Doug Casey is an American free-market market economist, financial author and entrepreneur. He has been writing a monthly investment newsletter, the International Speculator since 1979 and I always find his ideas quite refreshing.

I the paragraphs below, he is interviewed by Louis James, editor of the International Speculator.

L: So, Doug, it’s well known that in addition to investing in resource stocks, especially gold juniors, you also have a passion for playing the real estate market. What can you tell us about real estate in today’s world?

Doug: Real estate has been very, very good to me. The reason that’s true is that I buy only things that I like myself. I don’t try to second-guess what other people may want. If you do that, you’re guaranteed to wind up with mediocre stuff that nobody really wants. I have an inclination

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Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) has reported a third quarter loss of 20 cents per share. Results are worse than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 18 cents. The company incurred a loss of 14 cents a year earlier.   Results reflected higher credit costs driven by the continued stress in the commercial, commercial real estate, residential real estate and consumer loan portfolios.   Quarterly results included a pre-tax net benefit of $288 million from the sale of its Visa Inc. (V) Class B common shares and the release of additional Visa litigation reserves due to Visa's supplemental funding of its litigation escrow account. This reduced non-interest expense by $29 million. Earnings were benefited by $317 million or 26 cents by these items.   Credit metrics continued to deteriorate in the quarter. Net charge-offs were 375 basis points (bps) of average loans outstanding, up 67 bps ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 22, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: US Bancorp (USB), Visa Inc. (V), Genzyme Corp (GENZ), Shire plc (SHPGY) and Protalix BioTherapeutics Inc. (PLX).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Wednesday’s AnalystBlog:

US Bancorp Exceeds Estimates

US Bancorp (USB) has reported third quarter earnings of $603 million or 30 cents per share. Results were ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 26 cents, and reflected higher revenue and an increase in fee income.

However, credit losses and nonperforming assets

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The Fed released its Beige Book today, which is a collection of mostly anecdotal information from across the country. Presented below are key sections of the report along with my reactions to them. "Reports from the 12 Federal Reserve Districts indicated either stabilization or modest improvements in many sectors since the last report, albeit often from depressed levels. Leading the more positive sector reports among Districts were residential real estate and manufacturing, both of which continued a pattern of improvement that emerged over the summer. "Reports on consumer spending and nonfinancial services were mixed. Commercial real estate was reported to be one of the weakest sectors, although reports of weakness or moderate decline were frequently noted in other sectors." This sounds better than the last Beige Book, which in turn was more optimistic than the one before it. What seems clear to me is that ...

Below is a wide-ranging interview with Marc Faber on four videos on CNBC TV18 in India in which he explains his views on inflation, currencies, commodities, stocks and more, all courtesy of Edward Harrison at Credit Writedowns.

Asset-based economy. In general, he thinks we are in an inflationary environment, whereas I think deleveraging is secular and means any inflation is only cyclical. But he shares my belief that zero interest rates induce money balances to move into consumption or into higher-yielding assets. He believes this is a boon over the medium term (if not the short or long term) for financial assets, whether they be stocks, bonds, commodities, real estate or art. And it is something that will continue, he says. Faber believes Bernanke will be loath to raise rates aggressively given his prior statements and writings.

Currencies. Faber takes the view, with which I agree, that

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This post is a guest contribution by Dian Chu*, market analyst, trader and author of the Economic Forecasts and Opinions blog.

The S&P has skyrocketed 58% since its bottom in early March, while the Dow is up 50% and the Nasdaq has surged 68% during that time. Meanwhile, bond prices led a rally as rates on the benchmark 10-year note have declined some 40 basis points since early August. This is good news for business: higher bond prices make it easier to refinance debt and stay in business.

Meanwhile, across the country, Main Street investors are weighing whether they should jump back into the market. However, the price correlation between equities and bonds of late has some argue that typically, if equities are trending higher, then bonds would head lower, and yield would be higher, due to concerns of higher inflation. This essentially describes “the

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E*Trade Financial Corp. (ETFC) today completed a previously announced at-the-market common stock offering worth $150 million. The company sold approximately 80.2 million shares at an average price of $1.87 per share. The offering resulted in proceeds of $147 million, net of commissions and offering expenses.

In an at-the-market offering, a company sells shares at market prices over an extended course of time instead of selling all shares straight away at a fixed price. Sandler O'Neill & Partners, acted as sole distributing agent for E*Trade’s offering.

E*Trade is a global financial services company offering a wide range of financial solutions, including investing, trading, lending and cash management services to retail and institutional clients. The firm delivers its retail products and services to 3.4 million clients, primarily online, but increasingly via advisors and branches. E*Trade also offers specialist and market-making services globally to its institutional clients.

E-Trade has been raising

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Housing Numbers: The Truth Behind It All

Ryan Cole, The Investment U Research Team

Continuing our series looking at the truth behind current economic data, today we turn to housing numbers.

Housing has been in the news lately, with a few “green shoots” of news. Most recently, home prices ticked upward last month, even though they’re down compared with a year ago. Many analysts are reading this as a sign that the worst is behind us, and we could be in for a quick recovery.

Don’t be so sure.

We Won’t Foreclose… For Now

First, there’s one important fact that most analysts have forgotten, or at least aren’t revealing.

That is, the six largest lenders – businesses like Citibank, Bank of America, etc – and Fannie and Freddie got together earlier this year and declared a three-month moratorium on foreclosures.

They all agreed,

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The banking unit of Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) has been accused by an Illinois homeowner of illegally reducing the size of customers' home equity lines of credit by undervaluing customers' houses. Home equity lines of credit allow homeowners to borrow against their homes up to specified limits. Home equity lines of credit are similar to credit cards, as in both the facilities customers have a credit limit and can continue to borrow money until the limit has been reached. Once a portion is paid off, it again becomes accessible to borrow. But home equity lines of credit are backed by a borrower's property, whereas credit cards are unsecured. The suit alleges that Wells Fargo of using unreliable computer models that wrongly valued home prices too low to justify cutting the size of customers' loans. Michael Hickman filed the lawsuit seeking class action status for ...

Below are some of the key sections of the Summary of the Fed Beige Book and my reaction to it interspersed. I have also bolded what I consider to be remarks worthy of emphasis in the report. "Reports from the 12 Federal Reserve Districts suggest that economic activity continued to be weak going into the summer, but most Districts indicated that the pace of decline has moderated since the last report or that activity has begun to stabilize, albeit at a low level..." In other words, the economy is no longer falling off a cliff, but it has not started to climb back either. This is consistent with most of the other economic data we have been getting recently. "Most Districts reported sluggish retail activity...Manufacturing activity showed some improvement in the Richmond, Chicago and Kansas City Districts; while St. Louis and Dallas reported some moderation ...