Best Of The Best Share Discussion Threads

[traderabc] 17/8/2010 13:14

Released in 2006 and I've just stumbled across it, worth a watch anyway.

The One Percent - Jamie Johnson

Warren Buffett disowns granddaughter for being in this documentary.


1% of the US population controls nearly 40% of the wealth in America, this was back in 2006.

In this hard-hitting but humorous documentary, director Jamie Johnson takes the exploration of wealth that he began in Born Rich one step further. The One Percent, refers to the tiny percentage of Americans who control nearly half the wealth of the U.S. Johnson's thesis is that this wealth in the hands of so few people is a danger to our very way of life. Johnson captures his story through personal interviews with Robert Reich, Adnan Khashoggi, Bill Gates Sr., and Steve Forbes, during which both Johnson's and his subjects' knowledge and humor shine. And he's not afraid to butt heads with Milton Friedman, the economist who coined the term "the trickledown effect." He also shows how the other half lives.




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[traderabc] 17/8/2010 13:12

All That Glitters...

Mary Anne & Pamela Aden
The Aden Sisters
Posted Aug 17, 2010
Courtesy of www.adenforecast.com

It was another action packed month. The volatility never seems to end, at least that's the way it's been for many months now... actually, for the past few years.

The markets have essentially been reacting to the news of the day for what seems like ages. When the news is good, they rise. When it's bad, or perceived to be bad, the markets get nervous, they become vulnerable and they decline. And investors simply don't know what to do. They're still edgy and uncertain. And as long as this continues, the entire outcome could go either way....

[traderabc] 17/8/2010 13:09

Keiser Report №69: Markets! Finance! Scandal!

[049balt] 17/8/2010 11:15

At long last farmgate prices are rising.

[traderabc] 16/8/2010 19:51

Jim Rogers is an investor and financial commentator. He maintains residences in Singapore and Miami. Rogers first gained fame as the co-founder of the Quantum Fund. More recently, he is known for his bullishness on China and commodities and for his record-breaking trips around the world.

Jim Rogers


IBT: Jim, I know you're bullish on China. What economic benefits are there of moving there? Why shouldn't an American just have investment exposure to China?

Jim Rogers: In 1807, if you had moved to the U.K., you and your heirs would have been much, much better off for the next 100 years. If in 1907 you had moved to the U.S., you and your heirs would have been much better off for the next 100 years.



In my view, moving to Asia in 2007 means my heirs are going to be much better off in the next 100 years.


In my view, moving to Asia in 2007 means my heirs are going to be much better off in the next 100 years.



In 1907, if you had stayed in Poland or China, you would not have had a great future, nor your families. Had you moved to America, [your descendants] would have had a much better future. Who knew what they would do, if they would become doctors or what, in the next 100 years. But whatever happens to them, they were better off. They spoke English, which became the world's language.



My view is that the 21st century is going to be the century of Asia, of China. If I'm right about the future, you are going to have a better life [if you move there], better opportunities, and better everything going where the action is, where the assets are.



IBT: Do you have a rough time-line of when China's GDP will surpass the United States' GDP? They just passed Japan, according to one Chinese official.



Jim Rogers: I have no idea. I know we can sit down and do the arithmetic, but that's rarely the way to do anything because projecting past occurences into the future rarely works. I think the World Bank says by 2020. They're just extrapolating the present trend, first of all. Second, the World Bank has never been right about anything, so I'm sure they're not right about this either.



But to answer your question, I have no idea. I know that China is on the rise, and at least relatively, America is on the decline.



IBT: You're more bullish on China than India or any other large, emerging market countries. Why is that?



Jim Rogers: China has a long tradition of entrepreneurship and capitalism [he is referring to the past few thousand years and not the period from 1949 to 1978, when China's economy was essentially Socialist]. They have been extraordinarily successful several times in history. They are perhaps one of the few, if not the only, country in history that has been great four or five times. They had also been disastrous four or five times.



Great Britain was great once. Rome was great once. China has been great several times. They were in decline for 300 years, until about 1978, when Deng Xiaoping said "this is not working, let's try something new" and they started over. I don't know if it's going to work out, but historically, they do have whatever it takes to become a very successful nation. And the overseas Chinese have lots of capital and expertise.



It [China's economic future] may not work. But it's the only large country that I can see on the horizon that can dominate the 21st century.



IBT: What do you think about China's currency policy?



Jim Rogers: No economy can become world class with a blocked currency. That's never happened in history. Throughout history people with blocked currencies have eventually declined. China knows that; I'm not the only person who's read some history.



They have been opening their currency for the past five years. Every quarter, every year, they open a little more. I thought they would have made it freely convertible by now. In my view, it's good for China, good for the Chinese [people], and good for the world. The sooner they make it convertible, the better.



I cannot tell the Chinese what to do; I don't want to tell them what to do. But yes, they are opening up and it has been good for the world so far. It's certainly been good for many parts of the world [that] sell to China; [they are] much, much better off than they were 20 years ago. So something has gone right. [China is] going to have to open their currency and make it completely convertible some day.



Again, I thought they would have done it by now. China doesn't have anything to worry about anymore. They are the second largest economy in the world and they have gigantic foreign exchange reserves. I don't think they should worry, but they seem to be worried for whatever reason.



IBT: So you have any idea what that reason is? What are they worried about?



Jim Rogers: I know they say in the press that if the currency goes up, China will suffer. That may be correct. I would point out though that the Japanese yen has gone up 400 percent over the past few decades and Japan still has a balance of trade surplus.



I would also point out that if the currency goes up in China, many people would benefit. They import all their cotton. They import oil. Everything they import would go down in price, so a lot of people would be better off!



They are worried about the people [like exporters] who might be worse off rather than the people who would be better off.



IBT: But what about the argument that you should keep production in your country, gain competency, and move up the technology ladder?



Jim Rogers: Historically, the countries that have closed off have gone into decline. In 1962, Burma was the richest country in Asia. They closed their economy and country in 1962, and now they are one of the poorest in Asia.



In 1957, Ghana was the richest country in the British Empire. But in 1957 they closed their economy, their country, to outsiders and within eight years, they were bankrupt. I can go on and on. Historically, closing off to the outside world has not been a very prosperous way to develop.



You need outside ideas, outside capital, and outside competition. Competition makes things better, not worse. Some people obviously suffer. But in the end, the 1.3- billion Chinese are going to be better off, with better products, better quality, and cheaper products. Closing off has never worked.



IBT: But what about the automobile industry in the U.S.? Hasn't opening up hurt it?



Jim Rogers: The U.S. automobile industry is a perfect case of how not to do it. It's a textbook example. In 1965, General Motors was the largest corporation in the world and the most successful. [They were] debt-free [and had a] gigantic market share.



But the Japanese started coming. Brought in cheaper cars, better quality cars. The American automobile industry didn't react, didn't compete. Unions kept on demanding more and more benefits, management kept on giving them away with little vision of what the future would hold, and eventually it led to bankruptcy.



By the end, the cost of a GM car had several thousand dollars of workers' benefits in it. No way it could compete with Koreas, the Chinese, or Japanese or anybody else who maintained competitive practices and weren't giving away the store! But when you're fat and fancy, as General Motors was for decades, [well], nobody paid much attention, they didn't care!



That's all well and good. Capitalism is replete with examples of companies and individuals that got fat and sassy and didn't see the changes taking place. I mean, you can take a look at the computer industry. Dozens of names that were in the computer industry 15 years ago do not even exist anymore because they didn't pay attention. That has happened in every industry.

[traderabc] 16/8/2010 19:49

Monday, August 16, 2010
Jim Rogers was right - The collapse of 2010 is underway

Gerald Celente and Jim Rogers are in agreement concerning the danger of an economic collapse and the demise of the dollar. Sign up for our newsletter to stay informed!

[traderabc] 16/8/2010 15:14

Celente: Stock Market Crash Before End of 2010



Trends & Forecasts Blog
Aug 16, 2010

Gerald Celente believes that the stock market will crash before the end of 2010 , gold will soar. When gold was at $275 per ounce in 2002, Celente said the price had bottomed and in 2004 forecast the beginning of the "Gold Bull Run." Since that time, with pinpoint accuracy, he said when, why – and how high – gold would go. Gerald Celente sees huge opportunities in green healthy food , technology for the poor and in rejuvenating the cities with quality architecture..., Gerald Celente as always recommends gold Canadian dollar the Swiss franc as hedges against the inflation.

[traderabc] 16/8/2010 15:10

[OTE68] On the Edge with Stefan Molyneux
August 16th, 2010 by stacyherbert
Respond

Stacy Summary: Sorry for delay in posting this but had to find my original files from studio today. Here is a 23 minute interview with Stefan Molyneux!

[traderabc] 15/8/2010 22:10

Slavoj Zizek vs Jim Rogers

[traderabc] 14/8/2010 21:34

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men,
they create for themselves,
in the course of time,
a legal system that authorizes it,
and a moral code that glorifies it."
– Political economist Frederic Bastiat, The Law [1850]

"I used to think of Wall Street as a financial center.
I now think of it as a crime scene."
– Filmmaker Danny Schecter, Plunder (2009)





Danny Schechter Dissects Wall Street in "Plunder: The Crime of Our Time"

[traderabc] 14/8/2010 15:50

How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes

Peter Schiff
Aug 13, 2010

No Exit - Stage Left or Right

This week, national attention was fixated on JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater, whose bold, creative, and controversial exit strategy could revitalize his future prospects. Not nearly as noticed was the Federal Reserve's decision on Tuesday to avoid finding an exit strategy for its own never-ending career trap. Unfortunately, the Fed's choices affect our lives much more than Slater's.

Just a few weeks ago, pundits were asking how Ben Bernanke would shrink the Fed's bloated post-crisis balance sheet. But in its August 10th decision, the Fed signaled that it would "recycle" its debt holdings; in other words, there would be no exit strategy for the foreseeable future. Given the fact that monetary stimulus will not only fail to spark a genuine recovery, but create a never-ending need for successively larger doses, Bernanke should grab a few beers and head for the nearest available emergency slide.

[traderabc] 13/8/2010 23:24

Indian equities not cheap: Jim Rogers
10 Aug 2010

[traderabc] 13/8/2010 23:22

Business Diary: Rogers slams Ben's pawn shop



Friday, 13 August 2010


It doesn't look as if Jim Rogers, the investment guru who famously moved to Singapore after deciding Asia offered more opportunities than the West, plans on changing his bearish outlook for the US any time soon. "We have [Ben] Bernanke, who is running the Federal Reserve, who does not know what he is doing," he complains. "The man is taking $400bn on to the Federal Reserve balance sheets – of dicey loans, bad debt. I mean he is turning the Federal Reserve into a pawn shop." An enraged Rogers concludes: "Some day somebody has to pay for this and you know who this somebody is – my little girl, you, me." Get that man a blood pressure tablet.

[traderabc] 13/8/2010 23:10

[KR68] Keiser Report – Markets! Finance! Tier Terra!
August 12th, 2010 by stacyherbert
Respond

Stacy Summary: We look at Tier Terra and future crimes. In the second half of the show, Max talks to former banking regulator William K. Black about rackets and fraud in the financial sector.

[traderabc] 10/8/2010 21:51

The Golden Decade

Peter Schiff
Posted Aug 9, 2010

As gold hovers near $1,200 an ounce and pundits speculate about a 'gold bubble', it's important for investors to remember that a mere decade ago the picture was very different. In the year 2000, gold sat at an unimpressive annual average of $279 an ounce - a two-decade low. At that time, most analysts thought gold was finished as a monetary metal. They said its price would never recover and only kooks with tin hats would invest in it. I was one of the very few financial commentators publicly saying that gold was not only viable, but entering a long-term uptrend.

With the benefit of hindsight, we can all see that the consensus was wrong. Gold has performed remarkably against the Dow, NASDAQ, and US real estate. The reason I was able to confidently forecast this result is because I ignore the 'certainties' determined by Wall Street consensus, and instead study the fundamental trends





Monetary Cards on the Table

Peter Schiff
Posted Aug 10, 2010

In a commentary about a month ago, I described how the economic world seemed to be drifting into two opposing camps: the Washington-based "Stimulators," who insist that more government debt is the best means to end the financial crisis, and the Berlin- and London-based "Austerians," who argue that debt is the crisis itself. If recent economic data and currency movements can be considered votes of confidence, then the Stimulators should be sweating. Moreover, these recent signals should provide economic analysts and investors with a road map for the future.

[traderabc] 10/8/2010 19:20

[KR67] Keiser Report – Markets! Finance! Robots!
August 10th, 2010 by stacyherbert
Respond

Stacy Summary: We look at the scandals of the summer sequel of bankers returning to the scene of the crime to demand another, bigger ransom in "Deflationary Black Hole: The Sequel." In the second half of the show, Max talks to documentary filmmaker, Bregtje van der Haak about her film "Time for Change", in which ordinary people respond to the crisis of banking and bankers with their own solutions.

[traderabc] 10/8/2010 19:19

Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Jim Rogers Interview with Campaign for Liberty

Jim Rogers on The Financial Reform

[traderabc] 09/8/2010 18:48

I think you are being a bit hard on him careful.

He could well be right about the £, it did fall badly against the $, it has yet to recover and it will probably will fall further, imo the change of government has saved the £ (for now) The pound has been very weak against silver, gold and most commodities since those statements

He called Freddie and Fanny along with the financial sector.

It wasn't so obvious a decade ago that commodities were the place to place to be, he's been right ever since and he proved his calls by launching his commodity fund way back then.

[careful] 09/8/2010 18:35

how can you humour this clown rogers.
he is nearly always wrong.
he said the pound would collapse recently and was yet again wrong.
he was hyping gold with others but it will correct itsef, the process has already started.

he states the obvious about food, water and population. yawn yawn.

[traderabc] 09/8/2010 18:32

August 9, 2010
Agricultural Commodities Are Set For Steep Rises
Anybody who's got potentially good agriculture land and good weather is likely to emerge a winner out of this situation because prices of nearly all agricultural commodities are set for steep rises.

in Business Intelligence Middle East

Related ETFs: PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund (Public, NYSE:DBA)


August 5, 2010
I Am Seeing Positive Changes In Malaysia
I'm seeing positive changes in Malaysia under the new leadership. The Government is making a strong effort to boost foreign direct investments.

My view is that Malaysia has the fundamentals, resources and strategic location within South East Asia (SEA), but there needs to be a fair playing field in order to attract more foreigners who are previously gun-shy due to changes in the policies, for example the previous pegging of the ringgit to the US currency.

in The Star Online

Related Exchange Traded Fund: iShares MSCI Malaysia Index Fund (ETF) (Public, NYSE:EWM)

Jim Rogers is an author, financial commentator and successful international investor. He has been frequently featured in Time, The New York Times, Barron's, Forbes, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and is a regular guest on Bloomberg and CNBC.

Put Your Money In The Right Commodities
Now the place to be is to put your money in the right commodities. The fundamentals for selected commodities, particularly agricultural and natural resource-based commodities like rice, wheat, gold silver, platinum and palladium, are looking good given the lack of discoveries in new oilfields and mining areas, poor crop yields and depleting mineral resources.

biz.thestar.com.my

Related Exchange Traded Funds: United States Oil Fund LP (ETF) (Public, NYSE:USO), PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund (Public, NYSE:DBA), iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return (Public, NYSE:OIL), iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (Public, NYSE:SLV) , SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (Public, NYSE:GLD)

Jim Rogers is an author, financial commentator and successful international investor. He has been frequently featured in Time, The New York Times, Barron's, Forbes, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and is a regular guest on Bloomberg and CNBC.

Investment Philosophy
Since I have been doing it long enough, I believe I know more or less how the market works. I'm not an active trader though, not even a very good one at that, but I'm a proponent of long-term investments. In fact, I will always buy low and sell high.

in biz.thestar.com.my

[traderabc] 09/8/2010 18:30

Thursday, August 5, 2010
Jim Rogers : The Federal Reserve is a Pawn Shop

[traderabc] 09/8/2010 18:21

OTE67] On the Edge with Max Keiser and Danny Schechter

[westi1] 09/8/2010 01:54

Hi trader could you give any advice on the following...?


I have just realised a loss of £52,000. The company has gone into administration. The company was listed on the A.I.M, I had bought shares via a broker over a number of years in this company.

I work full time. Pay all my taxes, (40%) N.I, etc...

I have recently set up a business selling various products. Making around £200 per week, can I offset the loss I made on my shares against this income? I am aware I can offset losses against future capital gains, but after the farce of my loss I am now avoiding the markets.

Regards Paul.