Search results

Glad to hear it. House prices have to go up in the long run for the economy to recover, and govt will find a way to make this happen eventually. I'm not saying the time to get in is right now, but I would like to be able to play my expectation for rising house prices without the hassles of...

"Dad, excluding the F's I made in two subjects, I qualify for honor roll on this report card." Bettles

Deflation would be bad for the US government because it has such a large debt. Likewise, most consumers are in debt, so deflation would be bad for them. Inflation would be good for the US government. It decreases the debt vs. GDP and pushes people into higher tax brackets, increasing...

Okay, question. The "official" US deficit is around 11 trillion. As a percentage of GDP, the US is about in the middle of industrial countries in terms of debt. But according to the article, the US has another 55 trillion in "off the record" debt. That is several years of GDP. But, how...

Nice. There is a variation of this that I like. Send 1 million people E-mail. Split them into 5 groups, and send a different prediction to each regarding what the stock market will do in the next month. At the end of the month, make 5 more different predictions. Split the 200 000 E-mail...

Just got a notice in my phone bill that Verizon has applied for a rate increase - roughly 10% on each "extra" service (call waiting, caller id, etc.) and 4% on basic service. Compared my car insurance with the bill from 6 months ago. You would think with my car now older (its a 2008) and...

North Korea is not going to do a thing. If they were going to attack, would they tell the whole world about it? Did Japan pre-announce Perl Harbor? Did the hijackers pre-announce 9/11? Of course not. I once (a couple years ago I think) bet money (on Intrade) that N. Korea was not going...

Whether actually true or not is another matter, but I'm sure the report will show all the biggest banks to be just fine, with one or two small "sacrificial" smaller banks possibly in trouble to lend credibility. Bettles

In an average year, 250,000 people die from some form of flu worldwide. I have a strong suspicion that this particular outbreak won't add even 10% to this figure - possibly not even 1%. So while I always take the basic precautions such as frequent hand washing and avoiding crowded places when...

I may include some of these in my portfolio. However, I don't think it is a no-brainer that just because the US has big inflation, the dollar has to go down. I think the inflation is likely to occur globally, since most other countries are in pretty much the same shape as the US. I won't try...

Let me play devil's advocate here. Doesn't ownership by "the union" really mean the members of the union - i.e. the employees? If so, isn't this similar to employee incentives and profit-sharing given to employees by some companies? If the employees own stock in the company, it is in their...

Thanks for the responses. I'm definitely going to look into getting TIPS exposure in my retirement account. Already have exposure to gold and energy. Bettles

Thanks for the replies regarding TIPS. However, it sounds like TIPS would tie up the money I am trying to protect. I'm looking for something to hedge against inflation, while still allowing me to continue investing my money in other things. When an airline or trucking company wants to hedge...

I have about 15 years left until retirement and have a fairly large sum of money saved up so far, both in IRA accounts and outside them. My concern is that I will not be able to keep up with inflation, and that this money will have significantly less purchasing power by the time I retire. Is...

I presently have 2-3% of my stock trading portfolio in F. I bought at 2 (prior to the low). I'm looking to buy more and have a limit order in at 2 again to double my position. Of the 3 big car companies (in my opinion), F has the best chance of surviving. They may not even need any help...

But then why would they ever need to sell bonds in the first place? Why not just always "create" money? Or they can only do that sparingly lest people lose confidence in the dollar? Here is a Treasury URL that (supposedly) lists "debt to the penny". Will this debt increase by the amount of...

Maybe this is a really naive question, but where is the Fed getting the money to buy the long-term treasuries? I thought they had to sell more treasuries to finance all the stimulus spending. Bettles

In the current economic environment, Bank of America has had to find creative ways to raise cash.... Bettles

Maybe they can't afford the margins needed to hold a position outright? Maybe they can't deal with the possibility of a theoretically "infinite loss"? Maybe they are using them as a hedge for a futures position they already hold? Bettles

I'm always hearing that one of the biggest reasons for oil prices to rise is the weak dollar. The logic is that oil is priced in dollars, so the price of oil must increase to maintain the same actual price as the dollar decreases in value. Yet, compare how much oil has gone up with how much...