Petrobras Could Be The World's Best Oil Stock [View article]
this one has been a disaster for me; no stops out on it; lost 66% of my bubble-era purchase price. don't know if i should dump it and take the pain or wait for somebody to bomb iran! i didn't watch it closely. amateur night, i'm sorry to admit.
The only bubble I ever got caught in was the great commodities bubble, including STO and PBR, both glaring disappointments. The divvie will never make up my losses. still hold it but only because I am still in deer-in-the-headlights mode. so much for the longer-term value of bubble "due diligence"!
Eurozone Sovereignty Issues Raise Their Ugly Head [View article]
the military and police can make the money keep flowing but cannot--and usually do not--contribute to the health of the money-- except by more military and police action. and the money usually flows to the top, where the elites vote in more power to deficit finance.
not a healthy plan for families, nations or the world.
Five TIPS ETFs to Help Protect Your Portfolio Against Future Inflation [View article]
i'm with Egg above...If BLS and CPI numbers are rigged by govt., who's to say they won't--as they are doing now--continue to deny the real inflation zipping through the country: food, fuel, energy in general, insurance, tuitions, health care.
in reply to did u think's blare, yeah, i made the first 2 political contributions in 40 years to ron paul, knowing full well that he hadn't a chance. I worked in NYC media for 30 years. the fix was in from the beginning. ron paul's great deficit is he tends to tell the unpopular truth--rarely a vote-getter and NEVER a way to curry favor among the MSM or DC pols.
sad but true, we are marching to Zimbabwe's fate--and it'll turn into a kind of death march too. and look out for repealed posse comitatus if you try to protest in any way that cuts ice.
where is all the anger and anxiety going? where's is all this mental/emotional energy going? we could run cities on the energy expended in the weeping and gnashing of teeth.
truly a dilemma--which actually means: no solution.
The Worst Case Scenario (Someone Has to Say It) [View article]
am astonished at volume of feedback on this article but Ican attest to one market that clearly reflects some of Jake's doomsday scenario fear, however rational or irrational: the handgun ammo market. It's just flying off the shelves and even dealers at gun shows are gouging customers on marked-up sales. like it or not, fear stalks the nation on back-street if not Main Street.
Seeing Through Bank of America's Earnings; Ousting Ken Lewis [View article]
totally agree w dcb. these guys are still fixated on hiking their pay checks. the worst. but the blackmail is of the wink-wink variety, sub rosa deals between the bankers and the bankers-in-power now. whatta world archie.
Note to Nassim Taleb: You Can't Kill Off Black Swans [View article]
we don't need more right answers, or more-or-less-right-ans... or more observations about what went wrong or who's doing what wrongly...we need some actual, institutional method/vehicle/legal tool for making the right things happen, for getting the Fed crowd off their crack, stopping the banksters from pricing up the lousy assets on the backs of taxpayers.
voting doesn't do it. complaining (in numbers) hardly makes a dent. tea parties may be a start but Americans have no recourse from the momentum of bad ideas and bad policy coming from the seat of government.
so maybe Taleb's "right"--what good does it do other than assuage some feelings of angst and impotence? maybe the traders making money are the only people who are indulging in the Realpolitik of these economic times. more power to them.
PPIP Gaming Potential in a Nutshell [View article]
excellent article by JW Keller in April 6 2009 Barron's (p. 41), "How Not to Price Toxic Bonds," pointing out how "shadow banking system" which "evolved over 20 years and imploded in just six months" is busted and Geithner's PPIP ignores reality to inflate assets and reward big players. He concurs w rortybomb's sharp, witty observations; Keller's well worth reading as companion piece.
PPIP Watch: Banks as Bidders and Sellers...Hmm, Remember Enron? [View article]
i wish we could get mad and discover some sort of constructive outlet for that anger, some way to actually influence a corrupt congress, a corrupt circle of corporate and bankster raiders and plunderers. i'm fully aware that name-calling means nothing, or venting rage, or hand-wrining about the unfariness of it all is almost useless. the problem is no institutional or community means for really affecting change or reform exist on adrastic enough scale to make a difference. all the rancor and indignation just gets absorbed and diffused into the system's ether.
we need a revolution but there's no repository of energy and action sufficient to change direction of the current flow of events. if we tried drying up the money, depriving Washington and Wall Street of the money to keep the plunder going, they just collude and create more money.
big dilemma (which actually means, no solution, I think)! wish i could suggest a plan, a program or a magnet to attract and amalgamate all this negative energy!? it's really what we need as a people being shorn of our wealth, or power and our national health.
couldn't agree with you more. all the bi-partisan hand-wringing in the world, all the finger-pointing and tsk-tsking, all the righteous indignation may simulate "sound and fury" but signifies--means--noth... the only way to stop the carnage, the waste, the plunder, the nation- and empire-building madness and the sell-out of US citizens is to dry up the funds, deny them the money...tax revolt or tax "evasion" will put you in prison but, sadly, it's the only way to starve the crooks in Washington/Wall Street and their corporate lobby cronies. taxpayer money fuels the broken system and no free-loader in power really wants to seal the cracks.
oops....forgot a query: who thinks a P2P market/"file sharing"/download circuit will appear (or are the downloaded kindle2 "books" completely copy protected?).
i had one in my hand this weekend and used to read books (hard copy) for a living as a critic. something about the technology, cute and clever as it is, distracts, though it sure beats lugging around a really heavy tome, which for my old hands get harder and harder to handle. agree there's an I-phone gee-whiz attraction but i felt no compelling need to switch (esp. at that price). maybe i'm spoiled: i used to get review copies gratis. i think it'll be a novelty and maybe a status symbol but won't displace hard copy books. as to its green-ness--looks like a helluva lot of petrochemical feedstock and electrical nasties go into its creation. like ethanol from corn...
newspapers aren't going obsolete because of form but because they're full of mis- or disinformation and can;t afford their traditional mission--being there, ferreting out the truth and telling it in print.
Petrobras Could Be The World's Best Oil Stock [View article]
Petroleo Brasileiro: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [View article]
Eurozone Sovereignty Issues Raise Their Ugly Head [View article]
not a healthy plan for families, nations or the world.
Five TIPS ETFs to Help Protect Your Portfolio Against Future Inflation [View article]
The Costs of Not Fixing a Broken Financial System [View article]
The Unsustainable Lie of Inflation [View article]
original Big Liar was VI Lenin, of course.
U.S. Pension Nightmare Has Begun [View article]
sad but true, we are marching to Zimbabwe's fate--and it'll turn into a kind of death march too. and look out for repealed posse comitatus if you try to protest in any way that cuts ice.
where is all the anger and anxiety going? where's is all this mental/emotional energy going? we could run cities on the energy expended in the weeping and gnashing of teeth.
truly a dilemma--which actually means: no solution.
The Worst Case Scenario (Someone Has to Say It) [View article]
Seeing Through Bank of America's Earnings; Ousting Ken Lewis [View article]
Note to Nassim Taleb: You Can't Kill Off Black Swans [View article]
voting doesn't do it. complaining (in numbers) hardly makes a dent. tea parties may be a start but Americans have no recourse from the momentum of bad ideas and bad policy coming from the seat of government.
so maybe Taleb's "right"--what good does it do other than assuage some feelings of angst and impotence? maybe the traders making money are the only people who are indulging in the Realpolitik of these economic times. more power to them.
PPIP Gaming Potential in a Nutshell [View article]
is there any way to STOP these crooks??
PPIP Watch: Banks as Bidders and Sellers...Hmm, Remember Enron? [View article]
we need a revolution but there's no repository of energy and action sufficient to change direction of the current flow of events. if we tried drying up the money, depriving Washington and Wall Street of the money to keep the plunder going, they just collude and create more money.
big dilemma (which actually means, no solution, I think)! wish i could suggest a plan, a program or a magnet to attract and amalgamate all this negative energy!? it's really what we need as a people being shorn of our wealth, or power and our national health.
Stick with Gold and the Oil Stocks [View article]
Book Market Enters Era of Ubiquity [View article]
Book Market Enters Era of Ubiquity [View article]
newspapers aren't going obsolete because of form but because they're full of mis- or disinformation and can;t afford their traditional mission--being there, ferreting out the truth and telling it in print.