Andrew Clifford

Lehman CDS Net Settlement Only $6B: What Does It Mean?

Immediately after the completion of the auction of a credit event - all CDS claims should be reported to the creditex website with the names of parties and the amount. All netting can be done in public view. Since the taxpayers are now underwriting half the financial system - they have a right to demand this.

Law of Supply & Demand Is Dead for Gold & Silver

Gold as a commodity is moderately coupled with OIL. Oil has fallen 40% recently. Hence the gold price is weak. An important point about markets is being ignored in the article. Point-to-point transactions like jewellery and coin sales will always have price inefficiency compared to huge liquid spot and futures markets. So small physical sales will always price lag the futures. The world markets are too big for conspiracies to work.

Historic Financial Collapse Underway?

Fantastic article. Everyone should read it.
Sad but so true. Politicians have finally wrecked the economy. It will take a generation to recover.

Counterparty Risk Could Spread Beyond Credit Markets

I agree 100% with #1 and further that the $400m loss was incurred in fantastic market conditions for unwinding CDSs. To do today what Buffett did is impossible.

Quick Graphical Look at Global House-Price Declines

Keith is absolutely right. This OECD chart shows housing markets still healthy. They are returning to historically sensible price rises of approximately 5% per year from bubble levels. Spain and Denmark are in the safe zone and UK and AU are still coming back from bubble territory. Only the US and Ireland are in declining!