Andrew Gordon at Investor’s Daily Edge responds to his readers’ comments about the U.S. housing crisis and the fate of Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) and Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM). Banks, mortgage financers, lawyers, speculative buyers, no comes out looking good in this mess. How could such widescale deceit be allowed to happen? Naked greed, says Andrew…
The new ban by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the naked short selling of 19 major financial firms sent banking stocks on a sharp rally after it was announced on July 15.
However, Sovereign Society Investment Director Eric Roseman says that by singling out 19 firms, the SEC has left hundreds more financial companies even more vulnerable. Washington Mutual (NYSE:WM), the largest US bank not included in the list, saw its share price plunge 35% last week.
Besides, poor financial supervision and weak government regulation created this mess in the banking sector, not short-selling hedge funds.
The payoff for investing in a sure thing is lower than usual these days—a 90-day T-bill only pays 1.8%.
The Financial Research Corporation released a study prior to the (2001-02) bear market which showed that the average mutual fund’s three-year return was 10.92%, while the average investor in those same periods gained only 8.7%.
Today’s Whiskey is a special excerpt from legendary financial mind Jim Rogers’ book, Hot Commodities. In this essay, Jim explains away some of the myths many people associate with commodity markets.
After noting an historic move higher in the gold price last month, maybe we should be wary of picking a bottom today.