Sunday, October 12, 2008
WORLD FINANCIAL CRISIS - DO SOMETHING NOW!
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Watching the markets freefall, we know this crisis will utterly change our daily lives -- we're not just spectators any more, and we’re seeing something new –- people and governments directly intervening in the chaos that until now was controlled by reckless and greedy financiers.
Today and all weekend, extraordinary choices will be made by the world’s most powerful finance ministers, meeting to decide our response to the financial crisis. Together, we must make sure that governments don’t just use our money to bail out the banks, but claim a share of public ownership in these institutions for our future, and oversight powers to fundamentally fix the wider system.
We'll deliver our call for a global buy-in package in 36 hours to G7 finance ministers and again to a bigger Global Crisis Summit planned for November -- please sign the petition at the link below, and forward this email to everyone you know. The decisions made this week will shape our lives for years to come:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_public_rescue
Three weeks ago our petition to regulate global finance was waved by Denmark's former prime minister as the European Parliament voted.[1] Two weeks ago our US members bombarded Congress with phone calls for a buy-in not a bailout -- investing in the banks so they stop choking off capital, while giving the public a share for their money and the power to fix the system -- and yesterday, as Britain launched a bold buy-in of its own, word is the United States might finally change course.[2]
Only concerted action by the global community can build a better system, and we can't leave it to the financiers -- so today, we're launching an emergency campaign calling on leaders for a global public rescue to save all our economies. This is what's needed -- a 'buy-in' to financial institutions not a reckless 'bailout', massive public investment stimulus to stave off global depression, temporary guarantee of loans/deposits, and strict new regulations to fix this broken system once and for all.[3] It's a sensible and public-spirited package supported by progressives and expert economists alike -- add your name here:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_public_rescue
Leading economists now agree that citizens and our governments are the only force powerful enough to solve this crisis -- only the public can mobilise the investment and oversight needed to fix the financiers' failings, get the economy moving and revive things on a sounder basis. The Great Depression of the 1930s teaches us that we cannot address this crisis with each acting alone -- only by acting together can countries head off disaster.
How we respond to this crisis will shape our lives for years to come. We're still a long way from tackling the fundamental problems of the global economy, but the tide is moving in our direction. So let's take control of our future in the interests of people not financiers, and raise a worldwide voice across borders for a global public rescue. 3.4 million of us in every nation of the world will get this email -- that's a start. Click below to sign, forward this email to all your friends and family, and let's raise a voice our leaders can't ignore:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_public_rescue
With hope and determination,
Paul, Ricken, Graziela, Pascal, Veronique, Iain, Brett, Milena and the whole Avaaz team
PS Congratulations to all those who supported our phone and email campaign on Europe's climate and energy package this week -- it was a stunning victory, we won 95% of what we wanted and our sources say we made a big difference. More soon!
Sources:
1. Winning the vote on financial oversight and regulation in the European Parliament with Denmark's Poul Rasmussen:
http://www.pes.org/content/view/1401/1700098
Rasmussen's Parliament speech:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+CRE+20080922+ITEMS+DOC+XML+V0//EN#creitem19
2. New York Times and NYU economist Paul Krugman on the UK plan and US shift:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/doing-the-right-thing/
"This would essentially be the plan supported by most economists":
http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/10/ny-times-recapitalization-plan-being.html
3. 18 leading economists from across the political spectrum and around the world -- "Rescuing our jobs and savings: what G7/G8 leaders can do":
http://voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/2340
ABOUT AVAAZ
Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in Ottawa, London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Paris, Sydney and Geneva.
Monday, March 03, 2008
A BULL MARKET???
Bill Bonner
Yesterday, the Dow was up 90 points. But gold hit a new record high. So did the commodity index, the CRB.
What should you do with your money now?
Today, we take a break from our usual cogitations to bring you something useful. A suggestion.
"Sell the U.S.," we have said.
"Sell the U.K.," say our colleagues in London. The English have very similar problems to the United States - too much debt, too little profitable output, high costs, too little energy, too little food. What's more, the U.K. economy relies far more on the financial industry than America does.
But today we are feeling positive... helpful... almost earnest. We offer some buy-side advice.
Our colleague in Buenos Aires has persuaded us that Latin America is a buy. (Spanish speaking readers are invited to go directly to read his reports unblemished by our bad translations.)
The whole region is booming, says our man in South America. GDP growth is solid to spectacular. Currencies are rising. These economies are relatively unburdened with the high costs and legacy obligations of Britain and America. And they produce what the world seems to want most - food and energy .
"The economy of Peru is gathering momentum," writes Horacio Pozzo. "GDP growth reached 8.99% in 2007, with a strong growth in consumption (rising at a 7% annual rate) and with outstanding growth in capital investment, at around 23.4%.
"Wherever you look, the Peruvian economy is healthy - with a fiscal surplus of 2.6% of GDP and an external surplus of 1.5% of GDP, with record foreign currency reserves of $28 billion, unemployment of 6.9% and an inflation rate, which reached 3.9% last year, under control."
By almost every measure, in other words, Peru has a more solidly growing economy than either Britain or America.
In Brazil, meanwhile, consumer spending is rising too - up 5.5%, compared to an average of only 2.4% in the '90s. How come consumers are spending more? Simple... there's more money in the country and they have more jobs. Earnings have gone up 148% in just the last five years - to a per capital level of $2,794 in 2007. Unemployment has been going down too. It ran into the double digits in 2001 and 2003. Since then it's been coming down, to the lowest level in the last ten years in 2007 - at 7.4%.
Inflation is still running a bit hot in the Amazon. But the authorities are turning on the air conditioners. The key lending rate of Brazil's central bank is 11.25% and may go up, as officials try to hold down price increases. And unlike the U.S. president, Brazil's top man is actually becoming more popular - with approval ratings above 50% and rising.
Money is flowing to Brazil because the country is a major supplier of raw materials and soft commodities - the very things whose prices are rising so sharply. Just last week, for example, Brazilian suppliers got South Korean and Japanese buyers to accept a 63% increase in the price of iron ore. Wheat, of course, is off the charts.
But how do you take advantage of the boom in Latin America... and without getting whacked by a downturn in commodities? Here at The Daily Reckoning, we are suspicious of commodity prices. As soon as you notice a big spike up in a commodity - such as wheat, currently - you have to expect a big spike down. Commodity producers - with some major exceptions - react quickly to price increases. They produce enough to meet the demand... and then, typically, a lot more. Bust follows boom, sometimes so quickly that an investor has little time to get into position.
The 1970s, for example, were boom years for commodities, generally. But the price of sugar actually peaked out at 70 cents per pound in 1973 - at the very beginning of the boom. Marc Faber explains:
"Despite accelerating inflation rates, sugar thereafter failed to make a new high in the 1970s. After 1981, when interest rates fell, the price of sugar continued to decline and bottomed out at 2.5 cents per pound in 1985. And although interest rates continued to decline in the 1990s, sugar was still selling for just 5 cents a pound in 1999... very simply because supplies exceeded demand."
A boom in commodities is almost always followed by trouble. That's why our old friend Rick Rule says, "most people can't believe how cyclical commodity markets are." He goes on to say that in commodities, "either you are a contrarian or you are a victim."
But Horacio makes a suggestion for how to profit from Brazil's boom without getting on the wrong side of a commodity cycle.
TAM is an airline with nearly 50% of the domestic Brazilian market. Air transport in Brazil is rising at 10% per year. Yet, TAM sells at a price that is only 4 times earnings. And it has a price to book value of only 1.14.
Buy TAM, says Horacio.
Latin America is booming. And our colleagues in Buenos Aires, Argentina are well placed to help you profit from the many value opportunities south of the border. They have launched an email report service entitled Informe Moneyweek that covers both Latin American and international investment opportunities. It's written daily in Spanish by South American market experts, Horacio Pozzo and Paola Pecora. If this is something you would be interested in, I encourage you to click here ... and by the way, it's free!
*** London is a remarkable city.
We took the train out to Luton Airport this morning. Standing on the platform at London Bridge Station we watched the early morning trains come in. Out of them came the working classes, people who wear jeans and watch caps and start work early on construction sites, in restaurants and hotels, and in the few other manual jobs that remain in the city center. Later trains bring in a different class of worker... dressed in suits and ties, who walk across the bridge to the City, London's equivalent of Wall Street, and spend their days separating clients from their money. Millions of people come into the town center each day... "I did not think death had undone so many," remarked T.S. Eliot, watching them make their way over the Blackfriar's Bridge.
The center of town has become so expensive that few real Londoners can afford to live there. Instead, there are working foreigners, such as your editor, rich Arabs, Russians, French, Indians - all manner of flotsam and jetsam from the globalised, capitalist economy.
England has a tax rule, dating back some 200 years, that allows these foreigners to live in the U.K. and pay tax only on the money they earn in the country or bring into it. If, for example, a Russian energy billionaire chooses to live in London, his earnings from Russia are tax-free here. Naturally, this little feature... along with London's financial industry and its civilised, law-abiding society... attracts many of the world's rich and footloose.
Envy is a more potent emotion than the desire for wealth itself. Many people in the United Kingdom are annoyed that so many rich people live in their midst without paying taxes. "It's not fair," they say, "that we have to pay thousands in taxes on our meager salaries, while they earn billions and pay nothing." They have a point. It's not fair. But it might be smart. Clearly, the rich spread their money around. They fill the fancy restaurants... buy the expensive cars... go to the theatre. They buy property too... lifting the ceiling on the London housing market to the highest level in the world. They also spend enormous amounts of money in England's equivalent of Wall Street - the City.
They have money to manage and invest... they do mergers and acquisitions... the keep the clerks busy. They keep the high-priced lawyers busy... the dress-shop girls on alert... and the jewelry companies hoping for a big sale. (Last year, celebrating an important birthday, we bought Elizabeth a very little bauble at Tiffany's on Sloan Square. Now we are on the mailing list and treated as though we were an oil prince.)
Americans, of course, are in a class by themselves. Unlike the world's other peoples, the land of the free taxes its own on their worldwide wealth - no matter where they live or how long they've lived there. We have lived outside the United States for the last 12 years. Yet, every one of those years we filed our U.S. tax return and paid our taxes to the U.S. government - just as if we got something for it.
Curiously, this regime often works to Americans' interest. An American in Paris, for example, who earns his money in the United States, probably pays less in tax than any other group in the city. A special treaty between the United States and France permits U.S. citizens - and only U.S. citizens - to discharge their entire French tax obligation on U.S. source income simply by paying IRS what is owed.
But the non-U.S., "non-dom" foreigners in London have an even sweeter deal. ("Non doms" they are called... meaning, they are resident in the United Kingdom, but not domiciliary of Great Britain.) It was probably too good to last. Recently, the Labor government buckled to pressure from the voters and introduced a new tax on the "non-doms." Henceforth, the non-doms will have to pay an annual tax of 30,000 pounds - or about $55,000 - per year, for the privilege of living in the United Kingdom.
This amount is peanuts to the Russian billionaires, of course. But there are thousands of 'non-doms' to whom it is real money. The City has attracted analysts, fund managers, actuaries and mathematicians from all over the world. There are also large groups of foreigners who have made London their home because it is safer and nicer than where they came from. Whole industries have lodged themselves in London - largely because of the tax feature. A big part of the Greek shipping industry, for example, calls London home.
Now, many of these people say they are leaving. The Greeks say they are going back to Athens. The financial industry says it's going to Geneva. And all of a sudden, there's a gush of interest in Dubai.
We don't know how much effect this new tax will have. But it, along with a decline in the financial industry, makes it a poor time to buy property in London.
*** Speaking of Dubai, a full-page ad in a London newspaper announces a remarkable opportunity. "Dubai Property Investment Weekend," it proclaims.
"Learn about off-plan UAE property and return 40% to 50% of your investment per annum."
Hmmm... a yield of 40% - 50%? How is it possible? We don't know, but the ad tells us that we can invest 69,000 pounds and we'll get an annual return of 33,000.
Ha... ha... ha... ha... ha...
It's nice to see the markets functioning as they should, separating fools from their money. The actual return from an investment in Dubai property is more likely to be preceded by a minus sign. Colleague Kevin Kerr explains why:
"I haven't been there [to Dubai] before, and know very little about the country. I saw a special on "60 Minutes" a few weeks ago while trapped on an airplane and saw how that Palm Island is completely sold out but there isn't a soul living there, it's almost deserted.
"I don't think I really grasped how insane it is until I saw some of these pictures and read about plans for a spaceport, yes a spaceport and a 100,000 employee Dubailand. I know this may seem stupid... But where do they get the water (hello, it's a desert), electricity, and everything else to support an infrastructure this big? Again, I know we are all aware of the building craze there, but I just didn't realise the scope until now."
REAL WEALTH
Thursday, January 24, 2008
While The Stock Market Tumbles, Property Is Set For Strong Growth & Returns!
Have you noticed that the Australian share market has taken a dive for 12 consecutive days now?
Some commentators are even talking about a bear market developing and a possible recession.
It’s already the longest losing streak in more than 26 years and shows no immediate sign of a rebound.
Over the past couple of days, major Australian Super Funds have warned about the likelihood of single digit returns in 2008 as a result of the share market fallout.
Commentators are also saying that if the share market drops much lower, many share investors will move their money into the property market because it is perceived as being SAFER and LESS VOLATILE.
This is generally the case when the sharemarket goes south.
Perhaps you’re aware that residential rents keep climbing because of a shortage of rental accommodation and that builders are going bust since they can’t sell their existing stock due to a general fear about rising interest rates.
Smart investors aren’t worried about rising interest rates because they know what strategies to put in place to deal with that situation.
Interesting isn’t it?
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
A New Bull Market Begins Now
It’s tough to believe, but there is still one bull market raging on.
With the U.S. markets closed, I was looking forward to taking a day to review some current positions—figuring out what’s going to recover, what’s not… and act accordingly. Even though the markets are down, this is still a time to sell the losers.
But after I woke up today at about 4:30am Pacific Time (I’m still getting my sleep schedule back to normal after coming back from Asia), the first thing I did was turn on my computer to see what was happening and found the markets in the red up and down the board.
Hong Kong was down 5.5%. Shanghai’s main index was struck with a 5.1% loss. India fell 7.7%. The DAX in Germany fell 4.2%. And the TSX Venture Exchange (where the most speculative, yet most highly profitable trades are made) was off 6.5% after the first hour of trading.
It was a bloodbath around the world and the U.S. missed it all…in a way. Today’s U.S. market closure was actually one of the key catalysts for today’s worldwide market turn down.
Despite what the news reports say about London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, the deepest pockets and most powerful money managers are mostly in the United States. And with a day off like today, the extra liquidity and buying demand from bottom fishing value traders just didn’t come through.
So, despite what has happened, it’s all just part of the (much needed) correction cycle we’re in now. But a correction, regardless of how bad it ends up being, is just that—a correction.
Over the past few weeks when it seemed like absolutely everything was getting crushed, there were some good sectors that kept on climbing without a hitch.
Practically everything in the agriculture sector has been on a tear. Gold has been dominating the headlines with its meteoric rise to more than $900 an ounce and then its subsequent pullback. But one of the investments that has survived the raging bear, is slowly gaining steam, and has quite a bit of upside is silver.
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That’s why silver is really starting to get my interest. You see, silver is used for a lot of things. You can find silver in automobile engines, electrical appliances, security systems, telecommunication networks, mobile telephones, television receivers and computers.
Jet engines depend on silver-coated bearings for their performance and safety. All major jet engine manufacturers are required to use silver due to its unique metallic properties .
Bottom line, I want you to understand that silver is used in a lot of stuff… and we need more silver to make more of that stuff. It’s not like gold, which has extremely limited amount of uses.
Over the next two years, gold and silver will likely continue to run. Gold might more than double and make it to $2,000 (after many corrections along the way), but I think silver has a much better shot at tripling in value long before gold ever doubles from here.
It all comes down to utility value. Gold has value because the world arbitrarily affords it that value (just like we arbitrarily assign value to the dollar, euro, yen, etc.), but silver has utility value. It’s used in things. And that makes it a lot less susceptible to being the flavor of the month and “hot money” buying and selling like gold is.
So if you’re looking for a good commodity to buy for the next three months or more, silver is the place to be. Regrettably, all signs are pointing to continued weakness for base metals, oil, and energy over the next couple of months.
Good investing,