Day: July 27, 2008

Note from JWR:

By now, most of you have read read that following the spectacular failure of IndyMac Bank, two (effectively, three) more US banks have failed. Clearly, the dominoes are staring to fall, just as I presaged. The pace at which the wave of bank failures continues is difficult to predict. It depends on a lot of things including public sentiment, which is largely influenced by mass media spin. This could get very ugly, very quickly, so be ready. If you didn’t take my advice months ago, I most strongly suggest that you set aside a reserve of two months worth of …


Letter Re: Australian Bank Move Exposes the Magnitude of the Global Credit Collapse

James, This afternoon, The National Australia Bank (biggest in Australia, by assets) let the cat out of the bag: They have decided to just fess up and mark down every US mortgage CDO, SIV, and so forth in their portfolio by 90%. What that means is they are coming flat out and saying that all this re-bundled, repackaged, looks like a bond but it ain’t, US real estate paper that was being carried “Off Balance Sheet” and gumming up the works in banks around the world is worthless and they are making it official. (The loans that they represent will …


Letter Re: Advice for a Concerned Investor

Greetings, Jim, I looked at your research list under “Investing”. I have read much of it, and it doesn’t help me in my immediate concern. The sites on this list are good either for big-time or experienced investors, or they deal with specifics such as buying gold. Where can I get overall, what-to-do-immediately-today, type of advice for the small guy. Say someone has one or two small businesses with maybe $20,000 in checking and another $2,000 in Savings (all in a bank). What to do? Where to keep the money? Is offshore a possibility? Recommended? Anyplace where I can still …


Odds ‘n Sods:

OSOM mentioned some advice that will be familiar to SurvivalBlog Blog readers, from the Von Mises Institute, in an audio clip: What To Do in the Depression .   o o o Thanks to KAF for sending this: Five Tick Diseases You Should Know About    o o o Cheryl N. flagged this: Investors Question Financial Sector Rebound. Here is a key quote: “…and several regional banks also posted losses Tuesday or said their profits fell.” But the author neglected to name those banks. Cheryl also found this gem: Death Spiral Financing at Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, WaMu…    o o o …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“He created all men to be equal, and endowed them with ‘certain unalienable rights,’ among them ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ These words, in our Declaration of Independence, also convey the absolute conviction that without God and collective faith in His provision, human beings have no claim to this unprecedented freedom – that they might dream of it, long for it, try to accomplish some of it, but with no authority for it whatsoever.” – Pat Boone