Metal Premiums Show Physical Metal Demand [View article]
Paper gold and silver are also perfectly competitive. There is way too much supply and little demand. The reason is clear, those writing paper want to short and see paper as the way to do it since they can issue multiples of it to the actual gold and silver they can get. Gold and silver can only be mined so fast, the SEC has allowed the minting of paper gold and silver which is now way more than the gold and silver mined or the amount those issuing the paper can get access to or afford.
Furthermore they structured paper gold and silver as ETF or ETNs that should sell at a discount due to erosion including trading and amin. fees that make them even more money. It's a great racket. The mafia sure lost out to bankers in this rigged game.
Reviewing The Sears Risk Of Insolvency Using The Altman Z-Score [View article]
Sadly, management has largely been out to lunch the last few years. The Sears by where I lived looked decent, now its filled with boarded up areas and lots of stuff that looks like a thrift shop but costs way more.
Nvidia Again Faces 2 Extreme Threats [View article]
I don't think the issue is Intel as much as there has not been much new innovation in graphics besides just increasing processing power. Processing power can be had by shrinks. The biggest problem nowadays is heat. Certainly if innovation slows or stops there is no reason not to let the CPU inhale it lick so many other processes.
If so, the graphics processing niche will remain only in 1) hardcore gamers, 2) techies and DYI systems, 3) Low end boxes, and 4) graphic designers engineers and people using workstations. This market is not as big as you might think.
Pricing Apple's Uncertain Future: A Scenario Model [View article]
Cook's ability at operations is extraordinary as is the turns on inventory. It is true that Jobs has vision, but Cook has returned real value since Jobs left. And Jobs benefitted from Cook long before he departed. Apple is now basically like a perfect management team that lost half of its team. It still beats others but competition is catching up fast on the innovation side.
Retail Stock Investors: We Won't Get Fooled Again [View article]
Retailers have recently been flushed out of the precious metals market. Sadly, they will be burned in the bond market with increased rates and then burned out of the stock market when they swap out of bonds to stocks looking for an alternative investment. The argument retailers aren't heavy into the stock market probably means the market has a little more froth to go before it crashes.
In general, the big investment banks and banks can tell aggregately where the retail investor is going and tends to bet heavily against their clients. Indeed, there needs to be some regulation preventing this aggregation or a system where it is disclosed to all on a set time frame so Bloomberg, investment banks, Goldman Sacs, and others can't make a profit micro reporting the movements to the .01% of the market participants that can afford such knowledge.
Solar and wind energy can easily be added to the grid since they are such small contributors, even though they vary in output dramatically. Also a transfer from electricity to hydrogen means power loss. It is true power companies need backup power and batteries are problematic in terms of limited lifespans and acid environmental issues. Right now they use gas electric power plants that they increase output of when needed.
There are companies working feverishly to find a way to increase hydrogen density so the volume decreases substantially. Once that is done and renewable sources become a greater part of overall production, a hydrogen economy hopefully will take shape. For now, I'd not bet heavily on it happening yet.
Sadly, investment banks have a long history of overleveraging. Even worse now is those investment banks are not TBTF regular banks propped up by the Federal Reserve, taxpayers through the government, and taxpayers through Fannie and Freddie Mac that are forced to buy money losing low interest mortgages from member banks and then get the government (taxpayers) to pay their losses regularly.
If the US government reported their leverage and exposure in total it would dwarf these numbers and would explain why the US is headed towards insolvency at this rate even if they get the Federal Reserve to QE print as much money as they can. The reasons are simple. All the money they print is bonds and loan guarantees in the Federal Reserve which must be covered by the US should the Federal Reserve go insolvent, who could print more money to cover the losses but that would show up as a ballooning of the deficit which would weaken the economy and force the Federal Reserve to try to stimulate again by what? Printing more money through QE? All of which will someday skyrocket interest rates which would make their bonds worth even less.
Then the final answer will be, help the Federal Reserve and government by crashing the economy and flooring interest rates so they can look solvent again and dribble out only as much cash to the public to keep the whole thing from collapsing. As you can see, the best solution in QE for the Federal Reserve is to make sure the economy ever grows strongly because that makes inflation rise and their balance sheet look worse. That is probably a good reason Japan has never recovered from their QE experiment. The central bank's best interest is in direct opposition to the public's interest to have economic prosperity.
I encourage anyone to watch Commanding Heights. The main and central reason against such action is simple, it destroys proper economic signaling between market participants and the real economy. The reason Japan will never recover is because no one in Japan has a clue what the economy is signaling besides if the government will stimulate or more QE will drop into the super rich banking elites again like mana from heaven.
Do we really want to replace capitalism with this monetary system? Just because you have a monetary system doesn't mean you have capitalism. The USSR realized this. We need to as well. When the government and/or central bank control the economy and not market forces you don't have capitalism, you have a sham monetary system that will not last.
After spending years and billions eliminating their hedge books, gold producers (GDX) may need to return to their old habit - selling production forward - thanks to the metal's (GLD) sharp decline. "We think producers are under pressure to put on hedging," says SocGen's Robin Bhar. "The problem is it needs a cultural change ... Guys who used to hedge have lost their jobs." Renewed producer selling could put even more pressure on prices. [View news story]
It is amazing that we live in a government that supports disenfranchising people of owning things of intrinsic value and encourages its population to take undue risk gambling and consuming beyond their safety level and means. If government thinks is the means to lasting economic prosperity, we need a structural change much worse than we think.
I think those who praise Bernanke and Greenspan really are looking through rose tinted glasses. Unfortunately the Federal Reserve is short sighted just like Congress or the President in that the recent Fed Chairmen have been hellbent on making their term an economically good one and sacrificing safety and stability to achieve it.
Greenspan set the stage for a downturn after trying to keep the economy in high gear his entire term with abnormally low rates and supporting the destruction of Glass-Stegall. Bernanke was forced to go one step further since the economy is already addicted to low rates when the economy tanked. Now he essentially floored rates to 0 and having failed he is now embarking on QE which has kept Japan's economy dead for over two decades. In Japan, people have been taught not to look at economic signals but depend on the central bank and government clues since their economy is so manipulated by government. Since they don't look at normal economic signals anymore their central bank and government are forced to keep an artificial economy going with more and more fuel to keep the economy from collapsing and addressing their structural problems.
QE is a solution for avoiding dealing with the structural problems in an economy by replacing economic stimulus with a fake normalcy rooted in giving favored banks and institutions (like Fannie Mae) cash they otherwise wouldn't have and certainly don't deserve.
Intuitive Surgical Shows Robust Growth But Concerns Loom [View article]
There is a place for robotic surgery. ISRG seems to be pushing the boundaries too fast and results are suffering. DaVincci is not the be all end all in surgical procedures, esp. with an unskilled surgeon.
Their results are proof there is too much focus on quantity and not quality. Although I supported ISRG when it was $250 I can't support it now with way too many unapproved surgeries and big questions surrounding this. ISRG has been encouraging surgeons to do coronary surgeries on patients for years now with such mixed results they have failed to get approval for them.
Although, robotic surgery is the future for many procedures, pushing it is liable to ruin the perception of robotic surgery and open them up to legal messes. If its not ISRG it will be another system. I doubt ISRG will be the last entrant in this field unless their sales becomes so unethical it shuts down all interest in robotic surgery for decades.
Intuitive Surgical: Years Of Super Growth Ahead [View article]
Most doctors are not skilled enough in technology to make a decision on DaVinci or not, especially on unapproved procedures such as coronary procedures. The patient ends up being a lab rat for a statistic literally. So far the downside is hard to distinguish from the effects of such surgeries with decent fatality rates. Thus it makes a good procedure to tout the benefits of recovery and overlook the failures.
Do I like ISRG for approved procedures, yes. Do I think all procedures are done competently, no. You must use a doctor with many surgeries with ISRG under their belt for best results. DaVincci has been a good way of getting patients to look at the technology and not the past history of the doctor performing the surgery with DaVincci.
There will be lawsuits over competency. Is it part of our litigious culture, yes. But I also must agree that it is also part of our system for medical practices to do what's in their own best interest. If they own DaVincci they want it used as much as possible to justify the price.
Why would Microsoft buy it. It already effectively controls it now that they are dependent on their mobile software. Why pay money for it when they currently pay them anyways?
This is my recent take on the market. After Abbe's ploy in Japan with massive QE money from the WE flooded into Japan and the US boosting it for a short time period. Then, being that QE its fleeting and unsustainable, it is now trying to move out of Japan and proving QE has its limits. In the meantime Japan is now having massive growth in its trade deficit meaning that sooner or later Japan will have to curtail its spending growth.
Simply put, its a mess that will unwind weakening the global economy for years to come. And all for what? A short term spike in economic prosperity that lasted a few months.
After spending years and billions eliminating their hedge books, gold producers (GDX) may need to return to their old habit - selling production forward - thanks to the metal's (GLD) sharp decline. "We think producers are under pressure to put on hedging," says SocGen's Robin Bhar. "The problem is it needs a cultural change ... Guys who used to hedge have lost their jobs." Renewed producer selling could put even more pressure on prices. [View news story]
Gold producers making hedges with Comex is like paying the guy who stabs you repeatedly in the back whenever they hear the change in your pocket.
Metal Premiums Show Physical Metal Demand [View article]
Furthermore they structured paper gold and silver as ETF or ETNs that should sell at a discount due to erosion including trading and amin. fees that make them even more money. It's a great racket. The mafia sure lost out to bankers in this rigged game.
Reviewing The Sears Risk Of Insolvency Using The Altman Z-Score [View article]
Nvidia Again Faces 2 Extreme Threats [View article]
If so, the graphics processing niche will remain only in 1) hardcore gamers, 2) techies and DYI systems, 3) Low end boxes, and 4) graphic designers engineers and people using workstations. This market is not as big as you might think.
Pricing Apple's Uncertain Future: A Scenario Model [View article]
Retail Stock Investors: We Won't Get Fooled Again [View article]
In general, the big investment banks and banks can tell aggregately where the retail investor is going and tends to bet heavily against their clients. Indeed, there needs to be some regulation preventing this aggregation or a system where it is disclosed to all on a set time frame so Bloomberg, investment banks, Goldman Sacs, and others can't make a profit micro reporting the movements to the .01% of the market participants that can afford such knowledge.
5 Reasons Hydrogenics Could Triple [View article]
There are companies working feverishly to find a way to increase hydrogen density so the volume decreases substantially. Once that is done and renewable sources become a greater part of overall production, a hydrogen economy hopefully will take shape. For now, I'd not bet heavily on it happening yet.
This Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words [View article]
If the US government reported their leverage and exposure in total it would dwarf these numbers and would explain why the US is headed towards insolvency at this rate even if they get the Federal Reserve to QE print as much money as they can. The reasons are simple. All the money they print is bonds and loan guarantees in the Federal Reserve which must be covered by the US should the Federal Reserve go insolvent, who could print more money to cover the losses but that would show up as a ballooning of the deficit which would weaken the economy and force the Federal Reserve to try to stimulate again by what? Printing more money through QE? All of which will someday skyrocket interest rates which would make their bonds worth even less.
Then the final answer will be, help the Federal Reserve and government by crashing the economy and flooring interest rates so they can look solvent again and dribble out only as much cash to the public to keep the whole thing from collapsing. As you can see, the best solution in QE for the Federal Reserve is to make sure the economy ever grows strongly because that makes inflation rise and their balance sheet look worse. That is probably a good reason Japan has never recovered from their QE experiment. The central bank's best interest is in direct opposition to the public's interest to have economic prosperity.
The 7 Reasons Why People Hate QE [View article]
Do we really want to replace capitalism with this monetary system? Just because you have a monetary system doesn't mean you have capitalism. The USSR realized this. We need to as well. When the government and/or central bank control the economy and not market forces you don't have capitalism, you have a sham monetary system that will not last.
After spending years and billions eliminating their hedge books, gold producers (GDX) may need to return to their old habit - selling production forward - thanks to the metal's (GLD) sharp decline. "We think producers are under pressure to put on hedging," says SocGen's Robin Bhar. "The problem is it needs a cultural change ... Guys who used to hedge have lost their jobs." Renewed producer selling could put even more pressure on prices. [View news story]
That Was The Crash, Dummy [View article]
Greenspan set the stage for a downturn after trying to keep the economy in high gear his entire term with abnormally low rates and supporting the destruction of Glass-Stegall. Bernanke was forced to go one step further since the economy is already addicted to low rates when the economy tanked. Now he essentially floored rates to 0 and having failed he is now embarking on QE which has kept Japan's economy dead for over two decades. In Japan, people have been taught not to look at economic signals but depend on the central bank and government clues since their economy is so manipulated by government. Since they don't look at normal economic signals anymore their central bank and government are forced to keep an artificial economy going with more and more fuel to keep the economy from collapsing and addressing their structural problems.
QE is a solution for avoiding dealing with the structural problems in an economy by replacing economic stimulus with a fake normalcy rooted in giving favored banks and institutions (like Fannie Mae) cash they otherwise wouldn't have and certainly don't deserve.
Intuitive Surgical Shows Robust Growth But Concerns Loom [View article]
Their results are proof there is too much focus on quantity and not quality. Although I supported ISRG when it was $250 I can't support it now with way too many unapproved surgeries and big questions surrounding this. ISRG has been encouraging surgeons to do coronary surgeries on patients for years now with such mixed results they have failed to get approval for them.
Although, robotic surgery is the future for many procedures, pushing it is liable to ruin the perception of robotic surgery and open them up to legal messes. If its not ISRG it will be another system. I doubt ISRG will be the last entrant in this field unless their sales becomes so unethical it shuts down all interest in robotic surgery for decades.
Intuitive Surgical: Years Of Super Growth Ahead [View article]
Do I like ISRG for approved procedures, yes. Do I think all procedures are done competently, no. You must use a doctor with many surgeries with ISRG under their belt for best results. DaVincci has been a good way of getting patients to look at the technology and not the past history of the doctor performing the surgery with DaVincci.
There will be lawsuits over competency. Is it part of our litigious culture, yes. But I also must agree that it is also part of our system for medical practices to do what's in their own best interest. If they own DaVincci they want it used as much as possible to justify the price.
Nokia Wants To Be Bought [View article]
That Was The Crash, Dummy [View article]
Simply put, its a mess that will unwind weakening the global economy for years to come. And all for what? A short term spike in economic prosperity that lasted a few months.
After spending years and billions eliminating their hedge books, gold producers (GDX) may need to return to their old habit - selling production forward - thanks to the metal's (GLD) sharp decline. "We think producers are under pressure to put on hedging," says SocGen's Robin Bhar. "The problem is it needs a cultural change ... Guys who used to hedge have lost their jobs." Renewed producer selling could put even more pressure on prices. [View news story]