Ron Ralph
Cruising under your radar
Watching from the satellites
Take a page from the red book
and keep them in your sights
Red alert Red alert

Thanks for taking the time to read the post and for your comment.

Sadly, most Americans are still in a state of denial. They just can not believe that the cheap energy party is over for good. Really tough times are likely coming soon to the USA. A danger is that at some point the dismay turns to anger. Large American cities will not be pleasant places to live as electrical blackouts, water shortages, and empty supermarket shelves become normal.

I hope I’m wrong about all of this. We will soon know.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I expect that you will have many other opportunities to buy in at distressed prices as this year and next go by. Just don’t forget to sell. My own belief is that a long emergency is underway, one that will tax us all moving forward.

All the best to you.

It’s rather like buying tips at the racetrack; a mugs game.

Having said that, I’d add that even the ‘conventional’ market wisdoms are pretty stupid ~ and my favourite target is “diversification”. All that consists of is actually AIMING for averages, aka ‘mediocrity’.

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”, they tell me. And I ask “Why not?” What’s clever about putting your eggs into a dozen different baskets ~ ANY ONE OF WHICH IS LIKELY TO HAVE ITS ARSE FALL OUT?

I decided long ago that if your basket is strong and sound enough then that’s EXACTLY where you want your eggs to be. And if it isn’t then you’d be a fool to put ANY eggs in it.

I entered the market in 1999, after never before having had any interest in it, on the back of a $32,000 inheritance, and have since parelayed that into about 1.2 million, (which I expect to double over the next 18-24 months because of all the ‘experts’ curfently running around like headless chooks!)

My main probem seems to be overcautiousness, and I get out too early. For example, Blind Freddy could’ve see the arrival of the current fiasco just from reading the newspapers, so I liquidated all my holdings ALMOST EXACTLY 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE SHIT HIT THE FAN! The markets (here in Australia) piled on anothe 40% in that year ~ and the stocks I’d been holding half that much agin!

As they say: ‘Bugger!’. But I’m not really complaining. At my age (61) I’ve made more money than I’ll ever be able to spend, and making money has now become a game which will be to the benefit of several animal shelters when I cark it.

And there ARE bargains to be picked up because of the price-crash. Just yesterday I put $150,000 into a company trading at a 60% discount to its NTA, based on improved property (childcare centres) and which is holding enforceable leases reaching out up to 2020 (ie guaranteed income flow which ~ at the current price ~ yields 22%. Even if that’s pared back by 50% it doesn’t matter; the company CAN’T go broke.)

Correct trading price is about $1.80 and had traded at over $2. I bought them (at what appears to be near-bottom) for 62.5 cents.

Was it P.J.Barnum who said “There’s one born every minute”?

All the best…..and give ‘em hell!

I’m certain I don’t fully understand all the intricaties of the economic crisis the U.S. is immersed in today, but it’s easy to understand it’s going to get worse. I have to place the majority of the blame on the man that was elected almost eight years ago to “lead” our country, along with the inept cronies in his administration. “Dubya” has “lead” us alright, if you pronounce “lead” as you would for a heavy metal.

What’s scarey is that it’s already too late to correct many of our economic problems, at least in our lifetime.

Regarding the problem of rising gas prices, only one of so many, a good friend told me she read “Dubya’s” answer online to the question of what he intended to do about it. His response? “Not much I can do about that”. That’s hearsay and I don’t know for certain he actually responded with that, but I heard it from a trustworthy source.

Recently, Bush has proposed drilling the oil reserves off our own shores, thereby producing one of the few things I’ve ever agreed with coming from his mouth. Of course, environmentalists are opposed to it due to the possibility of an oil spill which is a legitimate concern. However, to my mind that’s akin to refusing to board a plane because of the possibilty it might crash. We can’t afford to not take reasonable risks because something negative “might” happen. If everyone did that, this world might still be in the stone age.

Those who refuse to think history can’t repeat itself have at times found out the hard way. WW1 was “the war to end all wars” for example. Is it possible for the U.S. economy to crash into a depression as bad as in 1929? Sadly, yes, it’s possible.

Thanks for a great post, and for telling it like it is. I learned from it, and promise not to shoot the messenger.