Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Saturday, December 31, 2011,
In :
Stocks
This is remarkable, if you invested in Japanese stocks in 1982 you basically have no gains to show for your three decades of investing, excluding dividends. --------------------------------------------------- Nikkei closes at lowest year-end level since 1982 France 24
Japan's headline Nikkei-225 index finished 2011 at its lowest year-end level since 1982, despite rising on Friday thanks to upbeat US data.
The Nikkei index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange finished at 8,455.35, down 17.34 percent, o...
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Saturday, December 24, 2011,
In :
Culture
The Man Who Invented Christmas by Alexander Green
Dear Reader,
Last weekend, my family, some friends and I attended a performance
of A Christmas Carol at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton,
VA.
It was superb. The kids particularly enjoyed it and were surprised
to learn that the author - Charles Dickens - is the man most
responsible for the modern celebration of the season. This is a story
that deserves to be more widely known...
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Tuesday, December 20, 2011,
In :
Politics
Ron Paul and the Republican Future by Andrew Sullivan
“I would be a different kind of president. I wouldn’t be looking for
more power. Everybody wants to be a powerful executive and run things.
I, as a president, wouldn’t want to run the world,” - Ron Paul, December
15.
It's so heartening to see a candidate who's been ignored,
condescended to and caricatured by both the liberal media and the Fox
Propaganda machine emerge as a viable candidate to win the Iowa
caucuses. He did it ...
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Thursday, December 15, 2011,
In :
Stocks
Freeport McMoran's (FCX) Grasberg mine is located in Indonesia. It's the largest gold mine and third largest copper mine in the world. It's workers have been on strike for the past three months, demanding higher wages. They were receiving about $2.50/hour, so you could see how they might feel just a little exploited given the massive profits FCX is making ($4.2 billion in 2010). Today, the strike ended with the company oh so generously agreeing to a 24% rise this year and a 13% rise next ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Wednesday, December 14, 2011,
In :
Stocks
Investing is hard. A quick look at the massive volatility in the markets today make that easy to understand. However, there's one thing that you can control that will have a definite, positive impact on your long-term investment returns: fees. Whether it's brokerage trading fees, financial advisor fees or mutual fund operating expenses, the less you pay in fees the more you'll have during your retirement years.
Take a look at this chart...I assumed this investor was 40 years old, started... Continue reading ...
Suspend Habeas Corpus and Enact Martial Law? by Chris Powell, Journal Inquirer
Americans seem ready to forfeit their most basic civil liberty --
actually, all their civil liberties -- without a whimper.
By
a vote of 93-7 the Senate this month approved a military appropriations bill
empowering the government to designate any U.S. citizen within the country as a
terrorist and to have the military hold him indefinitely without trial and
without the right to habeas corpus, the right to be broug... Continue reading ...
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Monday, December 5, 2011,
In :
Politics
Color me stunned. Gallup's latest poll asked Tea Party supporters which presidential nominees were acceptable. Inexplicably, Ron Paul got the second lowest score - just 27%, while the hypocritical, lobbying nitwit Newt Gingrich got an 82% approval. Silly me thought that Ron Paul was sort of the Godfather of the Tea Party but I guess all those "radical" ideas like smaller government, liberty, following the constitution, reduced regulation and an end to the meddling in foreign countries are ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Monday, December 5, 2011,
In :
Gold and Silver
COMEX is the futures and options exchange where the price of many
commodities is set, including silver. Since peaking at 138.5 million
ounces in August 2008, the silver inventory dropped sharply for nearly
three straight years and bottomed this past June at 98 million ounces.
This rapid drop led many silver observers to believe we were on the
precipice of a severe supply crunch in silver that would lead to a
skyrocketing silver price.
Once again, a government acts in a despicable fashion and flat out steals pensions from its citizens. The Telegraph reports:
The cabinet agreed to transfer the assets from four of Portugal’s biggest banks to the state balance sheet.
The assets will be used to bridge a gap needed to meet the fiscal deficit target of 5.9pc of GDP set by the terms of the country’s €78bn bail-out from around 10pc in 2010.
"This measure is more than sufficient to meet the budget deficit goal in 2011,...
