Singapore is ranked top 5 among most honest governments in the world. Yes, it's a police state but at least they acknowledge it.
That's a contradiction in terms. A police state must be by definiton " clean" , since they make and change the laws when they see fit. the vast najority of their reserves are in USD , the biggest trade partner is the US , the biggest investor in SG is US co's who are financed by guess who. The SG gov. took up a 10% stake in citigroup amongst others and the share has gown down 50% or so since then. Also no corruption ? you ever heard of the NKF scandal or the Nassim hill abuses ? Come back to me when you have some real knowledge.
100% agree. Economic activity will not stop just because most banks fail. 2-5 years recession? Yes. But that is far, far better than a 10-20 year recession/depression. There are many companies, such as IB, who are in great position, and if we let the weak ones fail, the stronger ones will be in a better position. The people who really get hurt are those who supported the poorly run companies, which is exactly what you want. Some things the US government absolutely needs to do, however, is balance the budget, fix the out of control medical system, and slowly switch treasury policy to keep interest rates close to equilibrium instead of 1-4% lower. Housing prices would fall another 20-40%. Stocks might fall 50%. GDP might fall 15%. However you will see a (very sharp) V-shaped recovery, and overall growth could resume at a sustained pace. Anything else, and we are just repeating Japan (and other) mistakes that have immense short-term appeal, but we will always "win the next battle" yet be "loosing the war". Having too much debt and too little real assets is not good for individuals, companies, or governments.
Correctamundo! It was bad Gummint policy, poor regulation, greed run amok that got us into this mess. But Gummint doesn't want to "take the cure"... there would always be an election around the corner where opponents could easily claim, "those in power are not doing right by you... not relieving your situation. So, vote for me and I'll fix it" And of course, desperate people would do exactly that. Politicians are unwilling to fight the right battle.
Jim Rogers discussing the bailout bill on Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.ht...//media2.bloomberg.com/cache/vbGb5KNYrBKo.asf
One thing you have to consider this time is that the world economy has merged into one. That was never the case. e.g. AIG fails - all the life insurance policies, valued at trillions, and marketed as "retirement saving", will go to zero, for 30% of the world life insurance policies. These fellows have the right to call their politicians to save their life time savings. Jim's view is valid if there are alternative economic systems that are insulated from the crisis. That will provide the needed capital and resource to rebuild.
LOL, I would not take all that ol Jim is saying for granted, especially not timing-wise. This smart guy is LONG financials to the hilt now, he would be very stupid if he was not. And do you really believe him that he did not sell a single oil contract all the way down from 140 to 95? This guy is way toi smart to let his investment go through a 40% draw down. Sure, he may be bullish on commodities but he may have made on the way down and be already long again. Same with banks. If he is not completely stupid then he will be long in banks and bet on the package to pass congress very soon as Buffet as well. Those guys did not make billions for playing pussy games.