brando

Time to Buy China, Copper, the Canadian Dollar and Oil

95% US treasuries, 5% out of the money puts and calls on just about anything and everything.


On Mar 07 11:36 AM comox wrote:

> Jay- thanks for taking the time to reply. I'm invested in Canadian
> resources now, impatiently waiting for the coming commodity resurgence,
> and still taking some downward hammering. Of course that all hinges
> on this China/US recovery discussion.
> Conventional investment advice did nothing for us leading up to this
> meltdown, and in general the commentators and advisors missed this
> completely (including some very smart people: Eric Sprott of Sprott
> Funds, Tom Stanley of Resolute Performance Fund, etc.). I'm feeling
> completely let down and skeptical of the investment community. I
> do like to follow Peter Schiff, Jim Rogers as their ideas make sense
> to me.
>
> Someone made money: shorting oil and commodities, long on US dollar,
> shorting DJIA and TSX, etc. in last 6 months. I'd like to get some
> professional advice that makes me one of those making that money
> by making smart aggressive bets (not for the major part of portfolio
> of course)!
> PS- read Nicholas Taleb's "Black Swan" and found it very heavy going.
> I was hoping for some specifics of how he exposes himself to the
> huge winning opportunities (and the majority of his portfolio is
> very safe he says)- the book never contained any specifics. Does
> anyone know what he invests in?

Time to Buy China, Copper, the Canadian Dollar and Oil

Your inability to perform basic math is dismaying.


On Mar 06 01:14 AM ScottEX wrote:

> You think about it, 11 million people working for a pittance, to
> build America, and save the wealthy vast amounts of money on the
> work nobody wants to do. How about the 52,000 account at UBS. Do
> you think there might be a little more tax leakage there? Your logic
> is astounding.

Bank Nationalization - The Max Holmes Proposal

Roger that.


On Feb 02 02:51 PM Tom Armistead wrote:

> The proposed solution - transferring equal amounts of liabilities
> and assets from the troubled banks to the "bad bank" or government
> makes good sense in that no money is actually spent and it will work
> if the assets do not deteriorate further.
>
> The government can deal with further market value reductions of the
> assets, something many banks cannot handle with their current capital
> and credit ratings. The Max Holmes proposal is another way of permitting
> the assets to be held to maturity rather than sold at fire sale prices.
>
>
> I personally take the view that a great deal of the hue and cry in
> favor of rigid application of mark to market accounting comes from
> the vultures, jackals and hyenas who expect to feed richly on the
> ensuing financial carnage, as if they were not already sufficiently
> gorged with the fruits of naked short-selling, rumor mongering, and
> naked CDS manipulation.
>
> I favor any solution that avoids the fire sale and deprives the vultures
> of their feed.
>

Bank Nationalization - The Max Holmes Proposal

Of course, Fannie, Freddie and the CRA are not solely responsible for the subprime fiasco. Certainly, lenders and Wall Street were complicit. But for the most part, the private sector was responding exactly as directed, prescribed and expected -- facilitating a secondary mortgage market that appeared to accommodate subprime borrowers by spreading the risk among parties who thought they knew what they were buying. If not for government interference encouraging too much credit, market forces would have rationed credit more, shall we say, rationally. Wall Street was acting perfectly rationally under the circumstances promulgated by our government's enabling institutions and legislation. The issue isn't so much over-regulation or under-regulation as it is misplaced and misguided regulation, much of which is directly or indirectly the result of corruption. Why is Franklin Raines never mentioned in all this? Do a little research and learn about his political affiliations and the amount of money he walked away with. He's just as worthy as John Thaine, Dick Fuld and countless other luminaries in the reprobate CEO hall of fame. This is not a right or left issue. It cuts in all directions and ultimately falls on all voters who continue to vote for the corrupt and incompetant egomaniacs and sociopaths that gravitate toward "careers" in politics.


On Feb 02 09:38 AM You're Kidding wrote:

> brando - your right wing bias is disgustingly obvious.
>
> The CRA act is not responsible for this meltdown we are in. Most
> of these loans are doing just fine (see Wikipedia and Business Week
> Mag:
> www.businessweek.com/i...
>
>
> Its not the "socialists" who don't understand economics, its your
> neo-con friends and their supporters who have forever fought for
> deregulation and who have been in charge of the executive dept. for
> the last 8 yrs (say "no oversight" a few times why don't you?) <br/>
>
> Finally, we have an executive that cares more about the health and
> well being of all the people in this country rather than just the
> rich and powerfully placed.
>
> Please say goodbye to unregulated, scumbag capitalism for hopefully
> forever. The rest of us have had enough of your lunatic, money grubbing,
> criminal excuse for government. I'm afraid its best this way for
> the vast majority of people in this country. Take off your rose colored
> glasses. You're blind as a bat.

Bank Nationalization - The Max Holmes Proposal

Something we taxpayers need to "get over" is this feelling that Wall Street and bank equity is getting a free ride on our backs. We taxpayers elected the Congressional officials who enabled and arguably caused this meltdown through their cozy relationship with Fannie and Freddie, thier adamant refusal to consider stricter oversight of the then politically correct GSEs (hearings documented and visible on YouTube), and the ill-conceived vote-garnering imposition of the so-called Community Reinvestment Act which forced lenders to extend credit based on demographic profiles rather than sound lending standards. Wall Street has taken a beating in terms of job losses and equity devaluation, but for some reason displaced finance workers are ignored or portrayed as being less human than union members. Voters who elected the politicians who enabled and compounded this mess need to take the medicine. If our democratic republic properly functions, voters will learn their lesson and stop electing populist socialist politicians with little or no understanding of economics.

Social Banking: How to Make Bank Shares Worthless

Instead of "investing" trillions of taxpayer dollars in specious shovel-ready projects and pork, the U.S. needs to make a bold move that sends a strong and proper message. We should immediately abolish the corporate income tax. Corporations don't pay taxes, their customers do. The tax is simply passed on in the cost of products or services. It makes our products and services less price competitive and it provides a cesspool of opportunity for lobbyists in search of corporate welfare. It also diverts billions of hard dollars and wasted man hours on the process of minimizing, avoiding and complying with the tax. And lastly, but most importantly, this move would play upon the competitive strength of the United States. We have the best Universities, the best intellectual property protection and the best infrastructure in the world. If we clearly had the best tax regime, corporations from around the world would have no alternative but to move headquarters and highly paid staff to the United States and U.S. corporations would stop moving to Bermuda, Switzerland and elsewhere. It would be the largest job creation legislation ever devised and it would create the kind of jobs we want and for which our people are trained.

Gold Poised to Move Higher

Alexander Hamilton is responsible for creating the privately owned Federal Reserve. He certainly rocked for the shareholders of the Fed.


On Dec 28 01:41 PM Mark123 wrote:

> Alexander Hamilton rocks...... Adam Hamilton rules!!!!

G-20’s Done: Time to Recheck Buy Signals

I concur with XerJ. Bush was certainly distracted by the war on Islamo-fascist terror against the Western world, but to blame him for the financial meltdown is lazy intelect at its nadir. The roots of the current crisis lie in the unintended consequences of socialist imposition of mandated financial measures upon institutions that would not have made such decisions without government coersion. Yes, it was magnified by the unchecked speculation in the opaque credit default swap market and that is the fault of the U.S. Congress and regulators. It's not as if people were unaware of the impending explosion, however. How many times does one have to read about the "explosion" of derivatives markets before one realizes the thing needs attention? Furthermore, calls for a tighter rein on the GSEs were manifold, yet the socialists in the U.S. Congress browbeat those making the requests into submission. It's all well documented in Congressional hearings video.

Get Ready to Buy Like It's 2002

On Nov 02 08:39 AM Vee wrote:

> Nov 2, 2008 7:27 AM
>
>
> We be more worried that Mccain would raise the taxes, than Obama.
>
> And I'd also be weary of Mccain putting the draft back in to effect
>
> since , he want's the wars to go on forever. So, he can hunt a dead
>
> Bin Laden, and get thousands and thousands of our troops killed.
>
> He's another Bushman, except he'd be double trouble, compared to
>
> what Gw has been.
> Also Mccain want's to get rid of the income tax and just put a tax
> on
> everyone.

I surely hope no one has entrusted money to such a naive childlike mind as yours, Vee. Do yourself a favor and check into the nearest mental institution. Run. Don't walk.

MySpace Aims to Be the Jukebox of Our Internet Existence

All these "free" music sites are crap IMO. The user experience sucks. When are people going to realize you get what you pay for? Music is in demand, therefore it has value. The paid subscription sites like Rhapsody and Napster where you get all the music all the time without the BS blow away the competition.

Retail Goes Digital As Best Buy Gobbles Up Napster for $127M

This is NOT a good deal for Napster shareholders. Management cut a sweet deal for itself taking almost 10% of the total deal price in personal payouts in exchange for GIVING the company away at less than 0.4x revenue. This is a travesty and somebody needs to get the Feds involved. This kind of CEO theft from shareholders in exchange for value destruction and incompetance has to stop. Please do some diligence, discover the truth and modify your story.

Best Buy and Napster: Combination Is Doomed

You obviously don't understand what is going on in the digital music space. You and just about every journalist and blogger capable of fogging a mirror think Apple actually offers a good value proposition and nothing else matters. Apple has nice hardware and their software interface works well -- as long as you play by their rules using their equipment. But the real reason Apple has succeeded is because the iPod and iPhone are nothing more than well concealed intellectual property burglary kits. If you don't get that, you don't know squat about the music biz, pal.

Record Companies Starting to Shun iTunes

Markham,

You are correct. The music business cannot survive if things continue in the current direction. The problem is obviously piracy. If people had to procure music legitimately the market would be large enough to support the "new model" everyone seems to think the record labels owe us. Nothing will stop piracy altogether, but our govenrment has a responsibility (one of the few legitimate responsibilities of governement) to allow businesses and people to contol private property. It seems obvious that property laws are not being enforced and the recording industry is punished for this abrogation of duty. Ignore the hecklers from the peanut gallery. Anyone who has listened to an mp3 file believes he is an expert on the economics of producing and distributing music. My fear is that the hecklers are so vocal, and the victims so weak, that the music business will cease to exist before the world realizes what it has killed. BTW, I also agree with you on the best way to procure music. I subscribe to Napster and love it. Cheers.

Rhapsody's New e-Music Download Service Takes on iTunes

You obviously don't know much about music, and even less about the music business. Nobody is trying to out-iPod Apple...not Rhapsody, not Napster, not Amazon. These music stores are vying for slices of what is hoped will be a larger overall legal music pie (the real problem is piracy and why the law is not shutting it down -- but I digress). iTunes sales are plateauing as people realize Apple's content is locked by its proprietary DRM into Apple devices. Secondly, you sound like what the technology community refers to as a "fanboy", i.e. neither logic nor reason can infect your love of anything Apple. Lastly, subscription music is not "a really bad idea." I and thousands of others who subscribe to Napster's and Rhapsody's subscription product think it's a really good idea and love the value proposition. What people need to understand is that subscription music isn't necessarily a replacement for owning a collection of music (although I choose to use it in that manner). It drives my home stereo system, my son's stereo in his room, and another system we have by the pool. It also fills and re-fills 3 different mp3 players that my family shares, one of which happens to be my cell phone that also can purchase tracks over the air via ATT. All this for $15 per month. It's the best entertainment value proposition I know. I tried Rhapsody and it's fine, but I like Napster better. They have over 6 million songs and you can purchase them DRM-free if you like.

Napster's DRM-Free Music Store Will Struggle

I've been a Napster subscriber for over three years and love it. Subscription music is the only way to go as far as I'm concerned. Piracy is not an option and iTunes is not nearly as user friendly as having over 6mm songs available on command. Now I can start a library of DRM-free high bitrate files that I own...but frankly, I don't care. Once you try the subscription route you probably won't want to purchase. Napster's challenge is getting people to try it and realize the potential.