[Anhil8tor]

Several months ago I recommended a book titled "The Trillion Dollar Meltdown" which predicted the present economic crisis. Today I recommend another great book on this subject: "Bad Money" - Kevin Phillips. This is a matter that will affect us all so for the next few weeks I will offer quotes from these books.

Gresham's Law...a general law or principle concerning the circulation of money...(named) after Sir THomas Gresham, who clearly perceived its truth three centuries ago. This law, briefly expressed, is that bad money drives out good money, but that good money cannot drive out bad money.

~W.S. Jevons, 19th century economist

In a global free market, there is a variation on Gresham's Law: bad capitalism tends to drive out good.

~Prefessor John Gray, False Down 1998

The most worrisome thing about the vulnerability of the U.S. economy circa 2008 is the extent of official understatement and misstatement - the preference for minimizing how many problems there are and how interconnected they are.

~ Kevin Phillips, Bad Money

[Anhil8tor]

The "crack cocaine" of our generation appears to be debt. We just can't seem to get enough of it. And, every time the U.S. consumer may be approaching his maximum tolerance level, someone figures out how to lever on even more debt using some new and more complex financing. For years I have watched this leveraging up process, often noting that it was taking an ever increasing amount of debt to produce a dollars worth of GDP growth.

~ Jeff Saut, chief investment strategist
Raymond James & Associates, Sept. 2007

[Ntype]

virtual money
real insanity

[snarg]

special for gator
read this cause your stupit:

Then again, even if you've come into money, chances are you do not need a financial adviser. Follow this non-secret strategy that turns on buy-and-hold -- buy-and-hold being the strategy endorsed by Warren Buffett. Place $100,000, the maximum federally insured amount, into a CD, to have some money that will always be secure; max out whatever retirement instrument you qualify for; ignore gold, art and similar investments that are volatile; ignore commodities options, short selling, derivatives and similar complex investments that often trip up even specialists; ignore anything that's "securitized" (assets packaged into securities, there is no chance you can evaluate the underlying assets); buy real estate or real property only if your plan is to hold it for many years; place the remainder of your funds in a plain-vanilla 60-40 Standard & Poor's index fund (one that invests 60 percent in blue chip stocks, 40 percent in corporate bonds and Treasury bills); buy that fund from any reputable investment firm open to the public; let the money in the 60/40 fund simply sit there, regardless of what's happening in the markets. For goodness sake, don't make frequent stock trades trying to "beat the market" -- studies show that only about a third of investors and brokers who actively pick stocks do better than simply buying and holding the Standard & Poor's. For goodness sake, hang up on anyone promising "confidential tax avoidance strategies" or "a once in a lifetime opportunity." For goodness sake, never deal with any funds or money managers who say they use "secrets" or have "exclusive information." For goodness sake, don't purchase real estate, or any form of real property, thinking you will "flip" it. For goodness sake, don't panic and sell just because the market is falling. If the market is falling, do nothing -- at some point the market will rise. A few years ago, Buffett had his brokers calculate how Berkshire Hathaway would have done had the company not made a single stock trade all year, and merely held its positions. The answer was the company would have come out ahead. This paragraph contains all the investment advice most people will ever need.

[who]

special for gator
read this cause your stupit:

Then again, even if you've come into money, chances are you do not need a financial adviser. Follow this non-secret strategy that turns on buy-and-hold -- buy-and-hold being the strategy endorsed by Warren Buffett. Place $100,000, the maximum federally insured amount, into a CD, to have some money that will always be secure; max out whatever retirement instrument you qualify for; ignore gold, art and similar investments that are volatile; ignore commodities options, short selling, derivatives and similar complex investments that often trip up even specialists; ignore anything that's "securitized" (assets packaged into securities, there is no chance you can evaluate the underlying assets); buy real estate or real property only if your plan is to hold it for many years; place the remainder of your funds in a plain-vanilla 60-40 Standard & Poor's index fund (one that invests 60 percent in blue chip stocks, 40 percent in corporate bonds and Treasury bills); buy that fund from any reputable investment firm open to the public; let the money in the 60/40 fund simply sit there, regardless of what's happening in the markets. For goodness sake, don't make frequent stock trades trying to "beat the market" -- studies show that only about a third of investors and brokers who actively pick stocks do better than simply buying and holding the Standard & Poor's. For goodness sake, hang up on anyone promising "confidential tax avoidance strategies" or "a once in a lifetime opportunity." For goodness sake, never deal with any funds or money managers who say they use "secrets" or have "exclusive information." For goodness sake, don't purchase real estate, or any form of real property, thinking you will "flip" it. For goodness sake, don't panic and sell just because the market is falling. If the market is falling, do nothing -- at some point the market will rise. A few years ago, Buffett had his brokers calculate how Berkshire Hathaway would have done had the company not made a single stock trade all year, and merely held its positions. The answer was the company would have come out ahead. This paragraph contains all the investment advice most people will ever need.

So true

[Anhil8tor]

thanks snarg...

s'actly what I'm doing. I haven't sold a stock except to pay for my jamacia trip 3 years ago