Time magazine has again demonstrated its irrelevance in the Internet age with a fatuous feature called “25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis.”
I can’t decide if this is a case of cluelessness, stubbornness, or both. See, I try not to pay attention to the doings of the power elite when they gather each year for their conclave in Davos, Switzerland.
What are the two most expensive goods you’re likely to buy in your lifetime? A home and a car, probably. And the news today on both is an indicator of how screwed up things are.
Just one question… If, per Hank Paulson, “taxpayers” are going to own stock in financial companies, where do I sign up to get the dividend checks? OK, I concede that’s a lame attempt at humor, especially on a day when Paul Krugman wins the Nobel Prize in economics. Brings to mind what Tom Lehrer said 35 years ago about political satire becoming obsolete with Henry Kissinger winning the peace prize.
Gold futures closed at $906 an ounce today. The shiny metal has risen $73 in the last three trading sessions as worried investors return to the ultimate safe haven.
But this price only reflects the ‘paper price’ of gold, says Dave Gonigam. Holding the actual metal is much more difficult — and much more costly.
Dave says the “yawning chasm” between the paper and physical price of gold means something will snap soon. This could mean the paper price doubles in rapid fashion.
Here’s a scary thought: The government’s bailout of Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) could be the catalyst for the much-anticipated meltdown in credit default swap (CDSs). Dave Gonigam in Desidooru Saloon says this could happen…
In 2008 — as in 1981 — every asset class is taking a beating, says Dave Gonigam in The Daily Reckoning’s Desidooru Saloon. But that year was a major turning point, with the Fed turning the screw on inflation and the stock market about to set off on a major bull run. The gold bubble had also burst by that point. Dave says gold prices today will eventually have to catch up with real-world demand, making physical gold the most worthwhile asset to own during this downturn…
I.O.U.S.A. has made an auspicious debut in nationwide release. If you missed it last night, look on your favorite movie-search website for a “theater near you” this weekend. And not just because Roger Ebert gives it three and a half stars.
It’s funny how people react to it. Their perceptions are colored by their preconceived notions. Conservatives see it as a veiled call for tax increases. Liberals see it as a veiled call for slashing Social Security. It is, of course, neither of those things. But this is good. As I knew well back in my journalism days, if you managed to anger both sides of an issue, you did a decent job.
More Americans, 52 percent, live in the suburbs than anywhere else. The suburban growth rate exceeded 90 percent in the past decade. But there’s been a radical shift in recent months.