It wasn’t long ago that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s decision to nationalize state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) resulted in a failed coup that very nearly cost him his post.
If you want to do well in today’s market, ignore this rally. Pay all your attention instead to the only class of companies you need to know about. I call these companies the “best of breed.” They’re probably the least-talked about companies in the market. Many investors are missing the boat. And that’s a shame.
The world’s power elite, the Bilderberg club, is getting together today at the five-star Nafsika Astir Palace Hotel in Greece. US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will be there. So will World Bank president (and Goldman Sachs alumnus) Robert Zoellick; head of Deutsche Bank Jo Ackermann; and European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet. The topic of discussion is the global economic meltdown.
Justice sees the economy heading toward stagflation – the combination of sluggish growth and inflation…
US GDP falls more than expected…FOMC holds course…Canadian dollar has a great week…Oil helps commodity currencies…And Now… Today’s Pfennig!
Big Media headlines today are full of Great Depression comparisons. But Martin Hutchinson thinks that might be exaggerating the current downturn. He expects a ‘double-dip’ recession similar to that of the early 80s. Still, Martin says we’re looking at five years before we dig ourselves out of this economic hole.
Big banks don’t trust each other in the post-Bear Stearns market, and lending across the financial system is drying up.
This tighter credit environment is hitting money supply. Last month, money supply actually shrank – it grew at under the rate of inflation.
Charles Delvalle at Investor’s Daily Edge says this means investors should now expect deflation to hit asset prices.
This echoes Bill Bonner’s recent warnings about the risks of a coming deflationary slump in the U.S…
The Daily Reckoning’s Bill Bonner says Americans are going to have to get used to a lower standard of living. After living beyond their means for so long, they will have to leave beneath their means to survive the correction.
U.S. companies were hit with the largest annual jump in wholesale prices in 27 years during July. Housing starts dropped to their lowest level in 17 years. The indicators are that ruinous stagflation is tightening its grip on the U.S. economy for the first time in decades, says Jennifer Yousfi in Money Morning…
Treasury Bills are not the safe investment people think. With the 10-year yield below the rate of inflation, T-Bills are now a bet that recent price increases won’t last.
They are basically a leveraged bet against inflation, says Bill. And as oil and food prices drop, this may be a good bet. Then again, it may not be
Either way, professional and amateur investors seem to agree on one thing: Stocks are a bad bet right now…