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Subject: George Eastman
Smooth sailing unlikely

Inefficient market portends bumpy recovery

Inefficient markets have consequences that may be prickly for incautious investors.

Markets can be inefficient for different reasons and persist for long periods. The transition between one type of inefficient market to the next is usually a period of strife and uncertainty which may last five to fifteen years. Looking back at how the economy emerged from previous transitions, I note that in each new period, equity prices started at reasonable levels. This was true at the beginning of the Roaring Twenties, the Post WW II Period, and the Reagan Era. It is as if markets, recognizing prior inefficiencies ‘reset’ and start over. However, for the current market to ‘reset’, it will be necessary for equity prices to fall considerably, which will have dire consequences.

What would Adam Smith say?

Soviet-style capitalism on Wall Street

Casino at Monte Carlo: Economic Game Theory and Monte Carlo Methods were based on the presumption that players would have some skin in the game

Most corporate executives of giant companies today are, in actuality, mere employees (‘workers’ in communist jargon) and are not capitalists or entrepreneurs at all.

Their extraordinary remuneration schemes are provided without executives having employed or having risked any of their own capital and is often paid, even as a corporation slides into bankruptcy.

Adam Smith recognized self-interest as a useful trait, but one that should not be allowed to override the nobler virtues.

Featured articles on inside pages

Stock buybacks

The Stock Buyback Era evaluated

The buyback era began when the SEC allowed issuers to manipulate prices to give value to executive options. Stock buybacks since 1982, in 2008 dollars, total $5.77 trillion. More ...

Securities Analysis

Crowd sourcing investment research

Free, easily available investment information is largely unexploited. This is because there is too much of it. Information, to be useful, must be processed. This processing has a time cost. This article describes how new technology allows securities research to evolve beyond the industrial techniques of the 20th century.
More ...

US Politics

President Obama and the Lincoln Bible

The Crash of 2008 put Barack Obama in the Oval Office and was the culmination of two secular financial trends. Americans now have an untested, inexperienced leader, with strange radical friends and a leftist deficit spending agenda. More ...

US equities

GAO pooh-poohs a Boomer bust

In 2006, the GAO issued a report saying that the retirement of the Baby Boomers should not have a negative effect on stock prices. This article reviews the GAO reasoning and concludes that the conclusion is not credible. More ...

US Bonds

Bond demand exceeds supply for a decade

Over the decade, 1995-2004, the demand for US bonds of all types has surpassed new bond issues in eight of the last ten years. This is the reason that bond prices have held firm, even in 2003, when net new issues reached almost $1.8 trillion. More ...

World Economy

Signs of US losing its groove?

Thirty years ago, US income from abroad was more than double the amount of income that the US paid to the rest of the world. This year, or the next, this foreign income surplus may disappear forever. Is the US 'losing its groove'? More ...

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2010-08-13 13:08