Since I last suggested gold looked “toppy,” our projected government budget deficit ballooned to $1.75 billion. The Fed decided to print money non-stop to fund a $1.15 trillion asset purchase program. Economic upheaval continued, including several major bankruptcies. Political unrest erupted in Iran. And North Korea stepped up its nuclear defiance.
Two weeks ago, at a financial conference, a member of the audience asked an all too familiar question, “What’s your view on the U.S. dollar?”
Last August, in an exclusive article to Oxford Club members, I badmouthed decoupling – the theory that the rest of the world (particularly emerging economies) could somehow party on while the U.S economy endured a recession.
On Friday, my colleague and friend David Fessler provided you with four inflation hedges to consider. Without question, I agree with all of Dave’s recommendations. I just want to add one more inflation hedge to the mix. It’s an under-the-radar one that nobody’s talking about. But they should be. So let me tell you what it is – art investing. But let me stress why it’s imperative you spread the love around and consider investing in all five inflation hedges, not just one.
Right now investors are fleeing safe-haven assets like U.S. Treasuries and the dollar. And they’re putting the capital back to work in the riskiest of investments – emerging markets and IPOs.
The IPO buzz is building… In a span of one month, the number of IPOs in 2009 doubled. Half have been tech IPOs. Sure the tally stands at a pathetic six. But with over 100 deals waiting in the pipeline, the uptick is being closely watched.
It seems everybody, including The Wall Street Journal, is pitching a tent in the “too far, too fast” camp – the belief the stock market rally is premature, overdone in light of the economic conditions and unprecedented. But ignore the chatter. Although plausible, the arguments are profoundly false.
It seems everybody, including The Wall Street Journal, is pitching a tent in the “too far, too fast” camp – the belief the stock market rally is premature, overdone in light of the economic conditions and unprecedented. At least three separate stories from yesterday’s paper posited such a theory.
When a subscriber recently asked us if we were hot on any nanotech stocks, my immediate reply was, “No”. But it wasn’t because I’m not excited about the nanotech field…
On Monday, $24.8 billion worth of takeovers were announced. It was the third busiest Merger Monday on record in 2009. Yet most investors remain unimpressed…. They’re convinced it’s nothing more than a short-lived Darwinian event. Weak and unfit companies, exposed by a nasty recession, are simply being forced into the arms of the strong.
