Global Market Commentary, Analysis and Investments
Every morning, I start my day by reading my newspapers over a mug of hot tea. (Yes, I still get my newspapers delivered!) Sometimes I just have to shake my head at the absurdity of it all. I don’t get mad or annoyed — I just laugh.
One day, the President wants to reduce the deficit he created by hiking taxes — especially on “the rich.” The next day, the G-20 wants to “save the euro” by funneling taxpayer dollars from around the world into the deadbeat countries of Europe — famous for not paying taxes!
[Read more...]The worst quarter for stocks since the first quarter of 2009 sent me back to the dusty archives of finance. Amid old tomes, I searched for what I might learn from the dark markets of years past.
I found a collection of articles called The Great Crash and Beyond. They date from 1979, put together on the 50th anniversary of the crash of 1929. Only a handful of years before, the market fell by half (1973-74). Inside, I find writers reflecting on the mosaic of Wall Street history and the continuity of markets across the time.
[Read more...]“One of the Rothschilds is said to have observed that if he could be sure of transmitting [or passing on to the next generation] a quarter of his capital, he would settle for that,” John Train writes in Dance of the Money Bees. “Alas, he probably didn’t make it.”
The Rothschild in question well knew how hard it is to preserve wealth. History is full of tales of fortunes lost. And if you needed reminders, there are memorials to lost fortunes everywhere. “There are so many great families whose former grandeur survives only as an echo, in the names of museums, converted mansions, streets and towns,” Train continues. “Their descendents don’t have it anymore. Taxes, inflation, expropriation and rising costs have pulled them down.”
[Read more...]The Next Goldcorp?
Since inception, Mining giant Goldcorp has returned a whopping profit to shareholders.
Now one small company 40 miles away from Goldcorp’s historic Dome Mine has made a massive gold discovery…
[Read more...]He may be the best investor you’ve never heard of. Beginning in 1975, he delivered to his investors a compound annual return of 15.2% for the next 33 years! If you’d put $10,000 with him and left it there, you’d have had $1 million by 2007.
Peter Cundill was his name. His investment approach is the subject of a new book by Christopher Risso-Gill, who was a director at Cundill Value Fund for 10 years. Titled There’s Always Something to Do, it is a summary of the Cundill approach. The book takes its name from a line from Irving Kahn, a doyen of investing (born in 1905) and still chairman of Kahn Bros., which manages $450 million. Kahn said, “There is always something to do. You just need to look harder, be creative and a little flexible.”
[Read more...]It's always a little tricky to know exactly what an economic recovery looks like. But it's usually pretty easy to know what it doesn't look like…and it doesn't look anything like the chart below:
It's summertime…and the livin' is still easy here in France.
But the children are all gone. The house is quiet. Our office – usually a hive of activity when the children and their friends are here, checking email…searching for cheap tickets…or just hanging out – is as dead as a tomb. The only sign of life is the clicking of computer keys as your editor prepares his Daily Reckoning.
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The Value of a Thief
“Every human problem is an investment opportunity if you can anticipate the solution,” the old gentleman told me. “If not for thieves, who would buy locks?”
I just met this remarkable fellow, full of wisdom on investing, yet hardly known beyond a small group of fans. His name is Thomas Phelps, and he’s had quite a career. He was The Wall Street Journal’s Washington bureau chief, a former editor of Barron’s, a partner at a brokerage firm, the head of the research department at a Fortune 500 company and, finally, a partner at Scudder, Stevens & Clark (since bought out by Deutsche Bank). Phelps retired in Nantucket after a varied 42-year career in markets.
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