Day: August 27, 2007

GOLDBUG: Russell on gold bullion

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Russell on gold bullion

The central bankers believe they can control the quantity of fiat money so that the junk they create will always possess purchasing power. History tells us that the central bankers are dreaming (or lying). When it becomes obvious that the central banks are producing too much paper and are therefore devaluing their fiat currencies, seasoned investors take that fiat currency and buy Picassos or homes near some shoreline or collectibles or gem-quality diamonds — or gold Gold moves up when people worry about fiat currency, and they want to accumulate real money.

Source: Richard Russell, Dow Theory Letters, August 23 2007.

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INTERESTING: Impact Lab cites Baptists Turn From Public Schools

Published on by reinkefj1 Comment

http://www.impactlab.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=12878

***Begin Quote***

Convinced that God has been erased from public schools, Southern Baptists are now working to open their own schools, where Jesus is writ large and Bible study is part of the daily curriculum.

Church leaders are not calling for a wholesale exodus from public schools, which would be a monumental hit, considering that Southern Baptists make up the nation’s largest Protestant denomination with 16 million members.

***End Quote***

Bout time the realized the true nature of gooferment skoolz!

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RANT: If the gooferment pays you off for a loss

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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070827/D8R91P5O1.html

Storm Cleanup Begins in Soggy Midwest
Aug 26, 8:34 PM (ET)
By EMILY ZEUGNER

*** begin quote ***

The disaster declaration means residents can apply for assistance, including grants for temporary housing and home repairs and low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses.

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I am truly sorrow for the trouble these folks are having.

But, I have to rant about “federal flood insurance” and the strategy of rebuilding. I’ve often called Federal Flood Insurance as a boondoggle to allow rich folks to rebuild in risky places.

Sorry, but perhaps we need to change the strategy here. If I, meaning the Federal Gooferment, pay for for your loss, then you don’t get to rebuild in the same place. That plot is forever “uninsurable”. You, or anyone, builds there at their own risk. No second bites of the apple. We have properties here in New Jersey that have been flooded out twice in the same year. Never mind the hundred year flood plain.

So there is my idea: If the gooferment pays you off for a loss, the site is now a green space.

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FABLES: You’re a Congressman (Consultant!)

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FROM MY FAVORITE LUDDITE:

I have seen this recycled a few times, mostly as a ‘consultant’, but I like this version better. :-)
———————————————————————————————————
A Montana cowboy was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, “If I tell you exactly how many animals you have in your herd, will you give Me a calf?”

The cowboy looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, “Sure, Why not?”

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA Satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high- resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says: “You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.” “That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,” says the cowboy. He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then the cowboy says to the young man; “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?”

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, “Okay, why not?”

You’re a Congressman for the U .S. Government”, says the cowboy.

“Wow! That’s correct,” says the yuppie, “but how did you guess that?”

“No guessing required.” answered the cowboy. “You showed up here even though nobody called you; want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don’t know a thing about cows…this is a herd of sheep. Now give me back my dog “.

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ROFL~

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MONEY: gooferment created the real estate problem

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http://www.reuters.com/article/inDepthNews/idUSN2040778220070827?feedType=RSS&feedName=inDepthNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Flips, scams blamed in California housing decline
Mon Aug 27, 2007 3:08AM EDT
By Christelyn Karazin

***Begin Quote***

The Inland Empire, 50 miles east of Los Angeles, was a latecomer to the housing boom in California as buyers squeezed out of high-price coastal Los Angeles and Orange counties found large homes going up on the region’s vast supply of vacant land.

And it has been one of the most hard hit by foreclosures.

The Inland Empire’s combined Riverside and San Bernardino counties reported the fourth highest number of foreclosure filings of any of the nation’s 229 largest metro areas in July, behind Atlanta, Los Angeles and Detroit, according to market tracker RealtyTrac.

OWNERS GO ‘UPSIDE DOWN’

Survivors of Towne Square find themselves not only with unsightly, empty properties next door, but also with home values plummeting amid the fire sales on foreclosed homes.

So selling and moving to a better neighborhood is not much of an option because many owe more on their mortgage than they would get for the sale — what the industry calls “upside down.”

And real estate agents note that California’s market is likely to rebound as it has in the past, underpinned by high population growth.

***End Quote***

OK, the gooferment created the real estate problem with fiat currency that allowed artificially low interest rates to start with and followed it up by being up to its collective nose with “regulation” and interference the market.

Solution. The gooferment should exit stage left.

Tough, yes. But giving them a role in fixing it will bring even more “unanticipated consequences”. Some time it’s tough to take the right medicine but it’s better for us in the long run.

We know that the “tough love” solution isn’t going to work so what should we do?

* If you have an ARM, refi before you get ARM-twisted (i.e., have to refi when rates are “bad”).

* If you have property, consider refi in terms of your long term financial strategy. Rick Edelman makes a good case for having your estate pay of your mortgage so you have flexibility. Dave Ramsey makes a good case for being debt free. I won’t quibble with either one.

* If you are renting, look for “fire sale” bargains.

* If you are investor, look for absolute value bargains.

* Anticipate low rates for a while with tightening credit standards.

* Anticipate recession and declines in various markets.

imho

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