«Ο κόσμος ανοιγόταν όλος ενώπιον τους, τον τόπο αναπαύσεώς τους για να βρουν και η Θεία Πρόνοια οδηγός και σύντροφός τους. Χέρι-χέρι, περιπλανώμενοι, με βήματα αργά διαβαίνοντας απ’ της Εδέμ τον Κήπο κίνησαν για το δρόμο τους μοναχικά» John Milton, Book XII (το τέλος...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...