If there’s one thing Americans can be relied upon to do, it’s buying stuff they don’t need with money they don’t have. Retail has been on a non-stop tear ever since March. Kind of sad. Kind of shocking.
Relentless Retail
Slope of Hope Blog Posts
Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.
Melting Metal
My recent obsession with precious metals has been getting some ribbing, but that’s OK. I think there’s no market more important to spelling out our financial future, and as I’ve said repeatedly, it’s the one asset whose ascent I applaud.
Paradoxically, I am quite pleased to see gold finally start to take a tumble.
Sequel on the Way?
Note from Tim: In the pandemonium that ensues after someting as big as the jobs report, it’s best to just let both sides duke it out a while and let the opening bell ring before trying to draw any conclusions about the reactions to the ostensibly good report. So, in the meanwhile……..
Cinemark was blasted to smithereens during the all-too-brief wipeout earlier this earlier………..
Probably My Favorite
Destruction of a Billionaire (3 of 4)
Preface to all four parts: with all the focus on precious metals lately, I wanted to share a chapter from my Panic Prosperity and Progress book about a germane period in financial history related to the Hunts and their attempt to corner the silver market. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here.
Officials from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the two exchanges had a meeting with the Hunts to ask about their intentions and to see if, at the lofty prices silver had achieved, they might be interested in being net sellers instead of buyers of the metal. After all, the profits they had achieved were already sensational. The Hunts told them they had no interest in selling, not only because they didn’t want to deal with the substantial taxes such profit-taking would incur, but also because they actually did want to permanently retain as much silver as they could acquire.
Taking delivery of the commodity promised in silver contracts was certainly not illegal; far from it, because even if the vast majority of traders never took delivery, the fact the Hunts were choosing to pay cash for the product represented by the paper contracts was, of course, wholly appropriate.
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