Often while searching for a piece of data through Google, I stumble across something else which is far more interesting. That is how I found the table below of international savings rates. Why should you care? Because countries with high savings rates tend to have strong economies and great stock markets, since there is plenty
In their century long coverage of exotic places, cultures, and practices, National Geographic Magazine inadvertently sheds light on broad global trends that deeply affect the rest of us. Plus, the pictures are great. A recent issue celebrated the approach of the world's population to 7 billion, and the implications therein. Long time readers of this
If you think that the upcoming energy shortage is going to be bad, it will pale in comparison to the next water crisis. So investment in fresh water infrastructure is going to be a great recurring long term investment theme. One theory about the endless wars in the Middle East since 1918 is that they
Every time the price of oil spikes, we learn vast amounts of information about the global reach of this indispensable commodity. It's like taking a non-core elective in geology at college. So I was fascinated when I found the chart of relative sector winners and losers below. No surprise that energy does best from sky
?Apple will never be a consumer products company,? said John Sculley, the Apple CEO who fired Steve Jobs in 1985. Today Apple is the world?s largest and most profitable consumer products company.
Come join me for the Mad Hedge Fund Trader?s Global Strategy Seminar, which I will be conducting in Beverly Hills at 1:30 pm on Monday, January 23, 2012. A 45 minute PowerPoint asset class review will be followed by an open discussion on the crucial issues facing investors today. Coffee and snacks will be made
I am one of those cheapskates who buys Christmas ornaments by the bucket load from Costco in January for ten cents on the dollar because my eleven month return on capital comes close to 1,000%. I also like buying flood insurance in the middle of the summer when the forecast here in California is for
The conspiracy theorists will love this one. Buried deep in the bowels of the 2,000 page health care bill was a new requirement for gold dealers to file Form 1099's for all retail sales by individuals over $600. Specifically, the measure can be found in section 9006 of the Patient Protection and Affordability Act of
Steve Jobs offered me one third of Apple for $50,000 and I was so smart that I turned it down. It?s funny when you think about it now, except when I?m crying,? said Nolan Bushnell, the founder of game company Atari and Jobs? first employer.
Traders were taken aback this morning when the Department of Labor announced a 50,000 drop in weekly jobless claims to 352,000. The street had been expecting a decline of only 19,000. It was the lowest report in almost three years, and the sharpest weekly decline in seven years. I tell people that, if stranded on