Best Of The Best Share Discussion Threads

[traderabc] 03/11/2010 12:27

I'm amazed people still believe this kind of rubbish, it's from the BBC, so it's to be expected I suppose.



Why the Fed matters more

Stephanie Flanders | 08:21 UK time, Wednesday, 3 November 2010

Exit bears, pursued by the Federal Reserve. That is what Ben Bernanke would like to be today's story. If the US central bank does announce a second round of quantitative easing, it will be a more important event for the global economy than the midterm elections.

[traderabc] 03/11/2010 12:15

Jim Rogers predicts a new recession in 2012
Jim Rogers, the market sage, has warned the global economy is just two years away from another recession, but remains ill-prepared to cope with the after-effects.

By James Quinn, US Business Editor
Published: 7:50PM BST 27 Jul 2010


Jim Rogers predicts a new recession in 2010

Mr Rogers, the respected currency trader and hedge fund pioneer, cautioned that when the downturn takes hold "the world is going to be in worse shape because the world has shot all its bullets."

Speaking in an interview with business television channel CNBC, the septuagenarian investor said that "since the beginning of time" there has been a recession every four-to-six years, and that's mean another one is due around 2012.

[traderabc] 03/11/2010 11:13

C2i $30 by Christmas? It's all looking far too good as far as I can see ;-)

Marc Faber on Bloomberg QE2

[contrarian2investor] 02/11/2010 19:15

Hi all,

traderabc well it has long be speculated.

Looks like the CFTC are going ahead after all. Could this be linked to/with silver's current out-performance of gold?

CFTC Investigates JPMorgan, HSBC: Silver Market Manipulation May Have Kept Prices Down




c2i

[traderabc] 02/11/2010 18:34

Dollar Death Bed: Aussie Beyond Parity For First Time In 28 Years



Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tuesday, November 2, 2010

The entire world is preparing to bury the dollar in advance of tomorrow's QE2 currency suicide by the chairman. Exhibit A: the OZ dollar which is now trading north of parity for the first time in 28 years, as Australia decidedly puts its in chips in China's basket, believing that no matter how high the OZ, China will have no problem with importing its exports. A quick look at the FX heatmaps shows that while the dollar is getting shorted across the board and the EUR is surging, and making Merkel livid once again, the Yen, at least so far, is benefiting as it has again become the short currency of choice against the AUD, in the one pair that correlation traders use to determine broad market risk more than anything. Yet with a near record number of dollar shorts in existence, will the be the proverbial cover on the news day? Or, if Bill Gross is right, are we going to see a 20% plunge in the dollar beginning tomorrow? Of course, if Gross is right, he would be buying stocks on margin, not MBS. So take notice.

[michaeld] 02/11/2010 14:54

Thanks for the info Mr M. We used to have our own shop but found it too much of a tie as wife and I like to go off travelling from time to time. We have a place in Hants and another in Orkney which is rather remote and at present there is no internet connection. Just loading up my van with equipment etc to travel up to Orkney tonight and so will not be posting here for a while. Good luck with your investments folks and don't let the politicians get you down. Cheers, Mike D.

[mrmarvelous] 02/11/2010 11:53

michaeld

"we have our own farming business and it's nice to be your own boss and working out in the fresh air even if the financial returns aren't great from
........

Have you a farm shop?

What County are you in?


A site you may find of interest.
Heritage seeds


A site that informs, why you should be wary of big co's products.

[michaeld] 02/11/2010 10:44

Thanks Trader; that would be good.

[traderabc] 02/11/2010 10:40

"we have our own farming business and it's nice to be your own boss and working out in the fresh air even if the financial returns aren't great from it."



Mike, this will change, the returns are going to improve in your sector while they deteriorate in many others.

[michaeld] 02/11/2010 08:51

Thanks Dubwise but there are probably millions of skilled workers in the UK with similar views who are now doing such exciting jobs such as stacking supermarket shelves; paper pushing for the government or pretending to have a bad back because the benefits are better and they get a blue disabled parking badge? I am lucky because we have our own farming business and it's nice to be your own boss and working out in the fresh air even if the financial returns aren't great from it.
We need more politicians with actual work experience like Vince Cable or Nigel Farage rather than these bright sparks with a first class PPE degree from Oxford University and no experience of how commerce and industry actually operates and needs to be encouraged. They keep messing about with their various new policies without understanding the full implications and often end up doing more harm than good. How many times has the NHS been restructured over the past 30 years, starting with the Salmon report? and each time they do this it ends up costing £billions. Yet the original system of, for example, the matrons running the care and housekeeping of hospitals worked very well and was most cost effective. Woe betide the nurses if Matron found dirt on the ward during her daily inspection or discovered that an elderly patient hadn't been helped to consume their food or cleaned up after soiling themselves!!!
Must get off my soapbox again.

[dubwise] 02/11/2010 00:16

michaeld, this country needs more people like you!

[michaeld] 01/11/2010 23:40

Thanks Trader, I enjoy your links etc.

[traderabc] 01/11/2010 21:51

Great post Mike.

[traderabc] 01/11/2010 21:45

Jim Rogers - How I See the World Today (9-Oct-10)(1-2)(FINANCE & ECONOMICS series)

No Video

[traderabc] 01/11/2010 17:50

Keep Your Head Above Dollar

Peter Schiff
Nov 1, 2010

There has been so much discussion recently about "QE 2" that you would think the entire financial sector were about to embark on a transatlantic cruise. Unfortunately, they, and we, are not so lucky. In the year 2010, "QE 2" doesn't refer to a sumptuous ocean liner, but a second, more extravagant round of "quantitative easing" - stimulus. In the past, this technique was simply called "printing money." As if the nation has not already suffered enough from the first round, Captain Ben Bernanke and the Fed are determined to compound the damage by hitting us with another monetary juggernaut. Their stated goal is to boost the economy and create jobs. However, since economic growth cannot be achieved by printing money, their QE 2 will sink just as surely as the Titanic.

[traderabc] 01/11/2010 17:33

They ought to have keep quiet about this.

Iran Announces It Has Converted 15% Of Its $100 Billion+ In FX Reserves Into Gold



Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Nov 1, 2010

As of today, one of the world's top oil exporters announced that has exchanged about $15 billion of its FX reserves into gold. Earlier, Iran announced that the country has converted about 15% of its foreign exchange reserves into gold, and "will not need to import the metal for the next ten years." There is your mystery buyer to all that gold the IMF was selling in Q3... And since Ahmadinejad said that Iran's total FX reserves exceed $100 billion, the amount of gold in stock held by Iran is more than $15 billion. Which is equivalent more than 345 tonnes at a closing price of about $1350. Which also means that the WGC's official gold holdings are in dire need of an update, as Iran does not appear anywhere on the IMF's listing of official gold holders, and with over 345 tonnes, it would make Iran a top 15 holder of the yellow metal.

[michaeld] 31/10/2010 23:30

Good post apd; I'll respond tomorrow sometime.

[apdi71] 31/10/2010 21:19

The pm is a malleable youngster with no firm ideals, and a very poor grasp on history or the way the EU corporatists work. A quisling heir to Blair. Is it a coincidence that so many socialists would have been aristocrats in a bygone age?. Ricardo split society into three groups, the workers, the capitalists and the rent seekers (aristocrats etc), the capitalists (he reasoned) are the workers best friend - they compete with wages for the workers time. Almost all of our politicians appear to be from the group that Ricardo would identify as rentiers.

The Germans (and IIRC the Japanese) have not let the left destroy their school educational system, making the jobs of teachers impossible with mixed ability classes and course contents that are changed annually on the whim of the presiding DOE politicos. The UK needs its selective secondary schools back. It needs the maths and rigor put back into science (& the lefty eco woffle removing), and A levels that give pupils the ability to tackle first year engineering science course without remedial classes. Degrees have been made easier, from BScs all the way up to PhD, partially as a result. Have a look at the ethnic makeup of those studying science and engineering at English Universities today; few are indigenous students (where as those studying arts -English for example - are often almost uniformly white middle class home students).

I have worked with PhDs employed by high tech startups. They know that once they get the products sorted in pilot production they are going to be out on their ears looking for another startup to join (as production will be off shored and the company sold). Probably they (and any young family) will have to move. Their starting salaries are little better than those of bin men, their job security considerably less. Some have debts form their time as students.

I cant see any easy way of reviving UK industry, because the playing field would have to be leveled with those who currently manufacture. Our parliament no longer has sovereign power to repeal all the hobbling legislation (h&s, enviro, Equality etc), and has too much debt to lower taxation.

Too big to fail casino banks (with the implicit backing of unlimited freshly printed government cash) seems a pretty poor way to grow an economy(unless you get a kickback, or work for one).

What sort of protection would you implement, MichaelD, to protect industry, but not put off private sector investors?.

I can't see any solution.

[michaeld] 31/10/2010 17:01

Great stuff from Nigel Farage; what a pity we haven't got a Prime Minister with balls like that. I thought Cameron was going to stand up against the further erosion of British sovereignty in the European Superstate; hold firm against further monetary contributions and have a British referendum at the first opportunity but he seems to have been nobbled like Mrs T was by those evil bankers and businessmen who really call the shots? The only hope at the moment is that it will all break up in a financial collapse as Germany and to a lesser extent Britain default upon further support for the PIGS countries as they go bust? We can't afford to support the EU anyway because we are almost bust ourselves, as are a number of the eastern block countries. Germany lost the second World War but seems to have won the peace by prudent management and protecting its manufacturing industry. Ours has mostly been sold off by the damn bankers who say what a marvellous financial services industry we have in Britain. Big profits from sacrificing British jobs; great?