scearybeary

Cutting Back Commercial REIT Shorts, Again

REITS are an inflation hedge, thanks for shorting, making it cheaper for longs to buy in. How did you like the 25% jump in DRE? R.E has always been avery long term play. Only in a deflationary economy it is a lousy bet. But the FED actions don't look deflationary to me.

Disclosure: long in DRE

Germany Is Fighting With Europe - Can China Be Far Behind?

The debate over Germany's trade surplus has been going on in Europe for quite a while. Indeed was Germany consistently gaining market shares from neighboring countries trough a wage-war and underconsumption. However the situation is a little less dramatic because Germany has to bear an ever greater share of the EU budget. Nevertheless Germany is to be blamed for being a part of the problem and the EU must deal with this. China on the other side may be forced to increase domestic demand because of increasing unemployment. The idling industrial capacities could easily be absorbed by a huge domestic consumer demand and China has already reacted in this way by launching a huge domestic stimulus program.

Coming Soon: The $600 Trillion Derivatives Emergency Meeting

Though all comments above have raised good points they are still missing out on some fundamental aspects of a fiat currency: fiat currency is a zero sum game, the credit side corresponds exactly to the debit side in other words whosoever owns legal title to the credit side may command goods and services from the debtor. Now the Q is, who are they? If the central banks create money they create also debtors,which is the entire economy. The profiteers are those who dont have to repay their debt - socializing of debt and privatizing of profits. The profiteer have created debts against themselfs through financial vehicles and the trick is to keep control of the credit side and shift the debit side to the public. That's easy money!

UnitedHealth Group: Dominant Industry Leader on Sale

As Buffet alway says, it's the long time prospect of a business model that counts. UNH is likely to be around for the next 20 -30 years. Of course it is more favorable to pick 'em up cheap.

Welcome to the World of Dr. FrankenFinance

The article is just fun to read, indeed finance is an offspring of calculated madness, superstition and Vodoo. And it all comes down to one magic word: "valuation". There is no "intrinsic" value to anything in a market economy. The "value" of Tulips changes with the market sentiment from sky high to trash. However the real magic is: it somehow works, though nobody can really tell us how it works. Dr. FrankenFinances economic theories are probably as good as any Economy Nobel-Prize winner's. Just don't ruin it by spelling Rumpelstilzes real name or deny that the king is in fact wearing cloths. This subprime "mess" is no bigger mess than the lending mess itself. The FED is lending money to the banks based on the "value" of their assets or more precisely on the assumption that there is any value to anything. So why should Mr. and Mrs. USA not get a loan on their blank ass(et)? One real reality about realty is that those houses exist and someone is going inhabit them. The rest is about cooking books and shifting rights in form of Dollar bills.