Our nation may be on the cusp of economic catastrophe — call it a panic, a meltdown, an implosion; I don't care what you call it. But it's bad. And it's coming straight at you like a runaway bus. In times of crisis, people naturally gravitate toward gold, because it's the one investment that can hold its value when the fertilizer hits the fan. As for silver, well, any trader will tell you that silver is gold on steroids. When gold jumps, silver can leap twice as far, percentage-wise. And both gold and silver are easier to buy and store than barrels of oil (another good bet in these trying times). I've been recommending oil ETFs like USO and OIL for months now — they've been doing well. Now, I think it's the ...

I've lived through four U.S. recessions, two bouts of surging inflation and at least two close encounters with a Wall Street meltdown. But this is the first time in my lifetime — and probably yours — that all three have converged in one time and place. It's an unprecedented Triple Crisis. And despite repeated Wall Street attempts to deny it — including a new round of cheerleading Friday in response to stronger-than-expected retail sales numbers — the severity of the Triple Crisis is undeniable: We have the worst food and energy price inflation since the early 1980s. We've just seen the worst surge in unemployment in 22 years. And ... Financial institutions continue to book the biggest losses of all time, with more than double the losses yet ...

A couple of great questions came in on the Seeking Alpha version of this morning's post about run-of-the-mill bear markets and I thought it would be useful to post the questions here and how I answered them.Why do you think we won't have a decline similar to what we had in '00-'03, which was a lot more than 30%?Markets cut in half every so often; the great depression, the mid 1970's; the start of this decade and I also know there was a depression in the 1870's but do not know what the market did then, there was also a bank panic in 1907 that lead to a 37% decline that year. If you notice you see the gaps in time ranging from 22 years on up.I believe the reason for this is that the market "can't" cut in half so soon after doing ...

I don't actually know how long is now the time to buy financials has been part and parcel of every interview and while I have been underweight for ages, and still am, there is one aspect to this whole meltdown that we need to keep in mind.An aspect that could be relevant especially if one year or two year performance does not matter.Of the larger financial companies, will there be any that fail as a result of the entire event still unwinding? I believe Bear Stearns market cap topped out in the $20 billion range and if that is correct I would not say it was that large.Obviously some folks think there will be failures and with history as a guide there might be one or two which would not be a lot. Point ...

Credit market turmoils spread all over. I list major 4 major banking cases occurred in Europe due to subprime meltdown.The largest Swiss bank UBS (UBS) writedowns almost 33 bln CHF in last 2 quarters. Shareholders approved capital increase by 15 bln CHF. Already second capital hike after 13 bln CHF from two foreign sovereign wealth funds. Shares price YTD down by 33%.Credit Suisse (CS) faced first quarter losses in last 5 years (1Q 2008 with loss 2,15 bln CHF). For the same quarter in 2007 company made profit 2,7 bln CHF. From the beginning of year shares price fell down by 11% and market capitalization is now 62,6 bln CHF.Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) lost 5,9 bln GBP. In addition to subprime losses bank admits another bad investment decisions. Mainly acquisition of ABN Ambro ...