The biggest RE land rush right now

Its not here in the US and A...

Its not here in the Northern Hemisphere...

It is not even Australia..

Its...Africa. Farmland is going up for sale and selling in record time. An oncoming food shortage plus CHEAP land plus CHEAP labor makes for a great opportunity for those with big money.

The biggest check ever written..

9 billion dollar check...wow....somehow, I don't think that this record is going to last too long...its the check that saved Morgan Stanley from cradling under..

The Best Investment for 2010-2020

The best stock investment for the next 10 years will be whichever bank/financial institution/lending company figures out a way to lend money to small businesses profitably and with little risk.

Simply put, this will be the BEST INVESTMENT of the next decade, short of a company finding a cure/treatment for cancer or heart disease. Why do I say that? The need is there in the form of ample demand, very limited supply, this/these lending companies can be extremely picky with who they have as customers, and they can get every kind of collateral they want. If they are or become publicly traded, these strong small business loans/lines will be the kind of paper Wall St and foreigners will need to buy. Something that is extremely tight with lending criteria, great assets as collateral, strong base of debtors, and above average returns on loans.

Anyone wanna weigh in or am I just nuts?

Anyways, here's a list of the top 10 stocks from 2000-2010 (or until November 2009)

Want Lower Credit Card Rates? Spend 750 bucks every month!!

Credit card companies LOVE to screw customers. After making them deal with the shock and horror of one time credit rates around 8% get JACKED UP to 29%, Citibank has decided to "make nice" with their customers:

Those who meet the spending minimum , in some cases $750 a month , will be able to get a rebate on their total interest charges for that month. The rebate could cover some or all of the interest rate hike. Customers also need to make payments on time to qualify for the rebate.

Yes, that's right, they want you to spend almost a GRAND every month in hopes to get you trapped further. Unbelievable!

Stupid Americanos....Won't Pay 50 bucks to buy Gold coin worth $1100

Great video that goes to show you how uneducated Americans are with money.

Gold & the United States

Will the US ever sell its gold? Err, will the US ever be forced to sell its gold?

I hope not, but that doesn't mean the day won't come when we'll need to finance our vast debt to pay off our expenditures and future costs (such as the health care bill that just passed the House).

Govt giving ya 5000 smackers to buy a golf cart!

From Doug Casey:

You’re going to love this. I came across a recent story from The Wall Street Journal about how Uncle Sam is now paying Americans to buy, of all things, golf carts. Yes, you too can own that great necessity of modern life thanks to the federal tax credit to buy high-mileage cars that was part of President Obama’s stimulus plan.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

The federal credit provides from $4,200 to $5,500 for the purchase of an electric vehicle, and when it is combined with similar incentive plans in many states the tax credits can pay for nearly the entire cost of a golf cart. Even in states that don't have their own tax rebate plans, the federal credit is generous enough to pay for half or even two-thirds of the average sticker price of a cart, which is typically in the range of $8,000 to $10,000. "The purchase of some models could be absolutely free," Roger Gaddis of Ada Electric Cars in Oklahoma said earlier this year. "Is that about the coolest thing you've ever heard?"

The golf-cart boom has followed an IRS ruling that golf carts qualify for the electric-car credit as long as they are also road worthy. These qualifying golf carts are essentially the same as normal golf carts save for adding some safety features, such as side and rearview mirrors and three-point seat belts. They typically can go 15 to 25 miles per hour.

In South Carolina, sales of these carts have been soaring as dealerships alert customers to Uncle Sam's giveaway. "The Golf Cart Man" in the Villages of Lady Lake, Florida is running a banner online ad that declares: "GET A FREE GOLF CART. Or make $2,000 doing absolutely nothing!"

Golf Cart Man is referring to his offer in which you can buy the cart for $8,000, get a $5,300 tax credit off your 2009 income tax, lease it back for $100 a month for 27 months, at which point Golf Cart Man will buy back the cart for $2,000. "This means you own a free Golf Cart or made $2,000 cash doing absolutely nothing!!!" You can't blame a guy for exploiting loopholes that Congress offers.

The IRS has also ruled that there's no limit to how many electric cars an individual can buy, so some enterprising profiteers are stocking up on multiple carts while the federal credit lasts, in order to resell them at a profit later. We should note that some states, such as Oklahoma, have caught on to the giveaway and are debating whether to cancel or limit their state credits. But in Congress they're still on the driving range.

Remember, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. When politicians dole out tax credits and other subsidies for their pet projects (green or otherwise), you end up paying for them in the form of higher taxes on other things -- like work and investment -- and a loss of purchasing power of your currency.

Got Perfect Credit? It'll Cost Ya...

Let's see....banks get money from taxpayers to save their sorry behinds..check...

Now what do banks do to forthright customers who have perfect credit? They charge them for it!!

The banks are starting to charge fees to reliable customers in response to a slew of new credit card industry regulations that will limit when banks can hike interest rates. Cardholders who get a new annual fee notice in the mail will be in a no-win situation.

"They can either pay that fee or they can close the account, and if they have had the account for a while and they close it, they are potentially going to hurt their credit card score," said Woolsey.

FDIC Friday Returns!

FDIC Shuts Down 7 more banks in one day!

While banks and thrifts are now well along in the process of loss recognition and balance sheet repair, the process will continue well into next year, especially for commercial real estate," FDIC chief Sheila Bair told Congress last week.

As a result, she said, the number of problem institutions increased significantly, to more than 400 during the second quarter.

Now, with unemployment near 10% and credit card default rates about the same, prime mortgage delinquencies are rising, stoking worries among the nation's banks that despite rising stock markets, fundamental banking industry health remains elusive.

The End of Capitalism??

An excellent read...some confirming suspicions on why capitalism may be long in the tooth.

15 more clues capitalism lost its soul ... is a disaster waiting to happen

Much more evidence litters the battlefield:

1. Wall Street wealth now calls the shots in Congress, the White House

2. America's top 1% own more than 90% of America's wealth

3. The average worker's income has declined in three decades while CEO compensation exploded over ten times

4. The Fed is now the 'fourth branch of government' operating autonomously, secretly printing money at will

5. Since Goldman and Morgan became bank holding companies, all banks are back gambling with taxpayer bailout money plus retail customer deposits

6. Bill Gross warns of a "new normal" with slow growth, low earnings and stock prices

7. While the White House's chief economist retorts with hype of a recovery unimpeded by the "new normal"

8. Wall Street's high-frequency junkies make billions trading zombie stocks like AIG, FNMA, FMAC that have no fundamental value beyond a Treasury guarantee

9. 401(k)s have lost 26.7% of their value in the past decade

10. Oil and energy costs will skyrocket

11. Foreign nations and sovereign funds have started dumping dollars, signaling the end of the dollar as the world's reserve currency

12. In two years federal debt exploded from $11.2 to $23.7 trillion

13. New financial reforms will do little to prevent the next meltdown

14. The "forever war" between Western and Islamic fundamentalists will widen

15. As will environmental threats and unfunded entitlements