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- IntegraMed America, Inc. Q3 2008 Earnings Call Transcript
- Cell Genesys, Inc. Q3 2008 Earnings Call Transcript
- Columbia Laboratories, Inc. Q3 2008 Earnings Call Transcript
- Pacific Sunwear F3Q08 (Qtr End 11/1/08) Earnings Call Transcript
- Mad Catz Interactive, Inc. F2Q09 (Qtr End 09/30/2008) Earnings Call Transcript
- Provectus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The Wall Street Analyst Forum Call Transcript
- Point Blank Solutions, Inc. Q3 2008 (Quarter End 9/30/08) Earnings Call Transcript
- Navios Maritime Holdings Inc., Q3 2008 Earnings Call Transcript
- Gran Tierra Energy Inc. Q3 2008 (Qtr End 09/30/08) Earnings Call Transcript
- Oxygen Biotherapeutics, Inc. The Wall Street Analyst Forum Call Transcript
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Did U Think The Ponzi Scheme Would Last?
158 Comments
The Ford Debt Disaster Continues
"I disagree on the level that the debt is completely poor. If they sold this debt off they would get much less then the loan loss value of the debt out there."
Who exactly would they sell existing debt to? Who has money to buy someone else's toxic investments (for that is exactly what ford has financed to the tune of 140 bn) when everyone in the world is scrambling to raise cash?? They should have done this 2 years ago and they would be smiling right now.
Ford is a goner unless they get some sort of gov't (socialist) funding. What part of that is unclear to you?
Gold Is At a Critical Juncture
People make the act of saving too complicated. It is not required to invest in order to save, unless of course, you save dollar bills which require your to put them to work else inflation eats them out from the inside. Investing = gambling. There is no such thing as a safe investment. Gold <> investing. Gold=saving.
Just look at the gold chart from 1971 to today. It's up nearly 30x. Not 30%, thirty *times*. And that is a REAL number because you did not have to pay property tax on it and you never had to spend money to fix a leaky faucet or paint the exterior like you would have to do with real estate, etc.
Now if you want to invest, then OK. If you want to take a chance of losing so that you have a chance of getting more, then FINE. But that is not saving, it's gambling. And gambling can and does produce losses. Gold=savings, not gambling. The only gambling with gold is when you buy all of it at once when you are close to retirement so that the averaging of the fluctuations is not able to take effect.
Are We Facing a Global Slowdown?
The US Dollar Elevator is Going Up!
Don't trot that old dog out again, it doesn't hunt. The GDP we have today is a hollowed out version of the GDP 20+ years ago. Today's GDP is mainly services (and a big part of those are financial services) and consumption spending. The banks and finance companies are falling apart so the GDP is falling apart even if the gov't won't tell the truth. Insurance is falling apart if you haven't noticed. Unemployment is rising and salaries are stagnating. Many companies have stopped giving raises. Consumption is waning as everyone cuts back. The GDP is going to tank far worse than most people imagine.
Retirements on Hold
Most people do not need to invest in the sense we have been led to believe in it. All they need to do is to preserve the wealth they already earned so that they can use it when they are no longer physically able to work.
Because fiat currencies are constantly being inflated, you are FORCED to "invest" (which is now nothing more than gambling) else inflation will eat you alive. When you take personal financial risk and actually win once in awhile, the gov't then wants to tax you on your winnings. What a freaking SCAM. Get your wealth into gold. It does not evaporate and ever since the gov't stopped forcing the price to 35/oz, it has rocketed to over 900/oz today, almost 30x gain in the past 35 years. Good luck getting that sort of return on stocks that can go BK. Gold can never BK.
When it's time to spend your gold, pay for things in gold, not dollars. In this way there is no fake capital gains to pay on inflation. That is such a scam I'm surprised nobody is taking out a front page add in the wall st journal stating the fact.
Retirements on Hold
Now it is all speculation. Dividends are low and valuations are high. It's all based on greater fool theory at this point. Consider MSFT. They pay no dividend to speak of. They are too big for anyone to buy out (i.e. their can be no corporate greater fool). Growth is slowing if not going negative in real terms. Why should anyone buy your shares from you? Anyone holding MSFT stock is getting screwed by inflation which is at least 7% and more like 12% if you listen to shadowstats.
Pretty soon people will realize that inflation is here to stay and that the stock market has run out of steam because the US consumer is broke and now the credit card is being shut off.
When this happens, bye bye dow, hello gold and silver. Not if but when. And not very long of a when either. The trap is almost sprung.
The US Dollar Elevator is Going Up!
In Q4 2007, Greenspan said there would be no economic stability until housing prices stabilized. Just a couple of days ago he said that housing prices were "nowhere near the bottom". The rise in exports is a rise in USD collected, not a rise in value. This is simply because foreign sales in strong currencies which are repatriated to a weak currency make the numbers look bigger, but when priced in something like gold, even those exports look tepid or weak.
But party on, dude. People like you are giving me more time to move all of my wealth to gold and silver. The dollar will be lucky to survive at all.
California, New York Facing Fiscal Crises, Cuts Inevitable
The game will only end after the world abandons the USD. Fortunately for us, other G7 currencies are not much better than ours and so the person who is trying to conserve his wealth is scrambling to find asset classes to do this with.
The only safe haven is gold and silver. Soon the prices for these will start to spiral up again even as credit contracts. This is because foreigners will be abandoning their USD soon thus unlocking all of the dollars that got tied up in the financial ice cap formed as part of "the great moderation". There was, in fact, no real inflationary moderation. It's simply that the effects of it were locked up in the housing bubble. Now that it has popped with no new bubble of sufficient size or durability to take its place, the true inflation of the past 7 years will express itself in the marketplace.
Buy gold and silver and forget the USD. It's a POS.
Why the U.S. Dollar Will Continue to Lose Value
Hank Paulson: A Rare Keeper
He is as responsible for this mess as greenspan. They should both be thrown in the clink to rot.
Will the Fed Actually Raise Rates Next Week?
Forget all thoughts of a soft landing, there is no possibility for that. Housing must crash and businesses must go bankrupt. That is all there is too it. Not if but when.
Is the Structural Bear Market Nearing Its End?
But this is a bear market and we will see a "dislocationday&q... at some point - 20% crap out for the Dow. But short term who knows. When you get conviction about something instead of just tossing the short term dice, let us know.
How Do We Get Out of the Mess with Fannie and Freddie?
Every American must now learn the true meaning of the word "patriot". A patriot steps up and does his part to make the country right. A patriot does this even if he thinks the gov't will put him on watch lists, etc. Write your congress people at least once a month expressing outrage at the federal reserve and our debt and our fiat currency. Demand that they move back toward the constitution and away from the fascist direction they are now headed. Tell the American people the truth, throw the bums out, and make it so that congessional service is SERVICE again, not a feeding trough for elitist lap dogs.
Every one of us needs to take this once great country back, Martin Luther King stye ("non violence, non violence"). We should not let the few like the Ron Pauls of the world and the Dennis Ks of the world take all the risk.
Housing: Barron's Calls a Bottom
"and have lost about $150,000 in equity since then"
Word to the wise. That is gone and you will never see it again in your lifetime. Do not expect housing prices to come back like that for decades. So many reasons but the most important are:
- can't buy an expensive house if nobody will loan the money. banks creating those loans are out of the business or heading that way.
- interest rates are on the rise. Expect 10+% soon. Nobody will be able to afford the interest on an overpriced home so builders will be creating "green, economy homes" like the little shitbox cars showing up on our highways now. Your modern home that is overpriced will not be an option for children of the coming depression whose salaries will be much lower than this generation's.
You may want to plan to take advantage of the window created by the mortgage debt relief act of 2007 which allows you to jingle mail without owing the IRS any taxes until Dec 31 2009.
Has China Become the U.S. Treasury's Best Friend?
That's a whole other rant of mine: the gov't sponsored retirement programs are nothing more than a boomer trap. They put a little sugar in there and the ants walked right in. All those stored savings are now locked into the system and the trap has been sprung. People will now watch their life savings evaporate because 401ks do not allow direct investment in anything tangible like land or gold. You have to invest in financial instruments which are subject to fraud and are always denominated in USD so that inflation affects them. And now the final insult is nigh: the stock markets are crashing leaving only 1 place to hide: US treasuries!!! Who in their right mind wants to own US debt? But it's the only place to shelter your 401k from collapsing markets. The gov't has suceeded in getting all retirees to accept 2% interest on their money in a 7-10% inflation environment. This is nothing more than a tax on your retirement savings. The gov't want everyone to be penniless in their old age so that they will vote for more nanny state "something for nothing" "gimme a handout" socialistic gov't.