World Collapse Explained in 3 Minutes

An oldie but a goodie video on the craziness of the European banking system and the whole financial system for that matter.

The Debt Star is Moving on to Another Target!

WHAT IF "STAR WARS: EPISODE I" WAS GOOD? (Belated Media)

Star Wars Episode I... One of the worst movies I have unfortunately witnessed. Now yes this is true as a result of my expectations and the potential of it being good. This movie review shows the potential and really makes you hate George Lucas. As do the always funny and spot on South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker:

Seth Klarman's Rare Interview

A fabulous interview with an investment heavy weight, Seth Klarman:

An Interview with Seth Klarman and Charlie Rose from Facing History and Ourselves on Vimeo.

Great Interactive Piece from the BBC on the Eurozone Debt Issue

A really interesting piece from the BBC showing the extent of the interconnectedness of the debt web that has been spun over the years. This epitomizes the debt problems of the Eurozone. Have fun playing it with it all. Click the link above or copy and paste this one: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15748696

David Rosenberg on Wealthtrack using the D word

Consuelo Mack of Wealthtrack does some great in depth interviews with the leading financial minds out there. David Rosenberg former Merrill Lynch economist and now economist of Gluskin Sheff is one of those great leading minds. I have followed him for some time now and his analysis is top notch. He called the financial crisis and the recession of 2008. Many detractors will point to him not seeing the 2009-11 rebound in stocks. However his strategy of bonds, income producing stocks, and precious metals has been very successful with incrementally less risk. Now he is using the D-word, Depression, to describe the times we are in. I tend to agree with him believe it or not. I don't think it's as visible as it was in the 1930s. We have social safety nets that have been hiding the stress. Food stamps being an example of this stress. They have increased in usage since the start of the financial crisis and are up to 15% of the population using them. The Huffington Post has further details on this. Whether we call it a Great Depression or not remains to be seen and will be determined in large part by governmental policy snafus. At the very least we are in a balance sheet recession. Which are financial in nature and are long drawn out affairs. I think the label of "depression" will come well after the fact so don't expect it to become mainstream anytime soon.

Luckily for us David Rosenberg does take an optimistic twist at the end. Which I feel is very important as we go through tougher times. We will get through this and political/leadership change in the developed world will eventually occur and help. In addition deleveraging and time will be the most helpful. Watch it all and enjoy:

The Debt Star

Funny, but true... unfortunately:

Hugh Hendry Latest at London School of Economics

This series is by far the best of Hugh Hendry out there that I have seen. Not only does it go over his various trades, but also his thought process on them. What I like as well is you really learn about Hugh and get a feeling for his process and who he is as an individual. It's almost like you were at the conference and having a personal conversation with him. They're great videos and a treasure for all of us to review and reflect on:

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:


Part 5:

Europe's Treaty of Debt

A great video clip on some of the problems with Europe's latest treaty to solve their debt crisis. Mainly the problem of giving a lot of power and immunity to an unelected political body.

The “Tug-a-war” of 2011 Continues between Market Bulls vs. Bears!

The Bulls have regained the momentum! Anticipation & initial good news from the European Debt crisis had markets rebounding from 5 straight months of losses in one of the better months on record. Europe’s take on its heavily indebted nations for the last 18 months has been really a policy of “kicking the can down the road”. The best analogy I heard was they were not only kicking the can down the road but when they ran out of road they began paving more road to continue the kicking! As is all too clear with our own politicians nothing ever seems to get done until there is a major crisis at hand. This is truly a step in the right direction for Europe as they are actually trying to restructure Greek debt with the “voluntary” 50% reduction. Coupled with other bullish winds of healthy corporate balance sheets, low interest rates, accommodative Central Banks, and Government intervention has given strength to the rally.

 

However one still has to be cautious in a market environment where a lot of the factors that gave us the summer downturn are still real & present. Sovereign nation debt is still growing at alarming rates in the Developed world as Economic Growth sputters behind. The little economic growth we have had has in fact been showing signs of slowing since summer. The recession threat might be greater then what most experts think. The stock & commodity markets have also shown an amazing amount of correlation to government and central bank intervention. It was relatively easy to predict this summer’s market downturn when the market was no longer supported by Federal Reserve Bank’s QE2 (Quantitative Easing). Lastly the lack of political leadership to make difficult/unpopular decisions from the developed world has been troubling. A lot of the structural imbalances built up over the years in our economy still have not been addressed.

 

Predictions of the future however are always difficult and unpredictable. A balanced approach with emphasis on “playing defense” during the next 6-18 months in my opinion is still the prudent move. I am happy to see the European leaders finally coming to the realization of needing to restructure Greek debts. This is a big start to dealing with the world’s debt problem but the details of the EU summit still need to be ironed out. In addition the Europeans will have to deal with the much larger debt problems of Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and Italy.Time will tell.