|
|
|
It seems like you can’t get on TV and talk about your views of the economy unless you’re either in one extreme or the other. Either the American economy is great and the Dow is going to 15,000 or you’re a gloom and doomer and think the Dow is going to 5,000. The reality is that neither camp is right in my opinion.
I’m of the opinion that there are structural problems with the economy. First and foremost, there’s too much debt. The debt overhang of the general economy and at …
Our forecast for 2012. Stocks End Up 10-15%. Housing Stays Crappy. Middle Class Struggles. Politics will continue to be politics. Don’t worry, there’s still good news in this article.
The current economic collapse has caught most American’s in a peculiar buying situation: you can either avoid purchasing new technology and fall behind on the technology curve, or you can purchase it and encumber yourself in more credit card debt than you could have ever imagined.
With more than one year separating us from the 2012 Presidential election it’s admittedly a little lousy how much media attention is being paid toward the campaigns of potential candidates and the President’s chances of reelection.
Stock picking was all the rage because everyone was convinced that stocks were where you should be because the performance was so great. Stock picking gave individual investors the idea that they could generate even larger returns therefore they ate it up. Hot stock tips spread via newsletters and word of mouth like wild fire. The reality is that these tips could work if someone read the fundamentals right. Unfortunately all of this ended in 2008.
For approximately 5 months I have been managing my “mutual fund” via Youtualfunds.com – which is a very cool platform. My performance over the last 5 months has been very good. While the performance is encouraging, I’ll be the first to admit that a 5 month time frame is very short. You can follow my performance by…
Essentially countries want lower currencies priced against other currencies in order to stimulate exports. Of course if your exports are cheaper for other countries, then stuff is also more expensive for your own people, but that’s irrelevant, right? Well, what happens when EVERYONE is devaluing against eachother trying to all stimulate exports? Well, you have all currencies losing value.
It takes special talent to destroy a state (New Jersey) and a private company (MF Global). MF Global has had its shares halted and will be heading for bankruptcy. Jon Corzine, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, Senator and Governor of New Jersey is the CEO of MF Global. He’s essentially the epitome of everything wrong with Wall Street – the shining beacon of politics merged with global finance. I hope he goes broke.
A rundown of commentaries on current events such as Occupy Wall Street, the idea of income disparity, what is happening in Europe and Netflix!
Interestingly, the mainstream media is starting to pick up on a few trends that I’ve been talking about for years: namely that the 20-somethings coming out of college are going to be in big trouble. The reasons for this are:
1. College degrees are becoming not much more than a piece of paper that says you’re slightly better than someone who didn’t goto college.
In other words, they don’t mean as much as they used to.
Why? Because college has turned into so much more than education. Now obviously there are exceptions to …
Stock markets continue to be volatile with weak jobs/economic data and especially fears over the Europe situation. The European debt crisis will have to come to a head at some point, so it probably makes sense to hold out until it does. What will that look like? A Greek restructuring of debt at a minimum.
The price of gold corrected 10% over the last few days. Here are the reasons why the run is not over.
1. First, a correction like we just got is actually very healthy. I would be more concerned if we didn’t have a correction and continued going up higher and higher. Corrections are needed to shake out weak hands and leverage and help to create a sustained bull run over longer than mere days and weeks.
2. The fundamentals that have supported this run are firmly in place. In fact, they are …
Fear has re-entered the markets and the economy as Americans are overwhelmingly responding to polls that they fear the economy is getting worse and possibly headed back into a recession. Meanwhile we have record long-term unemployed which speaks to the structural nature of our economic woes (versus cyclical). Yes, it’s by no means easy to get ahead in today’s economy, but we’re here to deliver the financial survival guide for those of you in your 20s (or 30s for that matter). Let’s jump in…
Income
Nothing at this stage is more important …
Markets are getting pretty volatile and many are expecting the Fed to step in. Of course, quantitative easing will do nothing but spike inflation so it’s a lose / lose. I’d hate to be Bernanke right now. How out of control does the price of gold get if they announce QE3? We could get to $2,000 / oz rapidly if so. Uncharted territory indeed.
As gold approaches $1700, it’s safe to say that I’ve made a quality multi-year bet on the price of gold. I first got into gold in the $700 range, added to my position greatly during the 2008 crash and have essentially held on until now. Interestingly, the hard work is essentially just beginning.
Knowing when to exit a big winning position is tougher than buying a position in many cases. Gold is definitely an example of this.
This is much different than dividend stocks that I intend to hold for years and …
Amazing action in the markets right now. The Dow ended the day today down 260ish and meanwhile gold spiked above $1650/oz. Put them together and you have a crashing dow/gold ratio. I’ve been saying for years that this is going to head lower. You have to watch the price of gold in the new era of printing money. It shows whether or not the bull run in stocks is legitimate or just a easy money result. I’d say that it’s showing to be the latter. The Dow/Gold ratio is approaching the March 2009 lows very rapidly. If it breaks below 7, then we’re under the lows of March 2009. See chart below:
Continuing our series of the 20smoney Personal Finance rules, we get to big number three. This rule has more to do with investing and retirement saving versus the traditional personal finance topics of budgeting, saving, getting out of debt, etc.
On the issue of a gold standard, you have opinions all over the map. It’s impossible. It’s inevitable. Who knows? One thing is for certain, the role of gold is increasing and the role of the US dollar (and likely the Euro) is decreasing. The Euro & Dollar – essentially the two pillars of the current global financial system – are unraveling as the West finds itself in too much debt. The third pillar, the Japanese yen… same deal.
Earlier this week, Ron Paul asked Ben Bernanke (video here) why …