Global Market Comments November 12, 2009 Featured Trades: (SUPER FREAKANOMICS), (BERLIN WALL)2) I spent a delightfully entertaining evening with University of Chicago economics professor Steven Levitz and journalist Stephen Dubner, authors of the wildly popular Freakanomics, and the just released 'frequel' Super Freakanomics. I love these guys, because they do the same thing as I
Global Market Comments November 11, 2009 Featured Trades: (VETERANS DAY)1) There's a short letter today. I'll be putting on my tattered and faded Marine Corps desert camos, pinning on my captain's bars, and attaching my Purple Heart, Southwest Asia Service Medal, decorations from the Kuwaiti and Saudi governments, and my good conduct medal, all earned
Global Market Comments November 10, 2009 SPECIAL PAUL TUDOR JONES ISSUE Featured Trades: (GOLD), (EEM), (TAIWAN), (EWT), (TBT)1) I have worshipped at the altar of? the legendary Paul Tudor Jones for the past 25 years, since he was a client of mine at Morgan Stanley. A once savvy, boy cotton trader from the South, I
Global Market Comments November 9, 2009 Featured Trades: (OCTOBER NONFARM PAYROLL), (TRADE SCHOOL), (RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE) 1) Ouch! Another 190,000 jobs went down the crapper in October, taking unemployment rate to a new 27 year high of 10.2%. Add in discouraged job seekers, and that puts the jobless rate at gut churning 17.5%, and over
Global Market Comments November 6, 2009 SPECIAL DEMOGRAPHIC ISSUE Featured Trades: (EEM), (VNM)1) Desperate homeowners counting on a 'V' shaped recovery in residential real estate prices to bail them out better first take a close look at global demographic data, which tells us there will be no recovery at all. I have been using the
Global Market Comments November 5, 2009 Featured Trades: (FCX), (BIDU), (FXC), (USO), (BERNIE MADOFF), (IAN BREMMER)1) I almost stepped on a rattlesnake last night. I finish up most days slinging on a 60 pound pack and clocking 1,000 feet of climb on nearby Mount Diablo. But since my days drag on as I search for
Global Market Comments November 4, 2009 Featured Trades: (GOLD), (BRK/A), (BNI), (UNP), (CSX), (KCSR), (OBAMA), (HEDGE FUNDS)1) News broke this morning that, out of the blue, the Reserve Bank of India bought 200 metric tonnes of gold from the IMF for a handy $6.8 billion. The news set the gold market on fire, boosting the
Global Market Comments November 3, 2009 SPECIAL ?END OF JAPAN? ISSUE Featured Trades: (NIKKEI), (YEN), (JGB), (ATLANTIS JAPAN GROWTH FUND), (LSE-AJG)1)? Having spent a decade living in Japan sharing shoe box sized apartments, living on fish heads, rice, and instant ramen, I am something of an authority on that enchanting country. I spent the seventies
Global Market Comments October 30, 2009 Featured Trades: (SPX), (TBT), (FISKER AUTOMOTIVE), (TAR SANDS) NOTE TO READERS: There is a short letter today, as a cable has snapped on the San Francisco Bay Bridge, slicing though a car, and shutting down Interstate 80. Mercifully, the startled driver was spared. I am holed up at the
Global Market Comments October 29, 2009 Featured Trades: (GOLD), (DOW), (BRAZIL), (EWZ)1) A few years ago, I went to a charity fund raiser at San Francisco's priciest jewelry store, Shreve & Co., where the well heeled men bid for dinner with the local high society beauties, dripping in diamonds and Channel No. 5. Well fueled