-- Posted Sunday, 25 February 2007 | Digg This Article
| Source: GoldSeek.com
Rick's Picks
Monday, February 26, 2007
"Phenomenally accurate forecasts"
When a deflationary collapse finally comes, we shouldn't expect it to bring a flood of money-making opportunities, since it will not be the dot-com boom in reverse. There will be no instant billionaires unloading insider shares for 10,000 times what they paid for them. Students just out of college will not be jettisoning $60,000 jobs for a shot at "real" money. Rank-and-file tech-firm workers will not be making plans to retire in their thirties to a life of exotic cruises, photo safaris and lucrative consulting jobs. And their spouses will not be tasked with calculating just how much kitchen-remodeling $150,000 will buy.
More likely is that it will prove to be the most difficult of times even for financial geniuses, who could find themselves challenged to hold onto a fraction of their current net worth. Will the "smart money" shun distressed assets, recalling that even supposed blue-chip properties still had a long way to fall years after the 1929 Crash?
Some Will Flourish
And yet, we know that among the economic survivors, there are certain to be a few who will not merely prosper but who will flourish. This point was driven home to me on Friday when I took my sons to an antique auto exhibit in San Francisco that contained some of the most jaw-droppingly ostentatious cars ever produced in the U.S.: the Packards, Pierce-Arrows, Marmons, Cords and Cadillacs that continued to roll off U.S. assembly lines even at the nadir of the Great Depression.
The exhibit is owned by the San Francisco Academy of Art and is closed to the public, so we gawked through showroom windows on Van Ness Avenue. Speaking as a car buff, I have never before seen a more magnificent collection of beautifully detailed, lustrously restored, automotive rarities than this one. If Jay Gatsby had been a car collector, the specimens on display here would have filled him with envy.
One cannot help but wonder who could have afforded these rolling salons in the depths of the Great Depression. That there will always be buyers for such luxuries even in the worst of times seems likely. But we can scarcely imagine who those buyers will be, or the financial strategies that will have left their investment portfolios intact, the next time the U.S. economy finds itself in such extreme distress.
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Mumbai Seminar
Mumbai!? I just wanted to see if you were paying attention. In fact, I've received numerous requests to offer a Hidden Pivot seminar in Boca Raton, Florida, though not in India, and will do so if there is sufficient interest. Please let me know if you would be seriously interested in attending a Florida class. The two-day session would be held sometime in the Spring of 2007. To get on my mailing list, drop me an e-mail, including your contact information. The cost would be $1,500 USD.
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Information and commentary contained herein comes from sources believed to be reliable, but this cannot be guaranteed. Past performance should not be construed as an indicator of future results, so let the buyer beware. Rick's Picks does not provide investment advice to individuals, nor act as an investment advisor, nor individually advocate the purchase or sale of any security or investment. From time to time, its editor may hold positions in i ssues referred to in this service, and he may alter or augment them at any time. Investments recommended herein should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor, and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company. Rick's Picks reserves the right to use e-mail endorsements and/or profit claims from its subscribers for marketing purposes. All names will be kept anonymous and only subscribers' initials will be used unless expre ss written permission has been granted to the contrary. All Contents © 2006, Rick Ackerman. All Rights Reserved. www.rickackerman.com
-- Posted Sunday, 25 February 2007 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com
