Joe

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    • Thu Nov 20th 18:35 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Pricing Power: The Decline and Fall
      The book:
      The big box swindle by Tracy Mitchell
      seems to make a lot of sense by now. Explaining not all, but quite a lot.
      View article »
    • Fri Oct 10th 04:22 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      What Just Happened?
      One aspect missing: are banks in tax havens foolproof, save and secure
      or is there also some banking crisis unfolding? Banks from Panama
      to wherever.
      What sort of assets are they having in their books? What are their
      balance sheets like? And considering the amount of assets under
      management in those countries and those banks couldn't they have
      an influence on the world markets? Just like Iceland has, tiny as it is,
      and not even a tax haven with lots of assets.
      View article »
    • Fri Sep 26th 09:14 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      On Board the 'U.S.S. Titanic'
      Great article. - And don't forget the media and their role in all that.
      Here an article to that:
      "Where was media when subprime disaster unfolded?"

      rinf.com/alt-news/medi.../
      View article »
    • Sat Sep 20th 08:51 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      It's a Bull Market in Government Intervention
      Spot on.
      In any case: some time ago a contributor to this introduced the book:
      Confessions of a subprime lender. An insider's tale of greed, fraud &
      ignorance ... by Richard Bitner / lendingsanity.com

      I found it very interesting, informative, useful. And it probably was
      useful for many others as well, those not taken by surprise.
      View article »
    • Wed Jul 2nd 05:26 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      While Iran Threat Keeps Oil Elevated, U.S. Stocks and Dollar Slip
      As far as the oil price and wars are concerned:
      Rupert Murdoch, Boss of News Corp made an interesting prediction
      in 2003:
      (articel in the UK Guardian)

      Murdoch praises Blair's 'courage'

      * Julia Day
      * The Guardian,
      * Wednesday February 12, 2003
      ....He said the price of oil would be one of the war's main benefits. "The greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy, if you could put it that way, would be $20 a barrel for oil. That's bigger than any tax cut in any country."

      Mr Murdoch's comments come just a week after he told Fortune magazine in the US that war could fuel an economic boom.
      www.guardian.co.uk/pol...
      View article »
    • Sun Jun 1st 13:01 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Help Wanted: Newspaper Classified Ad Sales Continue to Slide
      If interested in a look back on the press:
      there is a film clip on You Tube, done sixty or more years ago. It's
      either an ad for becoming a journalist or the press were describing
      themselves to general public, how they work, what they are doing.
      Sense of humor?
      The search word on You Tube - no typing mistake - /10.38 min:
      "old skool journalism film"
      (hope it's ok to point that out here)
      View article »
    • Wed May 14th 04:56 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The Brazilian Economic Miracle
      For history buffs I'd like to throw in a link to one site describing
      Germany's economic miracle after "Adolf" (a complete national
      bankruptcy), after 1945 (for whatever reason, as an example):
      www.econlib.org/librar...
      View article »
    • Sun May 4th 12:31 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Newspapers: Not a Zero-Sum Game - A Minus-Sum Game
      It's an interesting article. I dare to throw in a few more points:
      right now there only is talk of newspaper ad revenue. What is maybe
      still to come are considerations or facts for whatever about the
      total ad spending.
      Consider for instance ad spending for the auto industry 2006:
      $ 13,5 billion, not included car dealers.
      Chrysler was bought for $ 7,4 Billion last year by Cerberus.
      (I just lifted this from the net: a Nielsen report to that:)
      www.nielsenmedia.com/n...

      Ad spending all in all could be considered huge, irrespective of how
      the economy is doing.
      And this, also just lifted from the net, total ad for 2007:
      adage.com/mediaworks/a...

      Ironically formulated, ad spending is some sort of pagan religion
      guaranteeing all sort of miracles, ranging from resuscitating someone
      from the dead to healing all sorts of other illnesses, and certainly,
      on top of that, ad spending works wonders in each and every
      case for the advertiser. A company only has to spend sufficiently
      and the success is guaranteed. (Just contact any of the big
      ad agencies and you're in touch with the super-natural.)

      And on not to forget the consumers who sometimes have the
      habit of blocking, averting, skipping TV ad for instance, ot
      shaking out all the fliers, etc. coming with a paper, before they
      start reading it. ...
      Somehow it is a matter of "conflict" and interest, of cost -
      efficiency, of consumer habits and so forth. An open matter in
      my opinion.
      View article »
    • Sat May 3rd 11:30 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Considering Disaster
      I am about to follow up as well.
      Just in case any interest in the exact opposite, namely the case of
      a problem solution (might make above books even more interesting
      reading):
      Germany's economic recovery after 1945:

      www.econlib.org/LIBRAR...

      it's a couple of lucid web - pages, a case after chaos and disorder,
      where everything was started from scratch
      View article »
    • Wed Apr 30th 15:48 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Real Estate and Financials: Sell the Rally
      Jason is surely right in his assessments and expectations. As for the
      rather irrational behavior of the market; this has happened before,
      in fall for instance and again early this year. At first problematic
      stock went up, contrary to sound analysis - only to come down
      a while later.
      In other words, there might be some absolutely irrational players
      in the market, real big losers, the bigger fools. What Jason is
      musing about will get clearer only some not so distant future.
      Breathtaking, time and again, are those losses run up by the
      bigger fools. One explanation might be people in whatever position
      addicted to wishful rather than rational analysis.
      Some portfolio managers, banks managing portfolios, etc. have
      lost big time and obviously continue to lose, behaving like
      addicted gamblers. Don't forget opinion makers in the media,
      internationally, telling their audience to do this or that, and actually gradually masterminded them into serious losses. Of course, opinion does not have any supra-natural power and is time and again over-
      powered by the famous gang of facts.
      Suggested case study: the role of the media in the 1929 crash,
      as an extreme and easy example. Those who arrange the all too
      obvious media frenzy, (time and again).
      View article »
    • Tue Apr 29th 13:38 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Newspaper Circ Numbers: Talking Quantity and "Quality"
      It is possible to gain an interesting idea of the the pricing strategy
      of newspapers by googling:
      +ad rates up circulation down+

      A whole lot comes up, the first article dating from 2004, offering some clue:
      Daily blues: Ad rates up, circulation down
      (two Colorado papers)
      "...the combined circulation at the two dailies was 483,740 copies ...
      ...That's down 11.6 percent from the same period the previous year.
      ...the price for a quarter-page ad to run in both papers has gone up from about $8,300 to $18,400 ..."
      denver.bizjournals.com...

      That is just one article. The papers for a long time pursued this
      strategy. And considering that advertisers have, particularly since
      the credit-crunch became effective, to be more cost-minded then
      ever, it is no wonder the papers are running into trouble eventually.
      View article »
    • Mon Apr 28th 20:28 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Newspaper Circulation: WSJ, USA Today Manage To Buck Trend
      If this trend would accelerate, one possible explanation why people
      change their media habits and consumption might be have to do
      with this (in editor & publisher):
      Where Was Media When Sub-Prime Disaster Unfolded?
      If we were long on the edge of "disaster" with a "financial nuclear winter" waiting in the wings, why were American news consumers among the last to know?
      "...A New York Times columnist even admitted that experts and advocates first warned them in 2001 that predatory lending practices were devastating poor neighborhoods but the issue was not covered in any depth for five years. ...
      ...the (NY) Times business section ... and the Washington Post
      ... stories explained that the downfall was sparked by the use of overly complex securities designed not to be understood. ..."
      www.editorandpublisher...

      (Now: who on earth needs papers that manage not to understand
      on the highest (media) level; ironically speaking: some sort of "electrically lit barbarians" ?)
      View article »
    • Mon Apr 28th 19:45 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Financial Stocks: Where Will They Go Once Investors Sober Up?
      To some extent banks, etc. were functioning like casinos, to some
      extent geared only to something like gambling. Out of touch with the
      actual commercial / producing world.
      Visitors to casinos are said to arrive with $ 100 and leave it with
      $ 60, 40& thus lost. That is the average casino calculation, it could
      be even higher.
      If one takes a look at "assets under management" in banks balance
      sheets one gets sometimes a rough idea how the casino worked,
      at what percentage, so to speak. I would suggest to have a look
      at UBS, to name just one example for an idea how their wealthy
      clients were doing. And yes, in the long it is possible that people
      are sobering up. In the long run, depending on the learning curve.
      View article »
    • Wed Apr 23rd 06:31 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      What Is the ECB Smoking?
      Macro Man is right in many ways, for instance Italy.
      Before the Euro the Italian Lira was in permanent decline,
      a symbol of long - term inflation. The constant Lira devaluation was
      the useless attempt to undo, "transmogify"... all sins of politics
      (scandals, scandals, ... incompetence, negligence, .. just name
      it).
      A glimpse on that can for instance be gained in entertaining
      literature: Donna Leons' crime stories, all placed in Venice
      (lucid reading).
      The same attempts of cheating are correctly diagnosed in France.
      Yes, yes, .. to all what is said above.
      View article »
    • Thu Apr 10th 18:00 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Why the Dollar Hit a Record Low
      Isn't the dollar weakness, the value of the dollar, related to
      a) the trade deficit (listed here):
      www.americaneconomical...
      and
      b) the US debt (ever since borrowing heavily abroad)
      www.brillig.com/debt_c.../
      View article »
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