The Music of Currencies: Currency Allocations in Times of the Valdai Meetings
A few days ago, Vladimir Putin called his annual gathering of academics, journalists, and other analysts a.k.a. the Valdai meetings, at his vacation home in Sotsji, Russia. The leader of the re-emerging Russia desires to establish her as the ultimate frontier of a new...
SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI: There Goes the Glory (?) of the Old Days
Just a few days ago, Jurgen Stark, a member of the Executive Board of the ECB (European Central Bank) said that German banks would require more capital. According to Basel III agreement that was reached on Sunday, the capital requirements of banks would rise, and at...
Mountains to Climb
The official start of the fall season is upon us. Music is still played over loud speakers and the politicians plan for their rallies and agendas. Over the wires, we read about Chairman Bernanke’s hypothetical plans to start buying equities for the Fed’s portfolio. We...
The Day After: The New Silk and China
Our commentary last Monday August 30th outlined the present circumstances surrounding China. Our September newsletter discussed the facts that may lead to a Chinese collapse. This commentary discusses, the day after the collapse and the still significant role that...
Financial Crisis, Part III: This Time Made in China; Act I: The Day Before
In 1979, a movie came out starring Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda, and Michael Douglas. The title of the movie was The China Syndrome. The movie – in the spirit of those days- desired to expose the consequences of a nuclear reactor going bad. It also dealt with the cover-ups...
Recent Real Estate Concerns and Waterproofing a Portfolio
Over the course of the last few days we have been hearing renewed concerns in the real estate sector. We would like to take this opportunity to outline a few thoughts regarding those concerns, as well as continue with our thoughts about taking measures to waterproof a...
Dum Spiro Spero in the Land of Commodities: The Case of Copper
Cicero is famous for several things, among which is the “Dum Spiro Spero” quote, implying that hope dies last. For weeks now, my colleagues and I have been contemplating drafting an internal portfolio strategy-index. In the land of dismal growth where deflation knocks...
The Economic Outlook: Still Looking for the Roses Among the Thorns
It seems that the economic slowdown is taking root. The consensus forecast for the Philly Index that portrays manufacturing activity for the Eastern part of the country was expected to rise from 5.1 to about 7. On the contrary it fell to negative 7.7. This is a big...
Financial Infertility: From Euphoria to Paralysis
As readers of our publications, presentations, and commentaries could confirm, for quite some time now we have been talking about the dangers of over-collateralization, especially of collateralizing paper-assets a.k.a. financial instruments of various forms. Moreover,...
On Emerging Markets, Fed’s Recent Announcement, Bond Yields, and the Postman’s Bell
James Cain’s book The Postman Always Rings Twice is an allegory of greed, passion, judgment, and even divine intervention. Frank (the novel’s main character) got away with murder the first time. However, the second time around he was wrongly convicted for murder. Here...
