Marko’s Take Originally written May 31, 2010 Bond Ratings Agencies Yield Junky Results Think a certain credit rating means something? Think again! Amid the financial crisis which enveloped the global financial system in 2008-2009, Standard & Poors (S & P) and Moody’s played a central role. So much paper with sub-prime mortgages defaulted that were originally […]
Marko’s Take Written December 8th 2010 The Psychology Of Investing (Part 1) Successful investing is about far more than understanding value, balance sheets and quality of management. One also needs to be a pretty good amateur psychologist. Virtually all market tops and bottoms occur at emotional extremes: Bottoms coincide with widespread panic while […]
Marko’s Take High Economics Part 1: The Cannabis Industry (Originally Written December 23, 2010) Few national political issues are as clear-cut as the growing movement toward legalization of Marijuana. The reasons for supporting this NOW are numerous and quite financially substantial. With a few more votes and the stroke of a pen, we can take […]
Marko’s Take Hindenburg Omen Confirmed… Or, Was It? Wednesday, July 7, 2010 The Hindenburg Omen (HO) was described in yesterday’s blog. For more on how it works, click here http://markostake.blogspot.com/2010/07/hindenburg-omen-foretells-coming-market.html. For the HO to be confirmed, it must happen at least […]
] Marko’s Take Sunday, August 15, 2010 Hindenburg Omen All Over The Financial Press
Quick: If you take out a $1000 loan that has a 20% rate, how much will you owe a year in interest? Answer: $200. But if you got that wrong, you’re not alone. Nearly two thirds of Americans can’t calculate interest payments correctly, according to a new study. About a third said they didn’t even […]
Recently, a rather sizable number of high profile mega-billionaires announced an intention to donate most of their net worths to charity. Very commendable. Or was it? More than 30 U.S billionaires have pledged to give at least half of their fortunes to charity as part of a campaign spearheaded by Warren Buffett, the investor, and Bill Gates, the […]
Now let me get this straight. Goldman Sachs (GS), aka “Government Sachs”, has just received the largest penalty ever imposed on a financial firm. Yes, a whopping $550 million. Relative to Goldman’s 2009 net income of roughly $12 billion, this represents less than 5%, or about two weeks worth of earnings. In the case of British […]
Every empire goes through what appears to be an inevitable series of conditions which accompany its rise to dominance and then its fall to ashes. This has proven especially true for the 3 key modern empires: the British, the American and the Soviet Union. So, what are the signs of a rising or falling empire? They […]
The concept of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), developed during the Cold War, is a doctrine of military strategy in which two opponents possessed the ability to destroy each other. As nuclear arsenals within the United States and the old Soviet Union grew during the arms race, it was understood that neither side could “win” a […]
