by Barron Maestro on May 11, 2012
Jamie Dimon, banking’s boy genius, who appeared to navigate the financial devastation of 2008 in a superlative manner has just presided over what could eventually be the biggest trading loss in Wall Street history.
Observers such as Jim Rogers have pointed out the risk-taking and large derivatives positions at JP Morgan as “disasters in waiting,” as he was reportedly short the stock over three years ago [link].
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by Barron Maestro on April 27, 2012
In the first part of a four-part investigation, PBS Frontline focuses on the business with enormous global reach and influence: banking. The topic “Money, Power and Wall Street” is certainly more important than anything being discussed in the presidential campaign. The excesses and aggressive risk-taking of the financial industrial complex dwarf all other influences on the economy. The banking madness was sickeningly exposed during the financial crisis and stock market crash over 3 years ago.
As the first episode states, the recession destroyed $11 trillion of American’s net worth. 8.5 million workers lost their jobs. “Wall Street got bailed out and Main Street didn’t,” is the refrain justifying the Occupy Wall Street protests.
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by Barron Maestro on April 24, 2012
Last week Steven Leuthold, founder of The Leuthold Group, was interviewed by Betty Liu, Dominic Chu and Josh Lipton on Bloomberg’s “In the Loop” regarding his stock market outlook for the rest of the year.
Leuthold said he invested in banks (Bank of America, Citigroup) a few months ago when no one was interested in them and there were questions whether they would survive. Now, said Leuthold, everybody likes the banks so he’s getting cautious on them. He’s also concerned the Volcker rule is going to be enforced a little stronger. Leuthold indicated he might be taking a little money out of the big banks and added that maybe the regional banks were better. However, he believed the banks weren’t finished going up and wouldn’t sell too much, “since they have momentum going for them.”
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by Barron Maestro on April 4, 2012
Julie Creswell of The N.Y. Times writes about the challenges facing pension funds in a low return world. Apparently the managers of these funds are increasingly turning to alternatives including high fee hedge funds.
Creswell contrasts the $26.3 billion Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System with Georgia’s $14.4 billion municipal retirement system. The Pennsylvania pension fund has bet the house on riskier alternatives with 46% of its assets in 400 private equity, venture capital and real estate funds. Georgia’s state law prohibits alternative investments.
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by Barron Maestro on March 30, 2012
Lou Dobbs interviewed a veteran Wall Street observer from days gone by, Harvey Eisen, regarding his views on the future direction of stock prices. Eisen gained minor fame as a regular on Louis Rukeyser’s Wall Street Week. Its probably been around 20 years since I’ve seen him, but he still looks about the same. Eisen is currently the Chairman of Bedford Oak Advisors.
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by Barron Maestro on March 1, 2012
Larry Swedroe, author of Investment Mistakes Even Smart Investors Make and How to Avoid Them
, has written an enlightening and in-depth article entitled, “On Magical Thinking and Investing,” at IndexUniverse.com.
Swedroe is an advocate of investing in index funds and is a principal and the director of research of Buckingham Asset Management and BAM Advisor Services. He has written 10 other highly regarded books on investing.
Swedroe lays out his case as to why investors engage in self-destructive behavior, or as he puts it, “why do the majority of investors keep playing a loser’s game?”
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JP Morgan: How Do You Lose $2 Billion?
by Barron Maestro on May 11, 2012
Observers such as Jim Rogers have pointed out the risk-taking and large derivatives positions at JP Morgan as “disasters in waiting,” as he was reportedly short the stock over three years ago [link].
Click To Continue →
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