investment

America’s Housing “Recovery”: Wall St. Buying Homes to Rent Back to Their Former Owners

"The Blackstone group, the biggest player in the new REO to rental market, has spent $2.5 billion in the last year purchasing 16,000 homes, a number that amounts to over $100 million per week. Property records show that many of the homes Blackstone has acquired in Fulton County over the last few months were purchased on the courthouse steps at the monthly foreclosure auction, or through short sales—when a lender agrees to accept less than the amount owed on a loan. The vast majority of these homes are not empty, but occupied by homeowners who fell behind during the great recession." Continue reading →

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Renters to thank for healthier housing market

"Shares of the biggest U.S. builders including Lennar Homes (LEN) and Toll Brothers (TOL) have soared during the past year, but investors appear more excited about renters than a return of homeowners. To date, construction of multi-family units destined for the rental market rose by 150% over the two years ending in the third quarter of 2012. That's by far higher than the 50% rise of newly constructed multi-family homes for sale, and a 30% increase of single-family starts also for sale, according to Capital Economics." Continue reading →

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Japan’s economic minister wants Nikkei to surge 17% to 13,000 by March

"Economic and fiscal policy minister Akira Amari said Saturday the government will step up economic recovery efforts so that the benchmark Nikkei index jumps an additional 17 percent to 13,000 points by the end of March. 'We want to continue taking (new) steps to help stock prices rise' further, Amari stressed, referring to the core policies of the Liberal Democratic Party administration — the promotion of bold monetary easing, fiscal spending and greater private sector investment." Continue reading →

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Doug Casey: Why America Should Default and You Should Live Abroad

"Reason TV's Nick Gillespie sat down with Casey to discuss why America should default on its debt, why he spends most of his time in Argentina these days, and the importance of self-reliance and free-market principles. His new book, Totally Incorrect, is a collection of conversations with Louis James that explore the ways in which government policy and centralized power threaten cultural and economic progress. In a series of engaging and wide-ranging dialogues, Casey and James talk about everything from the Great Depression to drug use to the Roman Empire." Continue reading →

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U.S. gold bars and coins find new home overseas on Asian demand

"Booming demand for gold as a store of wealth among Asian investors is driving physical gold bars and coins out of the United States and into Asia. A growing number of gold vaults for affluent Asians and new precious metals investment products, particularly exchange-traded funds, have led to an exodus of gold owned privately from the United States into emerging economic powers such as China. On Friday, Commerce Department data showed U.S. exports of nonmonetary gold, which excludes central bank transactions, soared by 43 percent to $4 billion in December from the previous month." Continue reading →

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European central banks to shun fresh gold sales limits

"The amount of gold the region's central banks can sell in any given period has been capped by a series of Central Bank Gold Agreements (CBGAs) since 1999, after a spate of disposals by the official sector, including a 395-tonne tonne sale by the Bank of England, shook up the bullion market. Prices are more than five times higher than they were when the first CBGA was signed by 15 central banks, including those of Germany, Italy and France as well as the European Central Bank, in 1999. That limited sales to 400 tonnes of gold per year, for a five-year period. Signatories struggled to stay within those limits." Continue reading →

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Bipolar Silver: How to Profit

"Most precious-metals investors know that silver is more volatile than gold. But do they know just how big that difference really is? We thought it would be interesting to measure how much greater silver's daily moves are – both in gains and declines – than gold. We documented the daily price movements for both metals, and then calculated the difference using absolute values." Continue reading →

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Gold ETFs in India touch 40 tonne (40,000 kilo)

"The government's import restrictions are hurting the populace. The only organisation not worried, as of now, are gold backed exchange traded funds. Worried investors are veering towards the country’s 14 gold exchange traded funds (ETFs), which together have garnered 40,000 kilo of the precious metal. Gold ETFs debuted in India about six years ago. The first gold ETF launched in 2007 by Benchmark Mutual Fund (now Goldman Sachs) was followed by 13 others in quick succession. The 14 mutual fund houses present in this segment are managing gold assets worth nearly $2.2 billion (Rs 120 billion)." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGold ETFs in India touch 40 tonne (40,000 kilo)