Too bad you missed the free ride on equities, not very often in your life do you get given free money, and lots of it.
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Too bad you missed the free ride on equities, not very often in your life do you get given free money, and lots of it.
No such thing as a free ride--the price is the chance you take--
Reuters) - BRICS members China and Brazil agreed on Tuesday to trade in their own currencies the equivalent of up to $30 billion per year, moving to take almost half of their trade exchanges out of the U.S. dollar zone.
The agreement, due to last three years and signed hours before the start of a BRICS summit in Durban, South Africa, marked a step by the two largest economies of the emerging powers group to make real changes to global trade flows long dominated by the United States and Europe.
"Our interest is not to establish new relations with China, but to expand relations to be used in the case of turbulence in financial markets," Brazilian Central Bank Governor Alexandre Tombini told reporters after the signing.
Trade between the two countries totalled around $75 billion in 2012. Brazilian officials have said they hope to have the trade and currency deal operating in the second half of 2013.
At the summit in Durban, the fifth held by the group since 2009, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are widely expected to endorse plans to create a joint foreign exchange reserves pool and an infrastructure bank. They are also due to discuss trade and investment relations with Africa. (Reporting by Agnieszka Flak and Marina Lopes; Editing by Jon Herskovitz and Pascal Fletcher)
BUSINESS
The latest comment from Adam Hewison of INO. Overnight, the US$ and Gold both strengthened.Quote:
The Banks in Cyprus Reopen Tomorrow … Now That's a Scary Thought
No matter how the banks reopen tomorrow, it's not going to be pretty. We are expecting to see chaos, fighting, arrests and the media, broadcasting to the world how crowds react when they lose most, if not all, of their money. If you haven't yet read "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds," I highly recommend it. It is a history of popular folly by Scottish journalist, Charles Mackay, first published in 1841.
Messing with peoples' hard earned savings and attacking people who are wealthy will definitely make them move their money out of the country. The question is, where does this money go to? Asia? Under the mattress? Into gold? Or come here to the States to buy solid US companies? At the moment no one knows for sure, but we do know there could be some amazing trading opportunities.
We discussed how important perception and confidence is for the markets. Unfortunately for Europe, there is no President Roosevelt to make assurances like he did in the 30s. Mario Draghi was perhaps the one person who seemed to make sense, but now that he has slipped out of the picture, everybody else seems to be bit players in this ongoing Greek tragedy. Once Europe sees what is happening, I suspect they will all begin to lose confidence in the banks and their leaders. When we see that happen, we will see accelerated downward pressure on the European banks. It would appear to this observer that the politicians may have finally run out of road to kick the can down.
The Euro Falls Below 1.28
We discussed the trouble the Euro is in and today it fell below the psychological 1.28 level. We are expecting the other shoe to drop tomorrow, with the potential run on the banks in Cyprus. We would not rule out the possibility of further weakness in this market, as the contagion from Cyprus stretches out and infects the rest of Europe. The fall out could be far greater than anyone is anticipating. Yes, I understand it's a small country and yes, I understand it is only .5% of the EU, but what is bigger than all of this is the psychological impact this tiny island country could potentially have on the world markets. It is my view that this is serious and should not be ignored.
So that brings up the subject[again] of what to do with savings in the bank if you have it.
It would be pretty difficult [and dangerous]to try to get say $400000 out of the bank ,in cash, and store it.
The only other alternative I can think of [besides gold]is Australian or kiwi gov. bonds in the hopes that they would be the last thing to fail.
Dont want to be putting the horse in front of the cart,but its prudent to have a back up plan--''a dollar saved is a dollar earned''
Any other ideas?
If you think things are liable to get that bad:
Pay off the mortgage.
Own Govt. bonds, since they'll be the last to default.
Reduce bank balances to the level of govt. insurance.
Own shares in companies that we always need, utilities, supermarkets etc.
Buy defensive mutual funds.
Own USD.
Here's a bit of press from Cyprus, early in the day, it's about 10.30am there at the moment. The maximum a person can withdraw from each bank is 300Euro a day. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...eopen-security
Yes and there's no rioting, gold and silver are falling, all going according to plan.
That must be disappointing for the goldbugs.
[QUOTE=Skol;399821]If you think things are liable to get that bad:
Pay off the mortgage.
Own Govt. bonds, since they'll be the last to default.
Reduce bank balances to the level of govt. insurance.
Own shares in companies that we always need, utilities, supermarkets etc.
Buy defensive mutual funds.
Own USD.[/QUOTE
Its a back up plan
Its not important whether I think its going to happen
Paid off mortgage[s]-tick
Ready to jump into Kiwi bonds at first sign of real trouble-tick
NZ Govt has scrapped the Gov guarantee on Bank dep. in 2011
All shares will take a hit in a real crash.
Own $US--Many experts agree this could be extremely risky ,esp in the mid to long term[perhaps in the short term people will flock to bonds][do own some,but thats just taking a punt that the kiwi will fall when the next scare comes]
Small percentage of physical gold as insurance-tick