curious cat

http://www.MartinGlob.com
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    • Sun Apr 6th 11:03 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Economic Drubbing Should Subside - Temporarily
      deacon, you're preaching to the converted,... but you're on the wrong website. try conspiracynuts.com. the rest of us are investing in commodities, preparing for the day when everyone will be walking around with aluminum hats.
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    • Sun Apr 6th 10:29 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Bottom Pickers, Rejoice: Opportunity Lies Next Year
      michael, i have no problem with the graph and the relationship, but is it possible that the defaults are going to be slowed or interrupted and the rate will not get higher, but stay level for a while? if the fed has access to this info, aren't their current actions going to affect the rate of defaults? maybe they can't stop them, but why can't they slow them down? isn't that what the market for securities is telling us now, that people believe their actions will be effective?
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    • Sun Apr 6th 01:21 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Chance This Is The Bottom? Zero.
      dear user, you needn't worry about the working class. the people in washington will protect them. they will continue to take from the rich and feed the poor.

      in case you were confused by your leftist readings, the rich pay most of the taxes and invest most of their money, which creates jobs. it isn't their fault that the iron curtain came down and there are billions of people willing to work for a nickle a day. american workers are very fortunate to have jobs at all, at this point.

      we have to continue to support small business, because they create jobs and innovate. a free market, with less tax and less regulation, allows risk capital to work. higher tax and more regs mean fewer people invest in business, fewer jobs are created and america suffers.

      i know you'll vote democrat if they pay you enough, but remember they are paying you with my tax dollars, not yours. when you cash that rebate check, have a drink on me.
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    • Sat Apr 5th 12:34 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      "Reluctant Banks" Let Defaulted Borrowers Stay in Homes
      i have a relative that has not made a payment on his mortgage in three years! i guess the bank can hang on to his note, or maybe they already bundled it up and sold it, who knows? his house won't go on the market, so he is helping his neighbors and the bank that probably has more properties in the area.

      their property values remain inflated, so they get to pay more in taxes, too. that way, the government has enough money to send us checks. everybody wins!

      look, if our dollar is worth less, why shouldn't our homes be worth more? the only real problems in housing appear to be in areas that bought houses and condos like they were not making any more. can you say, california, florida, new york and boston?

      the rest of america had reasonable increases over the years, probably less than comparable to the dollar's decrease, percentage wise. i'm betting on an orderly decline. here's why: homeowners that do not need to sell are hanging on to their imaginary gains. they like thinking they are still rich, the same way bankers like to imagine their loans are still good. that slows the process down; there is no rush to escape housing for most of us. heck, even the people who cannot pay, do not want to leave if they don't have to go.

      there are already funds being created to purchase foreclosures too. so, the speculators will hang onto them for an eventual increase or maybe blackrock will create new instruments to carve up the risk. we are still the country of disneyland, hollywood and high finance. we are hundreds of years old, but barnum knows when we were born.
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    • Sat Apr 5th 02:00 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      FMC Corporation: The Future of Battery Technology
      you should also consider (XDSL) MPHASE, which just successfully leapfrogged the current generation of batteries through nano advances. their proven and patented batteries have an indefinite shelf life, they use power only when it is called on. they can be remotely activated too.

      current batteries start discharging immediately. mphase batteries can be almost any shape and as small as needed, so they are ideal for every use. they can be manufactured as easily as a printed circuit, so they can be built into devices.

      this company could be an amazing takeover candidate. any battery or tech company that wanted to gain immediate leadership in the battery field has to be able to see the potential here (pun intended).
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    • Sat Apr 5th 01:46 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Why Gold Juniors Have Not Yet Popped
      i made my own basket with GNMT and DHNA. they are significantly oversold and will eventually benefit from their efforts and gold prices. while you're at it, you can add MIVT to your basket, it's a small medical device company that makes stents and XDSL, which just dramatically improved batteries with nano-technological breakthroughs. a little gold, a little medical and a little nano. i'm betting that one of these or more will be a huge gold mine!
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    • Sat Apr 5th 01:35 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Peak Oil, Gold and the U.S. Dollar
      man, if there ever was a contrary indicator for the price of gold and commodities,... try checking out historical movements in these things and be amazed at the cyclicality. sure it looks like the end of the world is near, but it always looks that way to people living in darkness and on the edge. you will eventually see that the earth is round, that you can continue going forward and that our way of life is not the only way of life.
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    • Sat Apr 5th 01:13 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Payrolls Drop - And You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet
      i loved the quote from bush' speech. when you really think about it though, it seems that creating a housing bubble, by encouraging people to rush in, then collapsing the bubble, should still accomplish the american dream of home ownership for the poor, since we'll all be much poorer.

      once the price of homes collapses from oversupply and under demand, the poorest people should be ready to rush in and buy all those like new foreclosed homes. all they'll need is a $300-$1200 rebate check for the down payment.

      hmm, maybe we could just have invited all those poor mexicans to come into our country legally and have half of them pick our produce and work in our canning factories. meanwhile, the other half could have been building homes for their families to live in. seems like there could've been an easier way to do this, maybe with a marshall plan or something. oh well, all roads lead to mexico city.

      i vote we offer annexation to the mexicans. what the heck. they have oil, we need oil. they have no law and order, we have law and order. they don't have to learn a new language. we don't have to change our recordings.
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    • Thu Apr 3rd 18:52 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      BioMimetic Therapeutics Deserves To Trade Higher
      i feel the same way about mphase! you have a once in a lifetime chance to buy XDSL for less that a hundredth of its potential upside. they've announced an increasing number of breakthroughs in nanotech batteries. batteries that have real world applications in defense and thousands of electrical products. you remember when you though EMC wouldn't come back? well, mphase is another of those left for dead tech stocks that is about to be resurrected. go long and hang on.
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    • Thu Apr 3rd 18:39 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Growing Pains in Store for US, China and Southeast Asia
      based on my work, whenever our government intervenes, previous corelationships are meaningless. we should have had a deep and terrible recession, maybe even a depression, but it will have to wait until we have a new president, so we can blame them. that's how america does it, my friend. the buck never stops anywhere.
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    • Tue Apr 1st 23:23 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Why Stocks Can Be Better than Gold
      i'm sure you are implying something, but i am inferring nothing. your little chart and oscillator have no meaning. your article has no conclusions. i don't drink, so i guess i'll wait outside the pub for you.
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    • Tue Apr 1st 23:14 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Another Day, Another Commodities Bust
      i remember thinking that prices of houses were getting out of whack in the 1980's. i suspected the bubble would burst every year after that, but it kept getting bigger and bigger. i was younger then and had no idea how little money was costing people and how much of it there was looking for a bubblicious time. so, i made the mistake of waiting for prices to come down.

      i suspected that the stock market was in a bubble in the late nineties too, but the bubble continued to grow. i thought i could invest in safer stocks and not be affected when tech stocks crashed. that was my second mistake.

      this commodities bubble is my last chance to fly with the eagles. so, i'm going to take all my retirement money and all my kids' milk money and buy some oil, wheat, coal and precious metals, 'cause there's one thing i've learned over many years of investing,...i'm always wrong.
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    • Tue Apr 1st 22:58 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      10 Reasons Why the Dollar Will Strengthen
      what does buffet care if he makes a wrong currency bet? he's giving his money away, anyway. he knows he can't take it with him, whether it's in dollars, euros or reals. he really is smart! and, who did he trust to manage his massive charitable distributions? he picked bill gates, someone that has as much money as he does, ensuring his money would have maximum effect.

      he knows when to gamble and when to pick a sure thing.
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    • Sun Mar 30th 12:34 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Read It Here First: Illogical Home Sellers
      ...and, another thing. how about considering the replacement value of your home before you sell. no one is able to materialize a house in your neighborhood for zero cost. you are not dealing with tulips or dotcoms here, where the value was completely disproportional to the cost or completely abstract.

      so, take a look at your insurance company's explanation when they bill you. what do they think it would cost to replace your house? that's a pretty good place to start. then, remember the three most important things in real estate: location, location, location. if you have the best view, the safest area, the closest commute, the best weather, or whatever, let that be your lot value and add that to the replacement cost.

      be patient, be reasonable and, above all, be honest. you probably had to compromise when you bought your house. your wife wanted a lake view, you wanted a smaller mortgage. your wife wanted three bedrooms and a large fenced in yard, you wanted a closer commute. this is the same process that other buyers go through when they look at your house today. emphasize the positives for them.
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    • Sun Mar 30th 11:31 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Read It Here First: Illogical Home Sellers
      it is rather amusing to think that i expected a bubble in housing years ago and waited for a decline all those years before finally buying my house about a year ago. i negotiated a price that i could afford and probably paid a lot less than the owner wanted to sell for at the time. currently, he is happy to have sold when he did and i am probably looking at a slight paper loss.

      so, what's the problem? do i care that interest rates are coming down and i might have the opportunity to refinance to a less expensive monthly payment? do i care that my home might be revalued lower for insurance and tax purposes? do i care that builders might have less work and therefore lower their rates, so that i can afford upgrades to my home? do i care that home depot has less customers, allowing me to buy cheaper supplies? nope, none of the above.

      the only actual problem comes from having lots of homes on the market, thus lowering prices to the point where undesirable elements can move into my neighborhood. but, hey, if they can get a loan in these harder times, maybe they're not undesirable after all! maybe anyone buying a home now is pretty smart and able to manage their finances, just the kind of people you want next door.

      when the dotcom bubble burst, there were lots of people shorting the stocks, forcing those holding stocks to lose value, have margin calls and face a new reality. they could not hold on, regardless of whatever they perceived their stock to be worth. the opposite is true of housing. no one is able to short this market. they cannot borrow your house and sell it for less than what you think it's worth. only fear can cause people to lose their perspective and face a new "realty". all the people who live in areas that are still desirable in america have tacitly agreed that their homes will not be worth less. they do not sell for less and voila! just don't listen to your realtors.

      your homes are even more valuable to many of you now. lots of people do not need to leave or sell and taxes and insurance rates should decrease, or at least remain the same for years. sure, there are areas of weakness caused by oversupply and speculation. they went up substantially and may be damaged by crowd panic and severe competition from new home builders, but most of us do not live in those areas and are simply afraid of the talking heads on tv showing us that values have decreased by an "average" of x dollars across america, etc. ignore them.

      rates are being lowered to within the grasp of those who want to buy. if you do not panic, simply to create a bigger market and more commissions for the glut of realtors who showed up late to the picnic, you will greatly minimize your pain and everyone else's.

      that's my story and i'm sticking to it.
      View article »
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