How to Invest With a Declining US Dollar

Yesterday, we got a glimpse.

Yes, dear reader, we were on our way to Sea Island. We looked across the bridge at another island — Jekyll Island. You know Jekyll Island, don’t you? It’s where the monster was created…

A group of the nation’s richest, biggest, and most powerful bankers got together there — in secret — in November, 1910. They figured it was time to put in place a system that would make it a little easier for them to make money. Instead of competing head to head, without any backstop to protect them when things got rough, they decided to set up a central bank.

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How to Invest With a Declining US Dollar

Yesterday, we got a glimpse.

Yes, dear reader, we were on our way to Sea Island. We looked across the bridge at another island — Jekyll Island. You know Jekyll Island, don’t you? It’s where the monster was created…

A group of the nation’s richest, biggest, and most powerful bankers got together there — in secret — in November, 1910. They figured it was time to put in place a system that would make it a little easier for them to make money. Instead of competing head to head, without any backstop to protect them when things got rough, they decided to set up a central bank.

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The Missing 13th Floor

“About eight years ago, I was going down the elevator of a hotel in Las Vegas with a friend of mine,” Arnaud Karsenti told me. “The elevator skipped the 13th floor. And my friend said to me, ‘How come there is no 13th floor? What a bunch of wasted space!’”

The lack of a 13th floor comes from the same fear that prevents people from walking under ladders or causes them to shiver when a black cat crosses their path. But Arnaud decided to make a business out of it. The idea is to find value where others fear to go.

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Counting on Millennial Homeownership

The report that got us started on this tangent this morning: Home prices in 20 U.S. metro areas are now as low as they were nine years ago, according to the just released Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Indices

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Housing Data Show an Uncertain Recovery Here in the US

Good day. What a weekend here in St. Louis. I spent a majority of it outside, and we even ate dinner last night out on our deck, something that is not normal during the month of March. I enjoyed the scent of my wife’s lilac bushes as I was sitting outside last night, reading up on the currency markets. The research pointed to poor housing data Friday morning as the reason for the drop in the US dollar on Friday.

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Why Economic Growth Will Continue to Disappoint in 2012

Tutto va bene…

That was what the crew told passengers on the Costa Concordia just before it sank.

And it was what the crew of the USS America — the biggest cruise ship of all — were telling passengers last week.

Tutto va bene.

Trouble was, tutto was not going as bene as they claimed. Instead, the ship is sinking.

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The Basic Problem With the Fed

We had to wait five years. But it turns out our suspicion that the Federal Reserve is clueless, at best, is true. We know because we read it in The New York Times.

Welcome to another Friday the 13th… Where if things aren’t exactly scary, they’re definitely surreal.

The Fed performed its ritual year-opening document purge overnight… unveiling the transcripts from Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings in 2006.

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The Power of “Q”

Say what you will about John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946). However loathed (or loved) as an economist, he was, undeniably, a great investor. Keynes (pronounced “canes”) piloted the endowment fund of King’s College through the dark years of the Great Depression. He steered the fund to 10-fold gains, excluding income (which the college spent).

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Apartment REITS: A Pocket of Strength in a Down Housing Market

Housing may still be down for the count but there is one area of the real estate market that has become a pocket of strength. It’s apartment-based REITS.

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