This post is a guest contribution by Niels Jensen*, chief executive partner of London-based Absolute Return Partners.

It is not universally appreciated, but the last 25-30 years have, in general, been staggeringly good to most investors. Technology induced productivity enhancements combined with favourable demographic trends, minimal government involvement, accommodating labour unions and the globalisation of international trade have all contributed to a benign inflation environment and strong economic growth, leading to arguably the biggest bull market of all times in both bonds and equities.

So much for the good news. The long lasting tail winds have finally turned around, and we now face, and will most likely continue to face, head winds for years to come. The list is long, but some of the most important factors contributing to this change include:

The demise of the Anglo-Saxon consumer driven growth model:

The Anglo-Saxon consumer is exhausted; he

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PennyOmega.com Stock Report!

PennyOmega.com Hot Stock News & Alerts!

 

Monday August 3, 2009

PennyOmega.com Stock Report!

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Geokinetics Inc. (NYSE Amex: GOK) has scheduled a conference call and webcast on Friday, August 7, 2009, beginning at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time and 10:00 a.m. Central Daylight Time to discuss its second quarter 2009 financial and operational results. The webcast may be accessed online through Geokinetics’ website at www.geokinetics.com in the Investor Relations section. A limited number of telephone lines will also be available to participants ten minutes prior to the start of the webcast by dialing (877) 407- 9210 for domestic or (201) 689-8049 for international.

Avnet Technology Solutions, a solutions distribution leader and an operating

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This post is a guest contribution by Niels Jensen*, chief executive partner of London-based Absolute Return Partners.

As investors we are faced with the consequences of our decisions every single day; however, as my old mentor at Goldman Sachs frequently reminded me, in your life time, you won’t have to get more than a handful of key decisions correct - everything else is just noise. One of those defining moments came about in August 1979 when inflation was out of control and global stock markets were being punished. Paul Volcker was handed the keys to the executive office at the Fed. The rest is history.

Now, fast forward to July 2009 and we (and that includes you, dear reader!) are faced with another one of those “make or break” decisions which will effectively determine returns over the next many years. The

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This post is a guest contribution by Niels Jensen*, chief executive partner of London-based Absolute Return Partners.

Asset bubbles are strange animals. Ideally, you would like to punch the air out of them early before they become a real danger but, in practice, it is not quite so simple. Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan have actually both argued that asset bubbles cannot be detected and monetary policy should therefore not in any way be used to offset suspected bubbles.

I am not sure I agree with the two gentlemen, but that is less relevant for now. What is important to understand is what happens once the asset bubble bursts. In my experience, almost all post-bursting bubbles share two characteristics:

1) At the very least, asset prices revert to the mean, although many actually overshoot on the downside.

2) A long (and often painful) period ensues, where

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This post is a guest contribution by Niels Jensen*, chief executive partner of London-based Absolute Return Partners.

Is the crisis really over? Commercial paper spreads have come down dramatically. Libor rates are (hmm - almost) back to normal. Even high yield spreads are narrowing. It certainly appears as if the credit crisis is well and truly over or, at the very least, the light which most of us think we can see at the end of the tunnel is no longer that of an oncoming freight train.

No wonder equities are currently enjoying one of their best spells ever. And while equities continue to go up and up, most of us are left scratching our heads. Is this the real thing or will it go down in history as ‘just’ another bear market rally? Not so long ago, the entire financial system

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This post is a guest contribution by Niels Jensen*, chief executive partner of London-based Absolute Return Partners.

March was a weird month. Whilst our American friends submerged themselves in a rather ludicrous and altogether unproductive debate on who is to blame for the fact that the ‘crooks’ at AIG nicked a bonus for themselves, on this side of the Atlantic, Gordon Brown, whose political career is now on life support following a number of embarrassing hiccups, has dedicated the last few weeks to making sure that the G20 summit will go down in history as a resounding success. Even the banks, which continue to show little appetite for lending, have found that the last month offered some unexpected relief, as the preparations for the G20 meeting forced Brown and his

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As we stated yesterday, we anticipate that a number of the "Big Banks," such as (but not limited to) Citigroup (C), Wells Fargo (WFC), Bank of America (BAC), JP Morgan (JPM) and US Bancorp (USB) may need to divest a number of non-core or overlap operations in order to preserve capital.To that end, Bank of America announced its intent to sell its First Republic Bank operation, which it acquired through the acquisition of Merrill Lynch. Merrill had acquired First Republic in 2007.First Republic is a private banking and wealth management company (offering personal banking, business banking, trust, brokerage and wealth management services) which specializes in personalized relationship-based services through its preferred banking or trust offices in 10 major metropolitan areas (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Newport Beach, San Diego, Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle, Boston, and New York City). We ...

The Rothschild banking family is one of the oldest and most respect names in the financial world. The family actually financed the Duke of Wellington's victory over Napoleon at Waterloo. The Bank of China announced that it was buying 20% of the Rothschild private banking and asset management business for $336 million. China doesn't have the market corned on premier franchise names, but it is sure buying a lot of them.

Financial NewsJason Corcoran in Moscow and Dawn Cowie21 July 2008 Russian bank Troika Dialog has made hires for its private banking and derivatives sections as it forecasts revenue growth of 35% for its global business in as little as three years.Troika has recruited Renaissance Investment Management’s head of wealth management Alexey Ischenko as part of big push in private banking. Pavel Teplukhin, Troika president and chief executive of its asset management arm, said: “Business is booming. We plan to expand our 20-strong private banking sales team by a factor of 10 within four years.”Troika manages in excess of $10bn (€6.3bn) in institutional, retail and government funds, while rival Russian bank Renaissance manages $6.5bn mainly for high net worth individuals and has recently lost five of its senior fund management executives. Renaissance said it was formulating a strategy to ...