Long time readers of this letter know that demographic issues will be one of the most important drivers of all asset prices for the rest of our lives (click here). Researchers expect that the global population will reach 9 billion by 2045, the earliest date that I have seen so far. Can the planet take
My grandfather was an immigrant from Sicily who joined the army during WWI to attain US citizenship, lost an eye when he was mustard gassed on the Western Front, and settled down in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn after the war. He bought a three bedroom brick home on 76th street for $3,000, eventually
One day in New York a few years ago, I had a few hours to spare waiting to board Cunard?s Queen Mary 2 to sail for Southampton. So I decided to check out the Bay Ridge address near the Verrazano Bridge where my father grew up that I had heard so much about during my
One of the great things about running a website with a truly global reach is that readers send me material which is nothing less than outrageous. So I had to laugh when I found in my inbox an animation of two bears discussing the hopelessly idiotic approach the US government has taken towards its trade
?People think that Treasury bonds are riskless, but a 100 basis point rise in interest rates leads to an 18% capital loss,? said Andrew Neale, a portfolio manager at Fogel Neale Partners.
Global Trading Dispatch?s Trade Alert Service posted a new all-time high yesterday, clocking a 50.9% return since inception. The 2012 YTD return is now at 10.71%. That takes the average annualized return up to 30.1%, ranking it among the top five performing hedge funds in the world. Those happy subscribers who bought my service on
My first morning in the Swiss mountain hamlet of Zermatt, home to the Matterhorn, I was awoken by an army platoon outside my door, fully armed with fixed bayonets. No, I was not being arrested for past indiscretions in the idyllic Alpine paradise. My often-inflammatory opinions had not even triggered an international incident worthy of
?It?s a bit like looking for gold in a minefield,? said Fidelity International?s China Special Situation Fund manager, Anthony Bolton, amid widespread accounting fraud in the country.
Many apologies to the hundreds of listeners who were cut short during the broadcast of my biweekly strategy webinar on Wednesday, August 1. Despite the Herculean efforts of the staff, sometimes the technology doesn?t deliver as promised. This was one of those days. For a start, getting the GoToMeeting software to work on an iMac
As I expected, the wildly optimistic expectations for further quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve at yesterday?s Open Market Committee meeting were not matched with substance. All we got was a continuation of existing modest programs and some minor tweaking of language. Bernanke only managed to say that, ?further stimulus will be provided as needed.?