Day: June 25, 2007


The Bear Stearns Bears–The Near Collapse of Two Real Estate Hedge Funds Sends Economic Shock Waves Around the World

Last week’s big economic news was that two Bear Stearns hedge funds worth $20 billion are teetering near collapse. These two Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) funds–ironically named the “Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund” and the “High Grade Structured Credit Strategies Fund”–are in trouble because of their heavy exposure to sub-prime mortgages. A well-publicized rescue plan involving Merrill Lynch fell apart. At one point Merrill Lynch–one of Bear’s credit backers–said that they planned to seize about $850 million worth of collateral assets from Bear Stearns and sell them on the open market. Reuters reported Bear Stearns injected …


Two Letters Re: U.S. Treasury Bonds

James Wesley: I recently inherited several U.S. Savings Bonds, Series EE. Do you recommend that I keep them, or cash them in so I can get better prepared? (We only have about two months of storage food here at our house.) How do I find out if the bonds are still earning interest, and what they are currently worth? Thank you, – C.C. JWR Replies: You are right about recognizing priorities. You can’t eat bonds. If the bonds have fully matured, then by all means cash them in. You can check of the status of most bonds at the Treasury …


Letter Re: Record Keeping for TEOTWAWKI

Mr. Rawles, Many have written on this topic and many more have mused on it. Some have even written on what I thought about, but revisiting topics and ideas allows for fresh perspective and ideas to surface and breath. 1. How Many People? – Does it take a Village?: ‘Billary’ references aside, what is the ideal size for a group of people after the Schumer hits? So many people really buy into the image of the rugged, self sufficient individual. However, if we isolate ourselves, does not that make us easier targets in the long run? Small numbers of people …


Odds ‘n Sods:

The UN does it again: Remember when the UN appointed Libya to head their Human Rights Commission? That was ironic. The latest outrage is that the UN has just appointed Zimbabwe to head the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. Is this some kind of cruel joke? The economic masterminds of Zimbabwe have absolutely wrecked the nation’s once-thriving economy. Basic commodities are chronically in short supply. Commerce and agriculture are in shambles, verging on total collapse. They have turned a major food exporter–once “the breadbasket of Africa””–into a food importer, with hundreds of thousands of their citizens malnourished, and thousands now …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“What are the marks of a sick culture? It is a bad sign when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the country and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a religion. Or a language. Anything, as long as it isn’t the whole population. A very bad sign. Particularism. It was once considered a Spanish vice but any country can fall sick with it. Dominance of males over females seems to be one of the symptoms. Before a revolution can take place, the population must lose faith in both the police and the courts. High …