It may not officially be summer, but this weekend marks the customary start of the vacation season. And getting a jump on the burning of ever-more-expensive fossil fuels for the travel season is none other than Warren Buffett.
The way to really make money is to never just follow the market. If you do, the best you’ll get is what the market gives you—or, as is the case for the past few years, takes away.
We’re getting bashed not only by the financial markets but the grocery market down the block as well.
Property Profits and Perils, March 14, 2007
Real estate-related investments have taken a beating over the past several months; that portion of the market has been seen as nothing less than toxic. But that opinion has been changing recently, with many REITs coming off the lows they set earlier this year.
Crude oil at $125 and climbing? Natural gas at $11 and climbing?
And it’s not just petrol that’s soaring in price or cost, depending on whether you’re buying or selling. Any real good that gets dug up or pumped out the ground is seemingly out of control. Prices continue to spiral upward; the Commodities Research Board’s general commodities index is up 38 percent for the trailing year.
It seems like a race to the bottom: How quickly can we get US interest rates to zero? Right now, they’re supposedly at 2 percent to borrow money overnight. At least that’s what the US Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) would like you to believe.
When your neighbor loses his job, it’s a recession. When you lose your job, it’s a depression. That old adage is hitting more and more folks around the markets.
What’s wrong with stocks? During good economic times, investors are full of enthusiasm, and stocks can be exciting—in a good way. We tend to accentuate the positives and ignore the negatives, latching onto confirming evidence that lets us avoid thoughts of what may lie in between.
Too many folks on Wall Street and Capitol Hill would have you believe the credit crunch is about a handful of mortgage bankers who got in over their heads and now are getting bailed out. But that’s far from the complete story.
The stock markets are showing signs of strain, with gains being wiped out across the board. But even as the broader averages show signs of cracking, commodity prices have continued to rise, despite concerns that demand could fall if economic problems spread.
