Category: General

Doug Casey's Top Five Reasons Not to Vote

Posted on by The INO.com Team

By Doug Casey, Casey Research

L: Doug, we've spoken about presidents. We have a presidential election coming up in the US – an election that could have significant consequences on our investments. But given the views you've already expressed on the Tea Party movement and anarchy, I'm sure you have different ideas. What do you make of the impending circus, and what should a rational man do?

Doug: Well, a rational man, which is to say, an ethical man, would almost certainly not vote in this election, or in any other – at least above a local level, where you personally know most of both your neighbors and the candidates.

L: Why? Might not an ethical person want to vote the bums out?

Doug: He might feel that way, but he'd better get his emotions under control. I've thought about this. So let me give you at least five reasons why no one should vote.

The first reason is that voting is an unethical act, in and of itself. That's because the state is pure, institutionalized coercion. If you believe that coercion is an improper way for people to relate to one another, then you shouldn't engage in a process that formalizes and guarantees the use of coercion. Continue reading "Doug Casey's Top Five Reasons Not to Vote" →

Natural Gas Has Sex Appeal: Andrew Coleman

Posted on by admin

The Energy Report: In your last interview, you talked about raising price targets on energy sectors and individual stocks with promising reserves and production growth. Is that still your view, or have circumstances changed?

Andrew Coleman: What we're more worried about at this point is that the U.S. economy has been slower to recover than we expected. Meanwhile, the situation in Europe is getting worse and China's growth is slowing. To help us evaluate oil and gas markets in this context, our team here at Raymond James put together a bottom-up supply model looking at the oil shales, which was a follow-up to work the team had done on gas shales a couple of years earlier.

"The forward curve on gas is getting better."

The gas outlook has remained cautious, although not nearly as bearish as it was a couple of years ago. We have, however, become much more nervous on the short-term outlook for oil. We have a $65 per barrel (bbl) forecast for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and an $80/bbl forecast for Brent for 2013. The forward curve on gas is getting better, and certainly 2013 gas is over $4 per thousand cubic feet (mcf) right now. Oil is our big concern and back in June we downgraded virtually every name that we follow in the EP space to the point where we now have no strong buys in our coverage group. Continue reading "Natural Gas Has Sex Appeal: Andrew Coleman" →

Election Time

Posted on by The INO.com Team

By Jeff Thomas, International Man

"Anybody who wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office." - David Broder

"If voting could actually change anything, it would be illegal." - Noam Chomsky

Generally, I tend not to comment on elections, as I consider them to be largely unimportant. That is, regardless of which candidate is elected, the actual outcome tends to be much the same. In most countries, the higher the office being contested, the less real difference there is between the candidates.

First, unlike, say, a beauty pageant, in which the voter may have up to fifty contestants to choose from (as in the US), the governments of the world do all that is in their power to limit the choices to two contestants. Second, the more sophisticated the electoral system, the more likely it is that the two candidates are quite similar in both their level of ability and their apparent sincerity in serving the public who elect them. Third, the more apparent an issue is in the eyes of the voters, the less likely it is that the candidates will actually offer a specific plan to solve it. Continue reading "Election Time" →

October Frightfest: Failure to Break Concrete Ceiling Results in Pullback

Posted on by The INO.com Team

HEALTHY CONSOLIDATION OR DEEPER CORRECTION AHEAD?

The month of October has not been kind to Gold & Silver Bulls as the markets have continued to breakdown, ending a lackluster week with an especially weak close.

The inability or failure to take out the Bears’ Concrete Ceilings of resistance at $1800 Gold and $35 Silver has weighed heavily on the Bulls as this consolidation is wringing out any excessive bullish sentiment from these heavy metals, hard currencies.

Let’s take a quick look at how far (and how fast) these markets have recently fallen off their most recent highs: Continue reading "October Frightfest: Failure to Break Concrete Ceiling Results in Pullback" →

Daily Video Update: Earnings sink the markets and Spain gets downgraded AGAIN!

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Hello traders everywhere! Adam Hewison here, co-founder of MarketClub with your mid-day market update for Tuesday, the 23rd of October.

It is as if the world just woke up from a fantasy dream and they are seeing the markets for the first time through reality glasses.

According to comments made this morning from the Head of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fisher, the "world is close to recession". He just might be right.

You know what I am going to say next…

Using our Trade Triangle technology, not knowing what the head of the Bank of Israel was going to say this morning, you would have missed the current downdraft in the major markets today and yesterday. In fact, you would have been on the sidelines for the past two weeks! Taking a position on the sidelines, is a position in and of itself. With a sidelines position you are protecting your capital from uncertainty which is clearly the concern of many investors today. Continue reading "Daily Video Update: Earnings sink the markets and Spain gets downgraded AGAIN!" →