Skip to main content

Features of the week

Hey everyone, hope you're ready to run down some of the week's more interesting stories and market related events.

As promised, we have a lot of news to share on the energy front, plus interviews with a few well known investors and some timeless wisdom to share as well. So sit back and peruse our, "Features of the week"!

1. WSJ MarketBeat on, "The Merrill-Citigroup Bad-News Fiesta".

2. Now problems are starting to emerge for Goldman as well. A discussion of how banks are accounting for "level three" assets. Also, the SEC is wondering how Goldman Sachs managed to manuever so successfully out of subprime danger and deftly short the decline.

Fintag wondered the same as rumors circulated earlier in October.

3. BusinessWeek claims that $800 gold is not likely to surprise anyone. Really? Because I don't recall any of these glossy media outlets predicting it, even as late as 2006.

4. The Big Picture on "benign" inflation and added surcharges. More follow-up here.

5. An interesting email to Fintag on China's long-term game plan.

6. Are oil prices a speculative bubble? Commentary from The Oil Drum.

7. Total chief warns on oil output. Christophe de Margerie, Total CEO, now thinks it will be difficult to reach even 100 million barrels a day of global production.

8. Biofuels: a tale of special interests and subsidies. FT's Martin Wolf.

9. The US dollar continues to slump against the euro following the Fed's most recent rate cut. And yes, Jim Rogers has a few things to say about that.

10. Video of Jim Rogers speaking at a recent London conference.

11. Bloomberg sits down with Michael Steinhardt and Jim Chanos, of Kynikos Associates, in their "Hedge Hunters" profiles.

12. Who is Garet Garrett? Mises Institute's Jeffrey Tucker takes a look at this author's neglected body of work and shares some interesting insights on free markets and the lure of socialism.

Have a great weekend! Thanks for reading Finance Trends Matter.

Popular posts from this blog

Clean Money - John Rubino: Book review

Clean Money by John Rubino 274 pages. Hoboken, New Jersey John Wiley & Sons. 2009. 1st Edition. The bouyant stock market environment of the past several years is gone, and the financial wreckage of 2008 is still sharp in our minds as a new year starts to unfold. Given the recent across-the-board-declines in global stock markets (and most asset classes) that have left many investors shell-shocked, you might wonder if there is any good reason to consider the merits of a hot new investment theme, such as clean energy. However, we shouldn't be too hasty to write off all future stock investments. After all, the market declines of 2008 may continue into 2009, but they may also leave interesting investment opportunities in their wake. Which brings us to the subject of this review. John Rubino, author and editor of GreenStockInvesting.com , recently released a new book on renewable energy and clean-tech investing entitled, Clean Money: Picking Winners in the Green Tech Boom . In Clean ...

Seth Klarman: Margin of Safety (pdf)

Welcome, readers! Signup for free email updates at the Finance Trends Newsletter . Update: PDF links removed due to DMCA notice. Please see our extensive Klarman book notes below. New visitors, please check the Finance Trends home page for all new posts. Here's something for anyone who has been trying to get a look at Seth Klarman's now famous, and out of print, 1991 investment book, Margin of Safety .  My knowledge of value investing is pretty much limited to what I've read in Ben Graham's The Intelligent Investor (the book which originally popularized the investment concept of a "Margin of Safety"), so check out the wisdom from Seth Klarman and other investing greats in our related posts below. You can also go straight to Ronald Redfield's Margin of Safety book notes .    Related posts: 1. Seth Klarman interviews and Margin of Safety notes     2. Seth Klarman: Lessons from 2008 3. Investing Lessons from Sir John Templeton 4. ...

Marty Schwartz Talks Trading, Life at Amherst College

Trader and Pit Bull author, Marty Schwartz speaks at Amherst College and shares lessons on markets and life in a rare, hour-long video session (Hat Tip: Tischendorf Letter ).  You may also know Schwartz from his interview in Jack Schwager's Market Wizards , a chapter which I will revisit in a follow-up post.  For now, let's absorb some of the wisdom and life lessons he imparts to the students at Amherst. Those of us who are students of trading and life may find a few pearls in the highlights below:  Marty Schwartz begins his talk by relating some of his experiences as an Amherst student back in the 1960s (a technological "stone age" by comparison to today). He was decked early on with some pretty poor grades, but he fought to get back on track and completed his studies successfully. One recurring theme from the early portion of his talk is, "it didn't kill me so it made me stronger." . Schwartz tells students, "I'm here to tell yo...