Edward Ulysses Cate

Riding the Rails: Why BNI Was Berkshire's Best Bet - And Vintage Buffett

Looking a little deeper at Buffett's railroad transaction, one might get the feeling that one had just been sold out. That's why today's commentary at GreatRedDragon.com was:
11/04/09 - Buffett Buys BNI with OPM to Lead NASCO Efforts
Sometimes, things are not as they seem. Hope I'm wrong.

Morgan Stanley pays damages for Precious Metals Fraud

Obviously I couldn't agree with you more, which is why the commentary "Greenlight Capital? Gold? REDLIGHT" of 7/16/09 is at my website. These are simply more instances where sociopaths get profits by lying and stealing. The rest of us must become less willing to give up our stored labor to these folks. Then you'll see real "green shoots" instead of just being in the eye of a financial hurricane.

Groundbreaking WSJ Story on Gold

As far as physical gold and silver versus promises are concerned, which level of safe keeping would you prefer? One that requires physical confrontation, or one that allows theft 24 hours per day without your knowledge. Promises include paper money, bank deposits, bonds, stocks, etc. In good times, folks keep their promises and capital with interest is returned. In not-so-good times, folks lie and steal by making promises they knowingly cannot keep. Both capital and interest are gone. Only when you decide to trade does this theft become apparent.

The Death of Buy and Hold Is Greatly Exaggerated (Part 1)

Buy-and-hold is an excellent strategy. I bought physical gold and silver in 2005 and held. When folks start keeping their promises again, buy-and-hold will be good for certain stocks and time to trade in the gold and silver.. It's a little like sailing into the wind. One must tack one way, then come-about and tack the other way. Never directly into the headwind. And if that wind is from a hurricane, best not to be sailing at all. If you see "green shoots" too soon, you may simply be in the eye of the financial hurricane.

BlackRock and Barclays Global Investors: Why the Market Loves This Deal

If it's a win-win situation, why did $630 million of their customers' money disappear into 400 hands? There's only one way to sum this deal up: Snakes in Suits Slither Beneath Black Rock. Those behind Barclays drew too much attention to themselves via their slogan of "Quietly Conquering The Financial World," so now the major holder of our public corporations will appear as BlackRock rather than Barclays. Same circus, same clowns, different banner. Green shoots was actually the eye of the financial hurricane. You ain't seen nothing yet. Gawd, I hope I'm wrong.

Book Review: Fool's Gold, by Gillian Tett

CDS is just another way to Cheat, Deny and Steal. If one wants to make bets, go to the casinos. I did not chose to live within a casino, with no way out. The real problem is that folks who are NOT party to the transaction are the ones that get burnt.

Friday Bank Failure #37

Don't forget the efforts of William K Black to explain "control fraud" in his book "The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One." The subtitle is "How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted The S&L Industry." The main reason he published the book in 2005 was that he saw the same damn thing, a second wave if you will, coming at us again. In my opinion, such a definitive book exists because the author DID NOT attend Harvard, Yale nor Princeton. Those in positions of high finance within our government should automatically be disqualified if they have degrees from those three so-called institutions of higher learning.

Book Review: Mobs, Messiahs and Markets

I'm sure these are decent books on the subject. However, all one really needs to know is that sociopaths on both sides of a conflict, war or whatever, when stakes are truly high, are financed by the same folks for enormous profits. Peace is only profitable to the many. Conflicts are highly profitable to the few. That's why no president since 1913 has made any difference in the steady decline of the value of the dollar. Puppets come and go regularly; puppeteers change far less frequently. Good luck on formulating your investment strategy.

Buffett Gets 'Comeuppance' After Gold Outperforms

Hey Tobi: Good link to a good article. Us gold freaks will need ammo and guns to protect ourselves when having to barter with gold and silver because no one will touch the broken promises of printed paper. Broken promises are the real reason for holding gold and silver. Imagine the small angry bond/share holders of GM, Bear, and Lehman. Only the few who sold those folks out profited greatly.

Buffett Gets 'Comeuppance' After Gold Outperforms

I guess I'll never understand the hero worship of Warren Buffett. If you understand what an agent is for foreign money power, then you'll understand the success of Jack Welch, Sandy Weill, Warren Buffett and a few others. Agents generally give over their fortunes to foundations, where it remains controlled when the agent passes on. Of course, they say it's for other reasons. Always look for where they got their play money to grow.

Report: BlackRock Wins BGI Bidding War

So bizarre. BlackRock's major holder is PNC Financial. Barclays is the major holder in PNC, Merrill Lynch and Bank of America. CVC is an offshoot of Citigroup, of which Barclays is a major holder. They're just moving paper around, smoke and mirrors, so folks don't figure out that the same group still controls the plantations. Barclays didn't set up the quietlyconquering.com site for nothing, although they did drop the "Quietly conquering the world of finance" slogan from their advertising. Same circus, different clowns.

U.S. Economy: 'Less Bad' Doesn't Mean 'Getting Better'

Perhaps we're just in the eye of the "financial hurricane," as agent Buffett is calling it now. Never was in a hurricane until I was in Houston back when Alicia hit. Storm seemed over, sun was shining, birds flying around, not many threatening clouds; so I got in my car and headed to my client's office. Two miles down the road, my car started rocking from the side wind. Immediately did a U-turn and all was calm again. Sped back to the hotel and just as I got out of the car, the strong wind came again. Real stupid of me. A mistake I won't repeat, not even economically.

Why Mankiw Is Wrong About Negative Interest Rates

You hit a sore spot with this one. I had to buy my son the $135 Macroeconomic by Mankiw for one semester of economics. Garbage. It proves that professors who really don't understand reality are paid BIG bucks to make sure the students get it wrong. I didn't argue the case during the semester so my son would get a good grade in the course, but after his B+, I set him straight with my $6 copy of a book published in 1938 titled "The Promises That Men Live By." With Harvard degrees becoming more like scarlet letters by the day, plus being appointed by Bush, Jr., I doubt Mankiw's reputation survives much longer. By the way, the word GOLD is in the index, with ONE page number, and used in ONE sentence in passing. With the claim of over one million sold, that sure leaves a lot of students learning the hard way, and not getting what they paid for. Aldous Huxley was right in 1962 with his Ultimate Revolution speech.

What Will Induce Banks to Make Riskier Loans?

If you really want to understand how two insolvent financial entities can be combined and quickly show profits, here's the book.
The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One, subtitled How Executives and Politicians Looted the S&Ls.
What we're seeing today is Act II. I heard about it April 3 on Bill Moyers Journal, ordered it, and finished it a few days ago. What goes on in these control-frauds and behind-the-scenes in regulatory warfare is beyond disgusting. The author was a litigator with the Bank Board at that time. "False Profits Once Again" commentary at my website was written as I was halfway through the book.

The Banking Time Bomb Test

If you really want to understand these huge banks, "The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One" by William K. Black. Most of the bank examiners were not around back in the 80s, so they're being used on wave number two just like the same type of examiners were used in the S&L fiasco. The control frauds, the financial superpredators, easily enlisted the aid of the top-tier audit firms, top-tier law firms and their politicians to try their best to continue their Ponzi/Madoff schemes. In fact, they have no other choice. Black details how two insolvent firms can be merged and then show profits. Here we go again. Only bigger and much more damaging. Sure wish it wasn't so.