Financial Vagabond

… is exactly where the market was back in March when the S&P 500 hit 666.  Everyone thought the world was coming unhinged, and well it was and still is.  However, not everything comes tumbling down instantly.
With every play there are acts, and at some point the climax.  Without the climax how can we have [...]

Bonds, bonds, bonds…  United States Government bonds ARE the safest investment in the world besides cash.  Right?  They are aren’t they?  I mean they are backed by the taxing power of the United States Government so they have to be.  Well, sure you will get your money back at a measly 2.x% these days.  Isn’t [...]

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 of more than 1%
Indeterminate on the [...]

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 of [...]

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 was [...]

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 put a [...]

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.  
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1) Voting for McCain…
I really don’t think voting for A or B is going to matter. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

I’ve attended a few performances by David Copperfield and he has performed the unbelievable.  Before my very own eyes a group of thirty people vanished into thin air.  Where did they go?  I watched the unbelievable made real right in front of me.  How could this be an illusion created to fool me into belief? [...]