Stocks are slightly cheaper than last April, when they were priced the same as now but with higher price-to-earning ratios. But cheap enough? Not according to a 10-year average of the S&P 500’s price to earnings ratio.
China’s economy is slowing down and cautious investors are staying away. When the herd is investing in one direction, I like to look hard and long at doing the opposite. After all, that’s how you make the serious money. So that’s exactly what I’ve done here.
A couple years ago a guy I know in the state of Washington had his back patio cave in after a big, unexpected snow storm (which is rare in western Washington). Naturally, he wanted to fix the problem.
The scoundrels at Countrywide have been hiding an internal database containing records of mortgage fraud. And MBIA, which is suing Countrywide for fraud and breach-of-contract, wants it.
Americans are signing up to buy existing houses in numbers last seen almost two years ago. Pundits will undoubtedly greet the news as an excuse to call yet another housing bottom. Well why not? Increasing affordability and dropping interest rates should be unleashing pent-up demand at some point, so why not now?
Greece is officially in technical default today, designated as such by the lame Standard and Poor’s. And Greece deserves it, right? Everybody and his mother knows that the Greek government can’t keep its promises to the EU on cutting back spending and reducing the pay and privileges of its pampered bureaucracy.
When I first began learning how to invest, finding information on the topic wasn’t easy. You don’t learn it in high school or most colleges, and if you work at a brokerage firm, you’ll only learn how to get someone’s money, not to invest.
Back in the day I traveled all over Canada singing the praises of Maryland’s companies to all who would listen. This was when I worked for the late and great Governor William Schaefer and I was responsible for helping the state’s companies get overseas business. Visiting places like Winnipeg and Edmonton didn’t feel as useful as promoting Maryland’s private sector in places like Tokyo and London. Yet I had looked at the trade statistics. And Maryland-Canadian trade was underwhelming. So I asked local CEOs whenever I got a chance why.
