Soccerfanyes

China's Gold Reserves Almost Doubled

If you were running the China central bank, wouldn't you want a lot more gold? $$$ look like a dead fish on the wall over the long haul.

Microsoft vs. Apple: Monopolist vs. Innovator

Apple = Toys
Microsoft = Tools

Obama's Foreclosure Plan: A Closer Look

Read the NY Times op-ed "Money for Idiots." I agree there is little choice, but I'm sick of deadbeats.


On Feb 20 01:55 PM AlexR wrote:

> Neighbor A just needs to stop whining about inequity and understand
> the fact that if Neighbor B goes into foreclosure, that house will
> sell in auction for $100K or less. And as if that was not enough
> to bring Neighbor A's house price down with it, wait until the new
> investor-owner (as most foreclosure buyers are) rents it out. Once
> Neighbor B is gone Neighbor A will think geez, they were such nice
> neighbors. And when everyone around him are renters and empty houses,
> good luck selling, even for $100K.
>
> This whole fairness outcry has really reached childish proportions.
> Just suck it up and look at the big picture.

'Too Much House' Buyers To Be Rewarded?

Let the home prices drop. Houses are places to live, not assets to earn money.

'Too Much House' Buyers To Be Rewarded?

You should have put 20% down or you shouldn't have been allowed to 'buy' the house. 3% down is 33:1 leverage. 33:1 leverage qualifies for nothing. Quit your bitching.

Has the Dollar Bottomed?

Yep, Greenspan and Jack Welch were both emperors who don't look so good without their clothes. (Who disses their handpicked successor on TV as Welch did to poor Jeff Immelt?) Back to the dollar, this guy Bernanke is actually what Greenspan wishes he was. He's making the right moves at the right time, and the Euro crowd will realize that you can't have slower growth in a $13 trillion GDP market and not have it affect your business. Bottom line . . . the $ is at the low point now.

Housing: No Bottom Yet in Sight

There will be overshoot on the bottom, just as there was overshoot on the top. I read the other day that the ridiculous run-up took five years, why should we expect the run-down to take a year. We may be at a trough, but it will be a long time before prices go up.

Yes, Financial Companies Can Be Analyzed

Nice try, but I'm with Zweig on this one. There are better buys in areas other than financials. Their earning power, based on leverage and loans that will never be made again, will never equal what it was previously. Go ahead, take the shares I would buy and knock yourself out!

What's the Right Price for Oil?

Thanks for a really thoughtful offering! I agree with your point that it took a very high price to drive consumption significantly lower in the short term. Also, I agree that we will see continuing declines in the USA, probably less decline in Europe as they are already doing many of the things we will need to do here. Personally, I think the very high prices we are seeing will drive significantly increased capacity (oil sands, additional exploration, oil shale, much better biofuels, etc.) at the same time we will see automobiles transition to plug-in hybrids, transferring the load to electrical generation. The equation must balance and in the macro sense, there is no conspiracy driving long-term pricing.

The Great GSE Meltdown: Market Adding Fuel to Fire?

Allowing FNM and FRE to go to zero will not eliminate the opportunity for financials to raise capital. On the other hand, it will require that financials pay a lot more attention to the true repayment capacity of borrowers. This whole financial meltdown has been caused by financial engineers living on the edge with leverage to earn the last penny for their companies and themselves. That foolishness has stopped for the good of all.