up big in May), and call their stockbrokers. Commerzbank notes gold ETF outflows were another 6 tons yesterday, bringing the total since early April to 230 tons. Silver (SLV -3.1%) tags along. [View news story]
We don't know where gold is heading because we don't know what the Fed now wants? Will they let the US slip into another recession or print loads more funny money to prop it up? The first may bode for weak commodities. The second will reflate commodities. The first will help the Federal Reserve keep its QE status and 0 interest policy that helps them and bankers. The second will help enrich bankers by the Federal Reserve buying up their bonds and giving them more free money to buy up more of the public's assets.
Another words, a QE will only help bankers no matter what is done. That's why QE = the country enters a nightmare of economic doom. Money is made without regards to economic fact and wealth is created for the select few without taking on risk or paying for it. However, worst of all, banks interest now run counter to the public good.
Gold: Over-Leveraged Portfolios Unwinding, Watch Out Below [View article]
"Remember, it was gold and commodity ETFs beginning in early 2000 that were responsible for raising the price of gold near $2000, and it will be the unwinding of all these commodity funds that will bring gold down again." This is an unproven argument of cause and effect. It can be argued these were released due to the rise of gold not the cause of it.
Likewise the indication that these ETFs and ETNs will unwind is also a fallacy. The only way they are really unwound is by someone buying them and closing the position or by converting them to physical. In both cases this means there is a buyer and a seller or just someone converting. By doing either, it decreases the amount of paper gold and theoretical supply drops but not necessarily demand which may increase prices not decrease them.
Hedge funds getting out of a position tend to have a short term effect and lead to more stability not less in the future. I'd be a holder of gold if no hedge fund held gold anymore, not the inverse.
It's all about perspective. I personally disagree with the author's rendition of the effect of less fund managers loving paper gold. A argument there will be less paper gold is also shaky, because one of the main causes of April's gold drop was DB's choice to mint a whole slew more of silver and gold ETNs. As we can see, more paper gold makes the price drop, so cancellation of paper gold would usually have an inverse effect.
Are We Close To Selling The USD? [View article]
Making money to enrich member banks with no real value for doing so defies common sense and destroys the concept of money itself. Last, it undermines the market signalling and makes the economy dependent on the Federal Reserve's moves rather than economic ones.
And then there is capitalism. It destroys encouragement to keep capital and destroys the value of holding money and along with punishing people for saving by destroying and fair means of making interest on your money. Seniors revolt against the Federal Reserve or you will be destitute long before you die no matter what you saved.
Intel Can Give Apple The Edge In Mobile [View article]
Given Apple's drying up of innovation since Jobs (save all his last grand ideas like iPhone 5) Apple needs Samsung more than ever. So now we are left to ask, where will the innovation come from? Certainly not Intel.
The True All-In Cost To Mine Gold: Complete 2012 Figures [View article]
I don't believe expansion and infrastructure besides what it takes to mine should be included into the cost, especially since a lot of the discovery doesn't materialize into anything but is also management's side get rich schemes (especially in Canada) where they try to sucker others to become partial investors into areas they know won't yield gold to start with.
Gold mining is one of the most suspect businesses around.
Oncothyreon A Speculative Buy [View article]
Confidence Boom? [View article]
Gold miners (GDX -3.2%) take another beating as gold continues to lose its allure amid disclosures of reduced bets by hedge funds, a World Gold Council report showing gold demand at a three-year low, and a surging dollar. For the miners, it's an ugly world of lower production, higher costs and falling prices. At least nine miners hit 52-week lows: NEM -3%, GG -2.7%, AUY -4.8%, HMY -6.3%, AU -2.5%, BVN -1.1%, ANV -7.4%, NG -2.7%, GSS -5.8%. [View news story]
The Most Misleading Words In Investing: You Can't Go Broke Taking A Profit [View article]
It's Official: Gold Is Now The Most Hated Asset Class [View article]
Advanced Micro Devices: Is Goldman Sachs Right? [View article]
Applied Materials' CEO Discusses F2Q 2013 Results - Earnings Call Transcript [View article]
Zynga: A Safer Bet Now? [View article]
Cisco After Earnings: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly [View article]
This helps fund keeping some of the most expensive real estate in the US to house even their most basic functions. As I mentioned years ago when they started doing bad, all I see is waste and more waste crossed with bad management that never changes. Entrenched management is the worst.
Vivus - Mild Drama Continues [View article]
Gold (GLD -2.1%), (IAU -2.2%) sinks back below $1,400 as the bounce since mid-April is officially over. At work here, suggests RBC Capital, is the strong stock market. To participate, foreign investors sell gold, buy dollars (UUP is up big in May), and call their stockbrokers. Commerzbank notes gold ETF outflows were another 6 tons yesterday, bringing the total since early April to 230 tons. Silver (SLV -3.1%) tags along. [View news story]
Another words, a QE will only help bankers no matter what is done. That's why QE = the country enters a nightmare of economic doom. Money is made without regards to economic fact and wealth is created for the select few without taking on risk or paying for it. However, worst of all, banks interest now run counter to the public good.
Gold: Over-Leveraged Portfolios Unwinding, Watch Out Below [View article]
Likewise the indication that these ETFs and ETNs will unwind is also a fallacy. The only way they are really unwound is by someone buying them and closing the position or by converting them to physical. In both cases this means there is a buyer and a seller or just someone converting. By doing either, it decreases the amount of paper gold and theoretical supply drops but not necessarily demand which may increase prices not decrease them.
Hedge funds getting out of a position tend to have a short term effect and lead to more stability not less in the future. I'd be a holder of gold if no hedge fund held gold anymore, not the inverse.
It's all about perspective. I personally disagree with the author's rendition of the effect of less fund managers loving paper gold. A argument there will be less paper gold is also shaky, because one of the main causes of April's gold drop was DB's choice to mint a whole slew more of silver and gold ETNs. As we can see, more paper gold makes the price drop, so cancellation of paper gold would usually have an inverse effect.