money

December, 2011

At a time when the GOP is playing games with the debt limit, a member of the Supreme Court is refusing to recuse himself from matters he has a financial interest in, and middle class incomes are stagnant, many want to change the subject.

 I don't.

This was a prank, and a silly one.

I'm focused on my weiner.......uuuhhhhh.....I mean my work.

~The Weiner
The Professional Opinion


None this month - taking a subscription vacation.

Buy Recommendations

Dollar Cost Average on the Dips is what the last radio show said.

 
 The Eastern Sierra
The Eastern Sierra as seen from east of Bishop, CA during an early October dusting.
Personal Portfolio
YTD

Boy do we need to get that obummer of a fool out of the oval office.
We need some pro-business, adult leadership for a change we can believe in.

Meanwhile, I'm continuing to twist my way in and out  of NLY and HUN, picking up more and more free shares of HUN.  This volatility is good for something, after all.
MF Global

Libs backing the wrong company.  Again.

OWS

Libs without a cause and.....Libs without a clue.

Finance


Personal Portfolio

Annaly is out  with their Q3 Market Commentary.  It's not light reading but Here is a Copy.

I can't pretend to understand all of it, but after reading the whole thing and consistently looking up the terms  not in my vocabulary,   I'm more than getting the general flavor of the commentary.  

New word - Endogenous.....the opposite of Exogenous.  

Speculation Friday

JEF

Jeffries Group is an investment bank that I think has been unfairly  lumped in with other troubled investment companies.

Here is their latest 10k

JEF

While I have no interest in picking up another banking stock at this time,  I think  a little speculation in this stock at these prices would be  worth the while.  The CEO is certainly outspoken about his company  and I think leery investors may end up thinking twice about abandoning the stock.

Here is his letter to investors, friends and others.

 Why should anyone care about Greece?

Bad things happen when a country sells debt to other nations and the country selling the debt does not have the resources to make interest payments to nations that bought that debt.  Greece over the years sold a lot of paper to the rest of Euroland.  Euroland if it had been smart, might have taken note that Greece has gone bankrupt no less than five times over the years and and has been in a state of default  since its independence.

As an aside, it is interesting that few if any anglo-saxon nations have ever defaulted and in Euroland,  it's a way of life.  

So anyway, there are a number of European states whose financial state is a mess and they are having a tough time making payments on debt they themselves sold.  

If Greece defaults,  countries already in trouble making their own payments will find it even harder to make those payments without the interest they were expecting to receive from Greece and could end up going into default themselves.

How bad is the problem?

It kind of reminds me of Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral,  and where that spiral actually ends.

What should Euroland do about this?  I think the preferred option is to force Greece to reform their socialist house of cards and pay off their debt.  

The other option would be to kick Greece out, absorb some of their debt and cut their losses on the rest to pennies on the dollar.  

The first option would be more palatable but considering that fact the country has gone bankrupt five times.........it may not be the most practical choice.

This is also the reason I’ve been staying away from that 10-15% international exposure that the money managers typically recommend. 

These days, Canada is about as far abroad as I am likely to go.

The First Dusting

Winter on its way.