Well it seems I made a change to my podcast feed address, and just like that, the original feed I published last week won't work any more.
In case you are really interested in financial / economic matters I'll invite you to subscribe to the feed yet again. Maybe in the future I'll see if I can get this feed published in iTunes but for the time being you can manually load it in yourself or just subscribe through the link below.
If you recall the first episode was a minute long ramble about nothing. Going forward the subject matter will be a somewhat focused free-thought on the economy, finance, markets, and investing. I'm not an academic but I feel like I have something worthwhile to say. Enjoy!
Here's another fantastic interview with Congressman Ron Paul, MD on the Democrat's plan for health care reform, the individual's right to health care, and the costs of a governmental single-payer system.
"They've never been right on projections of medical programs," referring to his colleagues in Congress, "they're always off by 100%, 200%. It always costs a lot more."
If viewing in a reader click through to view the video.
...and while I'm at it check out his answers to the economy and what he would and wouldn't have done had he won the presidential races rather than Obama.
By the way, I know I haven't been providing monthly stock picks as I have in the past. This is mostly because I want to come up with a better way to do it. I have however been following up on my picks from last Spring and Summer.
I had a few months of horrific picks (Oct '07, Nov. '07, Jan. '08, & May '08) but as my mindset on the economy started to change as the summer kicked in last year my selections started beating the market as they did before the crisis. I'm fairly proud of that even though I too got sucked into the decline thoroughly in the very begging peaking with my terrible results from my January 2008 selections which dropped a combined 52.3 percent.
Take a look at my final results for the months, May 2008, June 2008, and July 2008 and you'll see a nice gradual return to my beating the market. Even in all of the subsequent months since July 2008, which still remain active, I'm beating the overall market, that's seven months of selections in a row. My choices definitely look pretty good despite the complete market collapse in the Fall of 2008. :)
One day in the hopefully near future I'll iron out a new way of tracking my stock picks. When that time comes I'll let you know here.
A little over a week has passed since I last offered the dire outlook for the American dollar as posed by the misc people who produce quality YouTube videos. That video posed the possibility of hyperinflation. This video via Yahoo's Tech Ticker is another along the same lines. Though it doesn't talk specifically about the consequences of current policy it does discuss Ron Paul's attempt to audit the fed. This makes sense to me as I am an auditor by trade and especially since these are extreme times economically. Ron Paul has been warning of these kinds of actions for years now and it's interesting to see him getting more and more publicity as I think many people are finding his thoughts to be plausible.
In a related note, Peter Schiff is considering running for office for the 2010 Senate elections. This just goes to show us that the credibility of those that warned us of financial disaster is growing day by day.
This series of videos on hyperinflation - skewed opinions as they are - are the most riveting analytical pieces on the current state of American economic theory that I have seen to date. Peter Schiff, Ron Paul, Jim Rogers, Tom Woods, Gerald Celente, etc. say it like it is and warn of impending doom. One might find their theories on economic collapse, hyperinflation, and financial Armageddon to be fear mongering but they were the few (Peter Schiff & Ron Paul especially) who called the market collapse long before it ever happened.
Personally; I'm not convinced that hyperinflation is coming unless deficits continue to climb year after year at the current rate. US debt owed is still only around 75 percent* or so of national GDP (which is darned high); the only problem is that debt is rising and GPD is falling. 100 percent seems right around the corner with the way Obama is spending money... It's a crazy world we live in. I'm getting into commodities once the next leg down occurs... and if this debt to GDP ratio starts getting above 100 percent I will have a hard time not getting into the hyperinfation boat.
*Update 7/3/09: The debt to national output (GDP) is actually 80 percent now. MOUNTAIN OF DEBT: Rising debt may be next crisis: "The overall debt is now slightly over 80 percent of the annual output of the entire U.S. economy, as measured by the gross domestic product."
I was just looking back through some old posts of mine here on my blog and I came across this gem from Spring of 2007. I wrote that '2008 would be a great entry point for first time home buyers' as I hopefully crossed my fingers that the real estate market would continue softening for another year.
Housing Market 2008
Well, a funny thing happened and housing did continue slumping into 2008, as we all know well, and we did take advantage of what I had forecast and hoped for. Flor and I ended up buying a condo in 2008 after all. We made an offer in late April and were in the underwriting process this time last year, finally closing in July. We felt great about ourselves buying for a 60% discount over 2006-2007 prices.
Housing Market 2009
It's amazing what happens in life. Now we're sitting a year later. It's the Spring of 2009 and the market is still dropping. It's down now in our condo complex about 75% from it's peak two years ago and now I'm just wishing we could buy a second place... maybe I should hope for the market to continue softening for another year or two... That might be devastating for the economy but maybe then it'll be the optimal time to buy a second property. Let's just put it this way though. The rest of the year things might continue softening but eventually it's got to to stop. I can't imagine this bottom lasting long enough for us to buy a second place despite their incredibly low asking prices but I do know that now and the near future seems to be one of the best times ever to buy a first or second home.
I'm going to get a little political here so bear with me. I've decided that of all the presidential candidates I'm going to be supporting Ron Paul during this electoral season. Mostly because he is a Libertarian and shares very similar views as I do.
I've decided that the Republican vs. Democratic system just doesn't work for people like me. Fiscally speaking I'm very conservative which bodes well with the Republicans but socially speaking I'm fairly liberal which bodes well with the Democrats. Basically if I choose sides within the two-party system I'm choosing one of my belief systems over the other and that's just not cool.
Anyway, Paul, though running as Republican, hits both sides of my political beliefs as he is fiscally conservative and socially liberal... and most importantly very capitalistic. He's perfect for me... except he's a little bit more anti-foreign involvement than I care for but I can overlook that.
So with all the market turmoil these days he has just published his "Comprehensive Economic Revitalization Plan". I encourage you to read it as it will drastically differ from all other candidates. The main difference is (generally speaking) Paul looks to revitalize the economy for decades instead of quarters. All this short-term stimulus stuff that everybody is talking about is just that, short term... and really short term. Although I'd like to receive a check this tax season for an extra $300-$1,200 dollars I'd also like the dollar to buy 1.5 Canadian Dollars again or 1.2 Euros again. I'd like commodity inflation to stop. I'd like government to stop spending us into greater deficits as that makes life tougher for me in the future.
In the end, a little market slowdown vs. recession today means next to nothing to me compared to a stronger US economy 20-30 years from now. I believe Paul's reforms could bring us the latter and that will mean something significant to anybody despite their beliefs.
In addition to Paul's plan (linked above) I'd encourage you to take a look at his Campaign Blog and subscribe to it. It is updated roughly 5 times a day but it's an easy and enlightening read.
Haha! I found the funniest market commentary I've ever seen this afternoon. Check it out. This guy puts something out everyday it seems. I might just subscribe.
