March 30, 2012 - Quote of the Day
?The luckiest person in the world today is the baby being born in the United States. The outlook for this country is fantastic,? said Warren Buffet.
Entries by DougD
The Final Word on the Volatility Index
The inside story on the collapse of volatility is now out, and as a result, managers are reviewing the harsh lessons learned and tweaking their strategies. It highlights the dangers of buying securities without reading the prospectus and understanding what is under the hood. As investors piled into stocks in February, they also bought downside
Dinner With Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Joseph Stiglitz
The great thing about interviewing Joseph Stiglitz over dinner is that you don?t have to ask any questions. You just turn him on and he spits out one zinger after another. And he does this in a kibitzing, wizened, grandfatherly manner like one would expect from a character that just walked off the set of
March 29, 2012 - Quote of the Day
?Bankers will get away with whatever they can get away with. Our banking system is socially useless,? said an oversight body in the United Kingdom.
Will Hedge Funds Ruin the Real Estate Market?
Still missing in action from this economic recovery has been the residential real estate market. Everyone who is in the business of selling me a new home assures me that we have hit bottom and things are getting better, including the home builders, real estate agents, and countless local chambers of commerce. Look no further
Buy Toyota Motors as a Cheap Yen Play
Looking for beneficiaries of the coming collapse of the Japanese yen (FXY), (YCS), Toyota Motors (TM) has to be at the very top of your list. A cheaper domestic currency brings a lower cost of production, high foreign sales proceeds, and wider profit margins all the way around. I am probably the only person in
March 28, 2012 - Quote of the Day
?When it?s raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble,? said Oracle of Omaha Warren Buffet.
Momentum is Building for the Yen Shorts.
I?m hearing from my buddies in Japan that while things are already quite bad in that enchanting country, they are about to get a whole lot worse, and that it is time to start scaling into a major short in the yen. Australia and China have already raised interest rates, to be followed by the
March 27, 2012 - Quote of the Day
?Rupert Murdoch is very smart and is a great leader, but he?s made a mistake. He?s buried in ink, and in my view, there won?t be any newspaper business ten years from now. Fortunately, we?re buried in television and movies, and they?ll be here forever,? said Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom and CBS.
An Evening With ?Government Motors?
Long term readers of this letter are well aware of my antipathy towards General Motors (GM). For decades, the company turned a blind ear to customer complaints about shoddy, uncompetitive products, arcane management practices, entitled dealers, and a totally inward looking view of the world that was rapidly globalizing. It was like watching a close