Posts under ‘Big Picture’

When I look at the graph you’re about to see, I can’t help but think back to my last roller-coaster ride. I can literally hear the “clickity-clickity” of the ratchet mechanism slapping beneath the cars, preventing us from slipping backwards as we’re propelled relentlessly forward in a steep and seemingly unstoppable ascent. I remember thinking [...]

Many people want to believe (hope?) that we are experiencing a rebound in housing. In my opinion, this thinking is premature by at least 3 to 4 years, perhaps even a decade or more. Below is a link to a chart from the www.ritholtz.com blog (an excellent blog that should be on your financial reading [...]

Gary Fielder, a Denver attorney, has put together one of the best educational videos I have ever seen detailing the monetary history and the ongoing struggle for control of our nation. Gary’s late 2008 video is crucial to gaining a full understanding of why we’re in the financial straits we’re in today and it is [...]

Spend the time. See the future. Educate yourself with the wisdom of a master. Marc Faber Video

Here’s a link to an excellent interview of Dr. Ravi Batra by Matt Renner of www.truthout.org. Dr. Batra has been a keen observer of the American economic evolution during the decades that lead to our current situation. He has written a number of interesting books over the years but this interview is a terrific summary [...]

The financial talking-heads and, therefore, the general public tend to believe that “sub-prime mortgages” are almost entirely to blame for the global financial crisis. To me, this is ridiculous on its face and is more of a cruel joke – bordering on class-sanctioned bigotry – than anything even remotely related to fact. Depending upon how [...]

Here is a useful definition straight from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) web page which describes several different types of scams investors need to be wary of. This scam, the “pump and dump”, has been around forever and anyone who’s ever been involved in investing has heard about it. What people may not have [...]

Here’s a “big picture” article that may even be able to grab the attention of the countless Polyannas and ostriches of the world. Almost unbelievably, many of these types still seem to think that what we’re witnessing in the global economy somehow falls short of the scale of damage wrought by the Great Depression that [...]

I‘ve been on the lookout for an article with a concise description of the ongoing saga of the Credit Default Swaps (CDS) markets to pass along to readers and I have found a nice, simple one on the Guardian UK website. This article is written at a level any newbie can understand yet provides current [...]

As most of us who carefully follow the macro-economic picture know quite well – there is a certain logical “order” to things and that order has been accurately anticipated by some of us for a very long time. One of the things that’s been looming dark-and-large on the economic horizon is the impending and apparently [...]