The Eye of The Storm Have you ever been in a hurricane? I have, and one of the strangest things about it is the phenomenon that happens right in the middle of the worst of the storm – the eye. You can walk outside and literally see the stars and the branches lying askew all [...]
Flying Is Inspiring For whatever reason when I find myself on a plane far above nowhere, I feel like the creative impulses become more uninhibited. It might simply be the fact that sitting in one place for so long allows the kind of self-reflection necessary for creativity, but I think instead it has something to [...]
I just saw this article, and I realized that like many of our ordinary conceptions, the idea of a ‘bank’ has morphed significantly over the last few months: American Express to Become Bank Holding Company The Fed’s approval for American Express was similar to the decision it made in September to transform the country’s two [...]
I’ve been meeting with some very smart investors lately, but few sound as clear-headed and direct as Jim Rogers. Here is a video on his views on where we are headed: 1) More downside 2) Inflation in the long-term 3) Bullishness on commodities It is worth a watch: addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fparanoidbull.com%2F2008%2F11%2Fjim-rogers-on-the-markets%2F’; addthis_title = ‘Jim+Rogers+On+The+Markets’; addthis_pub [...]
Perhaps this will now sound redundant, I will repeat: binary thinking is dangerous and more importantly it is inaccurate. What I mean by this is not ground-breaking, although lots of wicked-smart dudes like Godel and Sartre have pointed it out in revolutionary sounding ways. Perhaps best conceptualized in the garb of quantum-mechanics, my point is simply [...]
Humility. I just had one of the most profound conversations that I can remember with a guy who has taken an entirely different path through the same twenty-nine years we have been on the planet to arrive at the same place where I arrived tonight at an event with a bunch of “Internet” people down [...]
As this article on Naked Capitalism points out, some of the smartest pessimists out there are starting to get significantly more bearish lately. I have hesitated to to publish some of this content, but I think it is worthwhile to consider positions like the ones discussed here: Roubini Foresees Possible Market Shutdown After the Fed, [...]
According to Bloomberg, projected losses in the corporate CDO market may approach $1T. CDO Cuts Show $1 Trillion Corporate-Debt Bets Toxic Investors are taking losses of up to 90 percent in the $1.2 trillion market for collateralized debt obligations tied to corporate credit as the failures of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Icelandic banks send [...]
I ordinarily do not like to post simple links here on my blog (I prefer My Twitter page for this). However, I wanted to share this with those of you who don’t use Twitter, as I think you should really check out this content if you have some time. Or rather, you should try to [...]
The Reality: We are facing real challenges. I really hate to admit it, but I think there is more bad news on the horizon. The news coming out of the hedge fund industry is really troubling, and the issue with this industry’s challenges (like that of the banking industry) is that as these firms are forced [...]