As I write this, it looks like the market will open about 200 points down, entirely due to the news that Dubai’s biggest company has asked for a “standstill” on almost $60 billion in debt for six months. Will this trigger the systemic heart attack that worries me? Probably not! Even if the lenders had to write-off their entire loan as worthless, which is silly…
While data about our economic health has been improving rather consistently since the Crash of 2008, I’ve become very concerned that the patient might suffer an unexpected heart attack. The problem now is the same as the problem then. We still have not figured out how to intelligently regulate derivatives, which Warren Buffett described as “financial weapons of mass destruction”. But, heart attacks are often…
Late last year, a client wisely predicted that China would emerge from the crisis before the U.S. His reasoning was interesting. He thought that great problems require great decisions, but that the U.S cannot make great decisions like China, which is governed by engineers, while the U.S. is governed by lawyers. I’ve thought about this alot! Yesterday, I heard from David Gergen, advisor to five…
Today, I listened to one of my favorite thought leaders, John Mauldin of Dallas, author of Bull’s Eye Investing. He spoke of the difficult state of the U.S. economy and the few but painful choices we have: 1. The Argentine Solution – induce hyper-inflation to “inflate away” the huge indebtedness of our country. He gave this a 1% probability. 2. The Austrian Solution – induce…
