Financial Vagabond

Hold your hats folks as here are some of the forecasts for 2009 (link): GDP falling by 2.2% Slow recovery in 2010 > 9% unemployment by 2010 Decline in inflation (hmmmm… if monetary policy says anything this will reverse or at least eventually destroy the dollar) Continued decline in housing prices Decline in real consumption [...]

If my emotional barometer is any indication of where people’s minds are at the moment then I can only label it as coming down or recovering from a major hangover. It is the Sunday afternoon after a big night out sipping on your bloody mary to ease the pain. We have been living on credit and tons [...]

Ever watched a sci-fi movie where the crew goes into stasis while they travel from one end of the galaxy to the other?  Ever contemplated Purgatory where heaven and hell meet?   I feel as though this is a period of semi-consciousness awaiting judgement…  Last night I was catching up on some news online when I [...]

The theory was beautiful (well in the abstract)… Give troubled banks more credit and they will lend it out and the economy will stop its free-fall.  Now, that sounds like utopia to me.  Create credit and we will all be saved for unemployement, slowing production, decreased consumer spending, and rising interest rates. HOLD ON… let’s [...]

I received an email from a friend and here is my response.  You ought to be able to decipher what the questions were about.  These are my opinions of the present situation, and are by no means recommendations.   —- 1) Voting for McCain… I really don’t think voting for A or B is going [...]

  I watch the markets on a daily basis, and attempt to stay informed as to what is happening in the world.  To be honest it isn’t a easy task as there is so much information to digest.  Alas, that is the beauty of the Internet.   Anyways, I started to notice a similar feeling [...]

It seems that the tune to march to these days is credit o credit we need more credit.  Somehow somewhere we forgot quite quickly that credit got us into this mess.  If credit is expanding much faster than real economic growth the outcome will be instability in the economy.  That is like an individual taking [...]

The United States’ Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will stop publishing a key report tracking foreign direct investments (FDI) into the U.S. Through the discontinuation of the BEA’s “New Investment Series,” the U.S. government and the American public will no longer be able to distinguish between FDI used to acquire existing U.S. assets from FDI [...]

Hyperinflation, inflation, deflation, depression, recession, stagflation… well which is it? I have no clue, but there is a massive monetary inflation occurring, and a looming recession.  Hmmm so does this mean a inflationary depression?  Yikes. Last week I took a break from overwhelming myself about the markets and the state of the economy. The timing wasn’t [...]

Ironic that WaMu’s collapse happens to coincide perfectly with this bailout proposal trying to be hurriedly pushed through Congress.  It will for sure pass now <that was my take last night><now we are seeing major hiccups in the process (thankfully)>.  We have been sold out by various individuals in the United States Government.  Very unfortunate [...]