1999 prices versus today’s for everything from Air Jordans to an ounce of gold.
Inflation
ETF Inflation and Brown's Law of Wall Street Product Creation
Brown’s Law of Wall Street Product Creation:
“Wall Street products decline in quality, popularity and necessity with each iteration after the original.”
Of Oil and Equities
I had an interesting conversation with a colleague this morning on the counterintuitive concept of higher energy prices being “good” for equities. For most of my career, the oft-repeated maxim was that higher energy prices were, on balance, a negative for the S&P 500. Essentially, higher energy prices translate into lower margins for companies that…
G'Day Rates! Australia Tightens Up
Australia’s central bank raised interest rates yesterday, beginning the unwind of their credit crunch stimulus program. They are the first nation in the G-20 to do so. Like Norway and Brazil, Australia derives a great portion of its GDP from minerals and mining exports, and so is more concerned about inflation in the near-term than many other…
BREAKING: The Secret Plot to Kill the Dollar
FYI: This is the story that everyone’s talking about today, gold and metals stocks are going berzerk in the pre-market as of this writing because of it: From The Independent: In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to…
Mauldin on Deflation or Inflation, Take Your Pick
It is not a matter of pain or no pain; it is a matter of choosing which pain we will face and for how long, and perhaps in what order. – John Mauldin, September 2009 We’ve talked about the Inflation vs Deflation debate a lot here on TRB this year, as I think that getting…
Leprechauns on Parade
Moment of truth time for the gold bulls and bears. The Will it or Won’t It Break $1000 polemic is every bit as suspenseful as the buildup to Ross and Rachel’s first kiss was during Season 2 of Friends. I don’t share investment ideas or make market calls on this site for compliance and business…
Hot Links: So Cute Your Head Will Explode
Stuff I’m Reading this Morning… 8 Reasons Goldman Sachs Says Buy The Chinese Selloff. (TPC) Sex offenders living under a bridge receiving stimulus money. I’d say that “stimulus” is the least of their problems, yuk yuk yuk. (DailyBeast) Buffett still selling Moody’s. Sucks to be a ratings agency these days. (Bloomberg) Nikki takes us behind…
…You Might Be a Gold Bug.
Gold bugs have been around for over 100 years, lurking at the fringes of the investment community and singing the praises of the yellow metal to anyone who will listen. As a result of the plunging US dollar, apocalyptic drops in asset prices and the commodity’s eight year bull market, gold has attracted a huge…
Johnny Upside: I'll Buy Your Gold, Dog!
Johnny Upside is back…and he’s paying Cash for Gold! For those of you who haven’t met Johnny Upside yet, the last time we checked in with him, he was launching a distressed assets fund. Prior to that, he was starting up a fund of fund of funds. Johnny Upside has a knack for showing up…
