Tag Archives: Housing Bust

The GD Words were used at the CFA Institute’s European Investment Conference

Uh oh. …MIT Sloan School of Management professor Simon Johnson didn’t equivocate on the perils of the current global economic environment. “We have built a dangerous financial system in the United States and Europe,” said the former chief economist at … Continue reading

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Immigration as One Part of a Solution to US Economic Problems

Two days ago I wrote about the baby tourism industry on which a Rock Center segment focused: http://amarginofsafety.com/2011/10/31/baby-toursim-us-problem-or-opportunity/ Today a Wall Street Journal story highlights that allowing wealthy foreigners to immigrate to the US may be more of an opportunity than many know–under the proper … Continue reading

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Capital Economics on the Bailout’s Fanciful Notion

Interesting DJ Newsire Market Talk story: DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 1:04 (Dow Jones) “Even if the Greek referendum problem is ironed out, hopes within the euro-zone that governments from outside the region will contribute to an increase in the ‘firepower’ of the … Continue reading

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Baby Toursim: US Problem or Opportunity?

Brian Williams’ new show, Rock Center, broadcast this evening with a piece on wealthy foreign pregnant women–many Chinese–who are coming to the US to give birth so that their children can receive citizenship and a Social Security card. Many are outraged … Continue reading

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Counterfactual Friday: The CAPE

Current Market Perspective: Moderately bearish based on three pieces of information: Our bottom-up security selection process is revealing few bargains; Total public and private debt in developed countries is unsustainably high relative to GDP and will require long, painful de-leveraging … Continue reading

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“First, Get a Trillion Euros…”

The market is soaring today on the Greek bailout plan, or should we say the European bailout plan because, lest we forget, there are several more countries that still need a bailout. The plan is amusing to me, though I should … Continue reading

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Just What is Seth Klarman up to? It May not be What Optimists Believe

Apparently, Seth Klarman is in the market for capital. This is always news because Klarman has a reputation for shunning capital from new investors and frequently returning excess capital to existing investors. However, the author of the attached story has … Continue reading

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Rumors Drive the Market Upward Again

As I have written before, any news rumor is good news for the market; the aftershock of disappointment is likely to be much more pronounced. From a Dow Jones Newsire report published online at 5:17pm today: On Tuesday, the market … Continue reading

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What is Behind the Market’s 12% Jump in One Week?

At 3:15 pm on October 4, the S&P 500 was at 1081.89. By 4:oo pm it finished at 1123.95, up 3.89% in forty-five minutes. To put that in perspective, the market was in the 1081 range in October 1998. So, … Continue reading

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Market Valuation, Deus Ex Machina, and Volatility

We have written several times to say that the market in general is overvalued based on earnings (the CAPE) and book value (Tobin’s Q). Even after the recent selloff, the market is still well above long-term averages. However, astute market … Continue reading

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