How are you feeling? According to my March RAGE Gauge, pretty darn good. It’s never looked so good. That’s a warning sign right there. When the coast appears to be clear, it’s time to consider putting up your defenses and to continue thinking about survival first and making money second. This month the FBI reported the first drop in February pistol background checks in three years. They also recorded the first trailing 12-month decline in NICS checks in 26 months. Stocks are up, interest rates are invisible, and yet gold is up. What are gold investors telling us? Determine your margin of … [Read more...]
The Best Investment Newsletter of All-Time?
Originally posted September 7, 2016. UPDATE, March 10, 2017: Since I wrote this back in September of 2016, I have resurrected the Best Investment Newsletter of All-Time, Young's World Money Forecast. Visit the new site by clicking here. In October 1993, at the peak of the investment newsletter industry, Money magazine authored a Money Newsline feature headlined Big Investment Newsletters Worth The Money. Richard C. Young was pictured on the cover of this special issue of Money and featured inside in a multi-page article, Your Smartest Moves Now. Money analyzed the five biggest … [Read more...]
When You Think Risk is Gone You’ll Get Really Hurt
You read here and here about the decline in Nascar’s ratings where I wrote: “The danger is gone. Or at least it’s not what it used to be. It reminds me of the decline of fights in hockey. Fighting is part of the game. Drivers have a way of self-regulating. They don’t need rules committees telling them the right way to drive.” There used to be unwritten rules in sports that didn’t need refs to regulate them. When hockey fights were an accepted part of the game there were consequences. There were consequences for taking cheap shots at star players. Ironically, when self-regulation is taken … [Read more...]
Mega Merger in the Oil Patch
London's Evening Standard newspaper is reporting that Exxon is looking at a takeover bid for British Petroleum. Exxon and BP are the first and seventh largest oil companies in the world as measured by market value. BP shares are up 3.5% on the news. Takeover chatter surrounding BP resurfaced on a quiet day for blue-chip stocks. The rumour is that US behemoth ExxonMobil, which has long been linked with a tilt for the British oil giant, has sounded out BP’s major shareholders to gauge their interest in a potential takeover. Exxon and BP have several top shareholders in common, including … [Read more...]
The Best Country in the World
In a survey of 21,000 people from around the world conducted by the Wharton School, Switzerland has emerged as "The Best Country." This is the second year of the survey, and the first time Switzerland was included. Last year's winner, Germany, was pushed to fourth place, with Canada and the UK taking slots 2 and 3, and Japan taking 5th. The U.S. came in seventh of the 65 countries polled. The Local writes: “Switzerland debuts as the world’s 'top' country, in part because of its progressive social systems, protection of human rights and business-friendly environment,” said the ranking … [Read more...]
It’s Only ‘Safety First’ That Will Make You Money: Part III
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, on the heels of releasing his annual report, said, Monday, that the stock market isn’t in a bubble and “measured against interest rates, stocks actually are on the cheap side compared to historic valuations.” In the same interview, he also warned “That doesn’t mean the stock market can’t go down 20% tomorrow.” A buying opportunity he’d welcome with open arms. It’s good to be Warren. Retirees and savers have carried the burden of low interest rates. Many are simply increasing risk without proper adherence to their own margin of safety. Brian Hershberg … [Read more...]
Income Investors are Going to Hate this Tax Plan
With resistance growing to the GOP’s border adjustment tax, The Wall Street Journal reports on a truly heinous plan B to fund a corporate tax cut. This half-baked plan comes courtesy of the American Enterprise Institute. The AEI plan would cut corporate taxes to 15% and pay for the reduction by taxing dividends and capital gains at ordinary income rates (that’s 39.6% pre-Obamacare taxes and over 43% post). Capital gains would be paid on a mark-to-market basis. If you bought a stock for $100 and it appreciated to $200 at the end of the year, but you held onto it, you would still owe $40 in … [Read more...]
Little Could be the New Big in Wind Power Tech
For much of the last two decades the key to getting better wind power efficiency was larger and larger turbines. Garrad Hassan writes of the trend in greater turbine size Source: Garrad Hassan The past exponential growth of turbine size was driven by a number of factors. The early small sizes, around 20-60 kW, were very clearly not optimum for system economics. Small wind turbines remain much more expensive per kW installed than large ones, especially if the prime function is to produce grid quality electricity. This is partly because towers need to be higher in proportion to … [Read more...]
It’s Only ‘Safety First’ That Will Make You Money: Part II
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, on the heels of releasing his annual report, said that the stock market isn’t in a bubble and “measured against interest rates, stocks actually are on the cheap side compared to historic valuations.” In the same interview, he also warned “That doesn’t mean the stock market can’t go down 20% tomorrow.” A buying opportunity he’d welcome with open arms. It’s good to be Warren. Believe me when I tell you that I appreciate the methods Warren Buffett deploys to make money. One big one being that at the core of his methods he’s America's #1 stockbroker. Between … [Read more...]
You’ll be Shocked by this Statistic on Norway
On a per person basis, Norway is one of the world's leading oil producers. One might assume that with all of that oil, the Norwegian automobile fleet would be among the world's least fuel efficient, but the opposite is true. Norway is the world's most developed national market for electric cars. Last year, battery-powered cars and plug-in hybrids together accounted for 29% of all new car sales. Though the country's fleet is still only 5% electric, the government says it is realistic to expect an end to sales of new cars powered by fossil fuels within the decade. The Economist has more. TO … [Read more...]
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