- Today: Latest foreclosure stats: Homes facing foreclosure more than doubled in 1Q from 2007.
- Last week: Latest new home sales, starts, and inventory stats: New home sales plunge to lowest level in 16 1/2 years.
The key numbers and what they mean:
The key numbers and what they mean:
Interesting piece from Michael Krieger at Sanford Bernstein. Along the line of this recent post of mine.
The main purpose of the trip was so I could attend a tech event on Thursday night (you can read more about that on The BuzzPal Blog). Friday we around Stockholm all day, then came back to Gothenburg on Saturday morning. Great trip. Thanks Albert, Anne, DJ, Robert, and Susanne! More pics below:
Another interesting article along the lines of this one on Dyslexia and Entrepreneurs.
ScienceDaily
Sep. 7, 2005
Odd Behavior And Creativity May Go Hand-in-hand
These images summarize the results of near infrared spectroscopy scans of schizotypes, schizophrenics and normal controls during divergent thinking tasks. Image (a) illustrates where the probe holder was placed for the brain scan. Image (b) shows the increase in oxyhemoglobin, which corresponds to an increase in brain activity, that occurred in both the right and left hemispheres of all three groups. Image (c) shows the increase in oxyhemoglobin in the right hemisphere of schizotypes compared to normal controls, while image (d) illustrates the much greater activation in schizotypes over schizophrenics. Image (e), which compares the different reaction of schizophrenics and normal controls, shows no difference between the two groups. (Courtesy of Park Lab)
ScienceDaily (Sep. 7, 2005) —
Often viewed as a hindrance, having a quirky or socially awkward approach to life may be the key to becoming a great artist, composer or inventor.
First update since this post on November 9, 2007. That post exactly marked GOOG’s reversal off it’s all-time high, after the 3-month relief-rally off the August lows. Today’s chart shows the end of that 40% bloodbath. Same as back in November, Google stock is the bellwether. It tells you pretty much all you need to know.
The other things to watch remain commodities, the Chinese market (and the other BRICS), and the dollar, which I’ve been bearish on since (before) this post on April 6, 2004. Back then one Euro cost $1.22, now it costs $1.59 (30% more).
I actually think the dollar will probably catch a bounce once the Fed makes its final interest rate cut of this cycle. That’ll probably also mark the top of the massive commodity and commodity stock run, as money rotates (see this). We will see. Those are just probabilities and scenarios to watch for. As always, the technicals must confirm and the market is always right (or at least it doesn’t pay to argue with it!).
It’s interesting to see more and more people realizing the value of domain names. I’ve been building my portfolio for about 10 years and each year revenue grows, with little effort. It’s the real estate of the virtual world.
February 1, 2008
New York Times
Coins in the New Realm
By BRAD STONE
HOLLYWOOD — Xavier Buck planned to spend $100,000 to bid for domain names, those parcels of virtual Internet real estate, at a live auction here last week.
He blew past his limit in less than an hour.
By the time the three-hour auction had ended, Mr. Buck, the chief executive of the Luxembourg-based company EuroDNS, had spent $150,000 for 15 appealingly generic names, including 7th.com, chaptereleven.com, microfinancing.com and computersystems.com.
“These names will pay for themselves within two years,” Mr. Buck said, as he sat in the ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel with a business partner who wore an identical gray suit and shirt with the company logo. “The world is only now beginning to discover how important it is to have these assets.”
First, I hope nobody shorted MOS! It’s just on the short watch list. And it still is, but commodities and commodity-related stocks riding the trends. See below for a great little Sanford C. Bernstein summary that’s been going around for a while and is still 100% relevant. Previous MOS update here.
A good one from John Mauldin’s “Outside the Box” newsletter. It’s all about leverage and mean reversion.
Five Delectable Examples of “Stein’s Law”
By Dr. Woody Brock
The most basic statement of Stein’s Law says: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop”. More specifically, the late Herb Stein stressed that, when a trend cannot go on, it always stops–even when nothing is done about it. This yardstick of common sense is particularly apposite today, as we see in the following five examples of trends whose time has come and gone.
Just a quick update on this March 28th posting in Mosaic Company (MOS). You can see the stock got a big pop on the earnings report and is now hanging at it highs. It’s still on my watch list (for the short entry, not the long one). Should break pretty good one way or the other, but maybe not until after April options expiration. Cheers.
First the quotes:
Now the article excerpt, from MoneyWeek (article by Bill Bonner):
I thought people and countries were supposed to clean up their own messes? I mean since when can you go into someone else country, destroy it, displace the occupants, and then expect other people to fix it, help those displaced people, and pay for it? It makes no sense, yet that’s what George Bush is doing with his Iraq war mess. Sweden is one of the countries stepping up to help the fleeing refugees, but the flow is too heavy.:
Sweden, which has one of the world’s most welcoming refugee policies, has become the new home of 40,000 Iraqis since the war began in 2003. Last year alone, more than 18,000 Iraqi refugees came to Sweden. According to the State Department, the United States has taken in roughly 6,000 Iraqis in programs for refugees and translators. If the United States accepted as many people per capita as Sweden, a nation of 9 million, he said, it would have taken in 500,000 refugees. If the United States accepted as many people per capita as Sweden, a nation of 9 million, he said, it would have taken in 500,000 refugees.
Iraqi Refugees Find Sweden’s Doors Closing Immigrants Overtax System, Critics Say
By Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, April 10, 2008; A01
SODERTALJE, Sweden — Behind the wheel of his old Ford Escort, Oshin Merzoian puttered happily along snowy streets. Back home in Baghdad, he said, he always drove at crazy speeds to avoid killers and kidnappers.
But here in “Little Baghdad,” as this city that has accepted roughly as many Iraqi refugees as the entire United States is called, Merzoian is enjoying the luxuries of living in peace. He doesn’t strap on a gun for protection, and he notes that Swedish police worry more about seat belts than roadside bombs.
I post this article for two reasons:
January 11, 2008
When You’re Drowning In Student-Loan Debt
By SUE SHELLENBARGER
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Question: My daughter, who just received a master’s degree in counseling, has a heavy college-debt load. She’s been paying $100 a month on her student loans. One bank that gave her a private student loan, however, wants $700 a month and is threatening to turn her loan over to a collection agency, garnish her wages and take her old car. What should she do? — E.K., Kirkland, Wash.
How the f*ck did that happen?! And how was the conference and experience? (more…)
Not sure who created this, but it’s pretty good!
Is this the real price?
Is this just fantasy?
Financial landslide
No escape from reality
Open your eyes
And look at your buys and see.
I’m now a poor boy
High-yielding casualty