This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Jim Jubak (MSN Money): 3-step strategy for a twitchy market, November 19, 2009. Many investors are deeply suspicious of the 60% run-up in stocks this year and are itching to sell. But then what? Here’s how to take some gains now while setting up a profitable 2010.

• Randall Forsyth (Barron’s): Treasury yield plunge sends warning, November 20, 2009. Collapse in note yields suggests economic distress will keep Fed on hold well into 2010 or beyond.

• Gordon Chang (Forbes): When in doubt, blame Bernanke, November 19, 2009. According to Liu Mingkang, China’s chief bank regulator, low American interest rates and the falling dollar have “seriously affected global asset prices, fueled speculation in stock and property markets

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This post provides links to a number of thought-provoking articles I have read over the past few days that you may also find of interest.

• Richard Thaler (Financial Times): Markets can be wrong and the price is not always right, August 4, 2009. The “efficient market hypothesis” has been a fact of life for economists. Among other things, it says that asset prices will fully reflect available information; and that it is hard for any investor to beat the market after taking risk into account. Has the last year changed how it is viewed.

• Eric Uhlfelder (Advisor Perspectives): Paul Krugman on prospects of recovery, August 4, 2009.

• Economist.com: A concrete problem, July 30, 2009. Banks face another round of property-related bad debts: this time it will be flashy offices, not rundown homes.

• Frank Hornig,

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Everything was swell in gold and silver when I went to bed early on Friday morning. I was hoping that when I got up four hours later, that both metals would be much higher in New York trading. They were…until 8:40 a.m…and that was that. From there, gold and silver basically closed on their lows of the day. And for whatever reason, gold was not allowed to close above $940 again. That’s the third day in a row. Silver however, closed above $14 by a magnificent seven cents!

From the start of the trading day on Friday morning in the Far East…and until noon in New York…the dollar lost about 70 basis points. And from the start of precious metals trading in the Far East, gold and silver basically rose as the dollar fell. That relationship ended almost as soon as the New York bullion banks showed up for work.

The lousy

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Everything was swell in gold and silver when I went to bed early on Friday morning. I was hoping that when I got up four hours later, that both metals would be much higher in New York trading. They were…until 8:40 a.m…and that was that. From there, gold and silver basically closed on their lows of the day. And for whatever reason, gold was not allowed to close above $940 again. That’s the third day in a row. Silver however, closed above $14 by a magnificent seven cents!

From the start of the trading day on Friday morning in the Far East…and until noon in New York…the dollar lost about 70 basis points. And from the start of precious metals trading in the Far East, gold and silver basically rose as the dollar fell. That relationship ended almost as soon as the New York bullion banks showed up for work.

The lousy

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What a wonderful time to be alive! Never has it been easier to feel superior to our fellow man! So many dopey ideas…so many preposterous delusions! So many fools…so eager to part ways with their money!

We have to pinch ourselves occasionally…and remind ourselves that it is real.

Yes, after the real estate bubble burst, we thought the fun might be over. But no! In come the feds. As you know, what brought about the housing bubble was a sort of madness that caused people to do the damnedest things with their money. But now, the feds are doing even stranger and crazier things!

Actually, we were happy to see the bubble blow up. Spending more than you make is hardly a formula for wealth-building. All in all, we figured our countrymen would be happier, over the long run, if they started saving their money rather than squandering it. Besides, we liked seeing

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Two months after Hearst announced its intentions to divest or shut down the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Seattle PI is set to become the largest and (arguably) the first newspaper to convert from print to web only delivery. This comes after the Christian Science Monitor announced intentions to cancel daily print editions in favor of a web centric strategy supplemented by weekly print editions. 

While the recession may have sped up this migration, increasing penetration of internet readership and the mainstreaming of news aggregators which pay no production costs has been spelling doom for the traditional newspaper industry for years. Little information is available about Seattle PI’s internet strategy, but this switch does raise some questions. The newspaper has slashed staff from 140 to 20-25.

My guess is that the the new venture will focus on editorial and

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Publishing Industry in Crisis - Business Model Lags Changing Times

The sinking economy is forcing many publishing houses to the life-support of bankruptcy after a long illness. The eight-year deceleration in print advertising, fueled by a secular migration of readers to the Internet, has gone into free fall.

Newspapers have fared far worse than magazines, as web-based news options have proliferated in recent years. Circulation of newspapers fell 2-3% on average each year from 2005 through 2007, and that has accelerated to the mid-single digits in recent months as the economy cratered. Ad revenue is falling between 15-20% or more at many publications. A portion of classified has moved to wider-spread, more targeted, lower-priced or free options, such as ebay or Craigslist, and will not likely return.

In an effort to offset declining print revenue and market share, publishers are scrambling to leverage their brands and build complimentary web-based publications. But the deepening

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Publishing Industry in Crisis - Business Model Lags Changing Times

The sinking economy is forcing many publishing houses to the life-support of bankruptcy after a long illness. The eight-year deceleration in print advertising, fueled by a secular migration of readers to the Internet, has gone into free fall.

Newspapers have fared far worse than magazines, as web-based news options have proliferated in recent years. Circulation of newspapers fell 2-3% on average each year from 2005 through 2007, and that has accelerated to the mid-single digits in recent months as the economy cratered. Ad revenue is falling between 15-20% or more at many publications. A portion of classified has moved to wider-spread, more targeted, lower-priced or free options, such as ebay or Craigslist, and will not likely return.

In an effort to offset declining print revenue and market share, publishers are scrambling to leverage their brands and build complimentary web-based publications. But the

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Print media companies are moving more and more content online. And shedding staff in the process. Lynn Carpenter says investors should stay clear of newspaper stocks.

In the 1980s, a smallish newspaper chain called Gannett went on the warpath. It patched together feeds from dozens of local sources, married it with hot design and created a new national newspaper called USA Today. It was a shocker… color on the front page… graphs, boxed stories…

USA Today became, and still is, the only truly national newspaper in the United States. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal are read coast to coast, but they do very little news coverage outside their cities except for national and world news.

At the same time that Gannett was building USA Today, it began buying even more independent papers in small towns. And wherever Gannett moved in, competitors began to fall as if

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Consumer Confidence at All-Time Low; Home Prices Continue Collapse; OPEC Still Not Satisfied; Whirlpool Circles the Drain; Optimistic Wall Street; Banks Balk on Buyout; Stop the Presses?

* The Conference Board said yesterday (Tuesday) that its consumer confidence index fell to 38 – the lowest level since the Conference Board began tracking consumer sentiment in 1967. The index registered a revised 61.4 in September, which makes this month’s drop the third-steepest drop on record. A year ago, the index stood at 95.2.

* The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index dropped a record 16.6% from August last year – the largest drop since its inception in 2000, The Associated Press reported. Prices in the 20-city index have plummeted more than 20% since peaking in July 2006, the group reported. The 10-city index tumbled 17.7% — the biggest decline in its 21-year history.

* The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said yesterday (Tuesday)

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