Results for Global Economy
Eurozone Announces Greece Rescue Plan To Encourage Investor Confidence
Eurozone countries yesterday (Monday) drew up a rescue plan to safeguard the euro in case Greece defaults on its debt in the hopes of stabilizing its currency.
Broadcasting the fact that Greece’s euro partners have drawn up an emergency loan strategy is meant to steady the bond markets and give investors confidence in Greece’s ability to pull out of its debt crisis, analysts said. The decision also pressures Greece to rely on its own measures for resolution.
"The objective would not be to provide financing at average Eurozone interest rates, but to safeguard financial stability in the euro area as a whole," the European finance ministers said in a statement.
Germany: The “Must-Invest” Economy
If you’re a U.S. investor, you can’t be happy about the prospects for your portfolio. After all, you’re mostly trapped in an economy with a gigantic and dangerous financial-services sector, a central bank that can’t stop itself from printing money and a government that overspends wildly.
But there is an answer: You should consider allocating some of that "at-risk" capital to a country that has none of those problems – Germany.
Germany has a banking system, of course, but that banking system is not the overgrown financial-services monster that we have here in the United States (or, for that matter, in Great Britain). It’s impossible to get a subprime mortgage in Germany: Even now – and even after mortgage levels have crept up in recent years – the average down payment for the purchase of a new home in this key Eurozone nation is 50%. As a result, the homeownership rate in Germany is only 43%, the lowest rate in the European Union.
That’s actually healthy; far less of Germany’s capital is tied up in unproductive housing and the savings rate is correspondingly higher. (Let’s face it, most Americans don’t accumulate 50% of the cost of a house in savings over their lifetimes – unless forced to do so in a company pension scheme).
How to Profit From the “Fertilizer Wars”
There’s nothing like scarcity and supply disruptions to fuel violent price spikes. And there’s nothing like the basic human needs for food and water to light that fuse.
Today’s world food supplies run on razor-thin inventories.
While the food riots of 2008 have all but disappeared from our short-term memories, the threat of them returning grows stronger with every passing day.
According to the World Bank, food prices increased 83% between February 2005 and February 2008. In April 2008, when the United Nation’s World Food Programme warned that a “silent tsunami” of hunger was sweeping the globe because of soaring food prices, it was more than just a clever sound bite tossed off by a bureaucrat: It was a warning that the world’s poor were being squeezed as increasingly higher portions of their family incomes were being spent on the food they required for their very survival.
Improved fertilizers will be a key to the solution of this problem. And they won’t just promote crop growth – savvy investors who fertilize their portfolios will be pleased with their profit harvest.
Let me explain …
To discover how to profit from zooming fertilizer prices, please read on….
Brazil’s Stock Market is Heating Up at Just the Right Time
With risk mounting in other places around the world, Brazil’s stock market is heating up at just the right time. The country’s benchmark Bovespa Index has risen for four straight days since hitting its cheapest level since May last week.
What’s more is that Brazil’s stocks are poised to surge even further as its economy storms back from recession and investment firms rush to cash in on the country’s upside.
“The investment environment is probably the best in 20 years,” Geoffrey David Cleaver, who manages a $500 million private equity infrastructure fund at the Sao Paulo unit of Banco Santander SA (NYSE ADR: STD), said last week at an event in New York.
How to Profit from the Next Spike in Oil Prices
Earlier this week, British company Desire PLC (Pink Sheets: DSPMF) began drilling in an offshore block of the Falkland Islands. Immediately, Argentina President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner let loose with a howl of rage, and the Summit of Latin American and Caribbean Unity issued a protest against the British company’s drilling operations.
Argentina’s claim to the Falklands had remained dormant since the war 28 years ago, yet the moment the drill bit touched seabed the years rolled away. This showed yet again that oil remains salient to international politics and the world economy in a way shared by no other commodity. So how should investors play it?
For the best ways to profit from rising oil prices, read on…
How “Hot Money” is Wrecking the U.S. Banking System…
[Editor's Note: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. insurance fund that protects your deposits is $20.9 billion in the red. One of every 11 U.S. banks is in trouble. And it's going to get worse. Neither the FDIC, the Federal Reserve nor the Treasury Department will 'fess up that what's fueling bank failures is a risky form of funding called "brokered deposits." Industry insiders refer to them as "hot money." Credit-crisis expert Shah Gilani spent months investigating the often-murky world of hot money. This story is excerpted from an in-depth report, which readers can access by clicking here.]
When the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) released its list of “problem banks” this week, 702 institutions holding $402.8 billion in assets were found to be in trouble.
That’s the longest list in 17 years, and it’s only going to get worse. In fact, regulators are expecting the number of troubled lenders to grow at an accelerating rate this year. They claim that an uptick in commercial-real-estate losses will serve as the key culprit
But the real culprit – the one that regulators won’t talk about publicly – is the funding scheme banks employ to load themselves up on speculative loans. T his scheme – far removed from most investor radar screens – has played a major role in the banking sector’s growing woes, and will continue to contribute heavily to bank failures in years to come.
- The centerpiece to this risky strategy is a funding vehicle known officially as a “brokered deposit.” However, due to the narcotic-like effects brokered deposits can have on a bank’s balance sheet, industry insiders have adopted a more-appropriate moniker – referring to them as “hot money.”
To discover more about the risks posed by “hot money,” read on…
Credit Default Swaps Strike Again – This Time Driving Greece to the Brink of Default
Credit default swaps (CDS) gained infamy in the early stages of the financial crisis as the murky derivatives that helped drive the likes of Lehman Bros and Bear Stearns into bankruptcy.
Now, they’re back, inspiring panic in the bond market and making it harder for Greece to borrow money. Already struggling to rein in its out-of-control deficit, credit default swaps could be enough to push the debt-ridden nation into default.
Credit default swaps are credit derivative contracts that let banks and hedge funds place bets on whether or not a company, or in this case a country, will default. The CDS buyer makes periodic payments to the seller, and in return receives a payoff if the underlying financial instrument defaults.
Billonaire Investor George Soros Questions the Euro’s Future
In an editorial penned for the Financial Times, billionaire investing icon George Soros said that while Greece could be salvaged by a makeshift financial-rescue package, bigger problems lie ahead for the euro.
According to weekend news reports, Germany’s finance ministry has sketched out a plan under which countries using the euro currency will provide between $27 billion and $33.7 billion (20 billion and 25 billion euros) in aid for Greece, which is teetering on the brink of default.
Soros says that "a makeshift assistance should be enough for Greece," but warns that the growing threats posed by other debt-laden, euro-member countries – particularly Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland – could prove overwhelming.
Saudi Arabia Shifts its Focus to China as the United States Falls Out of Favor
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer, last year shipped more oil to China than it did the United States for the first time ever – a shift that highlights China’s ascension to the ranks of the world’s economic elite, as well as its position as the new focal point for the world’s energy producers.
The flow of oil from Saudi Arabia to China rose to more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) last year, just as demand in the United States fell below that level for the first time in more than two decades.
China in December alone imported a record-high 1.2 million bpd of Saudi oil, as its economy rode the momentum of Beijing’s $585 billion (2 trillion yuan) stimulus package. U.S. imports of Saudi oil, on the other hand, fell to a 22-year low of 998,000 bpd in the first 11 months of 2009, as the world’s largest oil consumer clawed its way back from its worst recession in 70 years.
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