Free Republic

OK - the markets are crashing. Things are not going to get better no matter what the government does. I think there are three scenarios in the next 1-5 years. ---------- Scenario 1: We have a hard recession. Stocks to start (slowly) getting into would be: 1. Little to no debt and well run 2. Are profitable 3. Make or produce things people want no matter what 4. Pay a nice dividend 5. OR Bonds that are safe and pay a nice dividend (like munis in well run states) This would include energy, food, tobacco, alcohol and minerals (gold, silver,...

Swedish clothing retailer Hennes & Mauritz has been given the all clear to open an outlet on the swish shopping street Champs-Élysées. H & M beat off the vociferous objections of Paris city council. France's top administrative court, the State Council, rejected an appeal by Paris city council which moved in January to block a store licence granted to the retailer, according to deputy Paris mayor Lyne Cohen-Solal. "We are completely powerless" to stop the spread of big chain stores on what is touted as the most beautiful avenue in the world, she said. The city has now exhausted all...

With the economy and money and the preoccupation (along with their veneration) joining the ranks of other "dark signs of the times" I offer this little glimmer of insightful light. Contrary to the delusional adage: "You can't take it with you" --- quite to the contrary --- we most certainly can, and do, take it with us. That is, our money, but more precisely, "our greed for money". Or, to use the more universal and timeless wording for money as found in the Scriptures, - "silver and gold". So let it be known --- "WE CAN TAKE IT WITH US"...

I have inherited a coin collection, How do I go about getting info on the coins and appraised? I am in the process of trying to catalog and photograph the coins. Any info on who to contact or FReeper’s with this interest or knowledge,would be greatly appreciated. TW

As a long time market follower I am observing what is happening in the market with interest (and agony!). I have watched other downturns (2001, 1998, 1987) and read about others (1929). We all know that market panics are part factual and part psychological. In other panic periods, CNBC and other press outlets would roll out industry leaders such as Warren Buffett to calm the public. Where is the leadership today? Sure we have problems but remember the root of the problem – mortgages. Even if we recognize that banks made stupid loans, deadbeats took on mortgages that they had...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- [The Reserve] has put a seven-day freeze on redemptions after the net asset value of [shares of its "Primary Fund"] fell below $1.

Ok, Barack wants to raise the capital gains tax from 15% To 20-28%. Last time I checked that's a minimum of a 33% INCREASE in your capital gains taxes per YEAR! You have got to be kidding me! That means if you make $10,000 in a given year on your hard-earned investments, you will pay an extra $3300. per year to help support the government and the wonderful programs that "support" your lifestyle and future existence. I for one, think this is the most idiotic plank that has ever laid over over any platform.

With yesterday's announcement of the most massive federal bailout of all time, it's now official: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest mortgage lenders on Earth, are bankrupt. Some Washington bigwigs and bureaucrats will inevitably try to spin it. They'll avoid the "b" word with vengeance. They'll push the "c" word (conservatorship) with passion. And in the newspeak of 21st century bailouts, they'll tell you "it all depends on what the definition of solvency is." The truth: Without their accounting smoke and mirrors, Fannie and Freddie have no capital. The government is seizing control of their operations. Their...

Jamie Dimon Goes Insane: "People Who Pass On Rumors Should Go To Jail"* Hilary Lewis | Jul 8, 2008 3:09 AM JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon is usually a font of wisdom, but if he actually means what he's quoted as saying on Charlie Rose, he has gone temporarily insane: Reuters: JP Morgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said U.S. regulators should investigate whether people betting on Bear Stearns' stock falling deliberately brought down the investment bank. "Where there is smoke, there's fire," Dimon said in an interview with Charlie Rose on PBS, televised on Monday. "I think...

AN AUSTRIAN man who lost a six-figure sum in bad investments has admitted killing five family members with an axe to spare them the "disgrace" of financial ruin. The 39-year-old public relations consultant, identified only as Reinhard S, walked into a Vienna police station at 3.20am yesterday, and told the duty officer: "In my apartment are my dead wife and my dead child." The man said that, after killing the two, he drove two hours to Linz, where he killed his father-in-law and his parents. After trying and failing to hang himself, he turned himself in. Vienna police confirmed the...

WASHINGTON - Cindy McCain, whose husband has been a critic of the violence in Sudan, sold off more than $2 million in mutual funds whose holdings include companies that do business in the African nation. The sale on Wednesday came after The Associated Press questioned the investments in light of calls by John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, for international financial sanctions against the Sudanese leadership. Last year, at least four presidential candidates divested themselves of Sudan-related holdings. According to McCain's personal financial disclosure, Cindy McCain's investments include two mutual funds — American Funds Europacific Growth fund and American...

I have a theory that if you took all the money in the world and divided it equally among all the people's of the world, it would end up in the same pockets as it left 5-10 years from now. The rule here is that money goes where it can earn it's highest return and be guaranteed to return. That clearly isn't Wall Street. The sub prime stuff made the underwriters and issuers a fortune and the investors nothing. Investors like pension funds and super wealthy individuals have been there and done that and my sense is they are not...

The world is teetering on the edge of the worst recession for a generation, according to the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, the world’s third-largest sovereign wealth fund. Tony Tan, executive director of GIC, which has estimated assets of more than $300bn, told a global staff conference: “We could be facing a recession which is longer, deeper and wider than any recession that we have encountered in the last 30 years.” He added: “The financial and investment markets will be extremely nervous and volatile over the next one to two years. “Instead of the rising tide which [has] broadly benefited...

I was filling out my DuPont proxy this morning and came across a shareholder proposale regarding global warming. At first I rolled my eyes and then laughed when I read it. This proposal is right up the alley of any Freeper who doesn't believe in global warming. If you have Dupont common stock or know someone who does, tell them it and remember to vote YES on Proposal 4!

Why have U.S. stock markets been such relatively poor performers this decade? American equities have lagged their brethren in the rest of the world since they reached their lows in October 2002. At the height of the stock market last October--before it was clobbered by the credit crisis--the S&P was up about 100% from its lows of five years before. In contrast, German equities have risen more than 200%, the French about 120%. The MSCI World Index, which includes the U.S., has moved up about 135%. It's no surprise that the MSCI Emerging Markets Index has skyrocketed almost 400%. It...

Germany's second biggest state-owned bank, Bayerische Landesbank, revealed Thursday that the global credit crunch (more...) has cost the bank €4.3 billion ($6.7 billion) -- far more than it had previouly predicted and more than any German state-owned bank has suffered so far. BayernLB, which is based in Munich, reported writedowns of €2.3 billion in 2007 and another €2 billion for the first quarter of this year as a result of the fallout from the US housing market crisis.

U.S. regulators are investigating whether traders illegally sought to force Bear Stearns Cos. shares into a tailspin last week by spreading false information about the firm's finances, two people familiar with the inquiry said. The Securities and Exchange Commission probe is focusing on whether hedge funds or other investors bet on a drop in the company's shares while spreading rumors that the New York firm was nearing collapse, said the people, who declined to be identified because the inquiry isn't public.

The U.S. Treasury is struggling with how to handle any political or Islamic ramifications as Persian Gulf sovereign wealth funds look to make substantial investments in capital-poor American banks and securities firms. The crisis in mortgage-backed securities has created a need for new capital to enter financial markets after major financial institutions such as Bear Stearns and Carlyle Capital Corp. failed over the weekend. The crisis is an opportunity for sovereign wealth funds that have prospered as the price of oil has soared over $110 a barrel. WND previously reported sovereign wealth funds in six Persian Gulf countries, including Kuwait,...

The global volume of futures and options trading soared by 28 per cent last year, the largest annual increase since 2003, fuelled by a sharp rise in equity market volatility and a rush to commodity related contracts. More than 15bn futures and options contracts changed hands during 2007 at 54 exchanges across the world, according to the Futures Industry Association. The results show the rate of growth accelerating after a 19 per cent rise in 2006, 12 per cent in 2005, and 9 per cent in 2004. It is the largest volume rise since volume jumped 30 per cent from...

Commodities were at the centre of one of the earliest known financial bubbles – the tulip mania that hit the Netherlands in the 17th century. The price of the flower was lifted by huge investment demand to a peak of 1,500 guilders a pound in February 1637 – equivalent to what a master carpenter made in about four years. It had seen a tenfold increase in the space of two months and was trading at a level not supported by demand-supply fundamentals. Amid record costs, demand for tulip bulbs soon evaporated and prices crashed. Fast-forward about 400 years and some...