Debating the "Ring of Fire"

Barry Ritholtz had some pointed comments for Bill Gross today.

In his post on Gross' "Ring of Fire" chart, depicting deficit and dept/GDP percentages for a number of economically vulnerable countries, Ritholtz noted that the US' fiscal problems were in part due to the government enacting policies (explicit backstops for the GSEs, etc.) that were suggested by Gross and his cohorts.

As Barry put it: "Essentially, Gross is complaining that (amongst other factors) the government listened to him . . .".

There was some interesting debate in the comments section about whether or not the (government backstopped) trillions in mortgage debt on GSE balance sheets should figure into an equation on US govt. debts/liabilities.

I noticed that David Merkel weighed in on this question, and that he also has a post up at Aleph Blog discussing Gross' chart and unsustainable government debts. You might want to check that out, as David is well-versed in credit markets and able to shed some additional light on the subject.

You can find Bill Gross' latest (February 2010) investment outlook, "Ring of Fire", here.

Moneyball: How the Red Sox Win Championships

Welcome, readers . T o get the first look at brand new posts (like the following piece) and to receive our exclusive email list updates, please subscribe to the Finance Trends Newsletter . The Boston Red Sox won their fourth World Series title of t he 21st century this we ek. Having won their first Se ries in 86 years back in 200 4, the last decade-plus has marked a very strong return to form for one of baseball's oldest big league clubs. So how did they do it? Quick background: in late 2002, team own er and hedge fund manager, John W. Henry (with his partners ) bought the Boston Red Sox and its historic Fenway Park for a reported sum of $ 695 million. Henry and Co. quickly set out to find their ideal General Manager (GM) to help turn around their newly acquired, ailing ship. This brings us to one of my fav orite scenes from the 2011 film , Moneyball , in which John W. Henry (played by Ar liss Howard) attempts to woo Oakland A's GM Billy Beane (Brad Pi

William O'Neil Interview: How to Buy Winning Stocks

Investor's B usiness Daily founder and veteran stock trader, William O'Neil share d his trading methods and insights on buying winning stocks in an in-depth IBD radio interview. Here are some highlights from William O'Neil's interview with IBD: William O'Neil's interest in the stock market began when he started working as a young adult. "I say many times that I didn't get that much out of college. I didn't have much interest in the stock market until I graduated from college. When I got married, I had to look out into the future and get more serious. The investment world had some appeal and that's when I started studying it. I became a stock broker after I got out of the Air Force." He moved to Los Angeles and started work in a stock broker's office with twenty other guys. When their phone leads from ads didn't pan out, O'Neil would take the leads and drive down to visit the prospective customers in person.

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