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Most Read Posts (64 articles) – Discover which articles Underground Investor™ readers are most interested in. See the full database, including the most recent articles that may not be listed below,  by clicking the link above.

Sept. 27, 2007 – 101 Reasons Why Managing Your Money is the Quickest Way to Build Wealth
Sept. 25, 2007 – 10 Surefire Ways to Make an Investment Fortune
Sept. 15, 2007 – Why the U.S. Feds 0.50% Rate Cut Won’t Save the Markets
Sept. 15, 2007 – U.S. Interest Rate Cut to Have Little Long-Term Positive Effect
Aug. 20, 2007 – How Much Does the Gov’t Really Manipulate Markets
Aug. 9, 2007 – More Gov’t Foolishness (or Lies) Again: Markets are Sound…NOT!
Aug. 9, 2007 – Chinese Tariffs and the Nuclear Option
Jul. 24, 2007 – How to Invest Like the World’s Greatest Investors
Jun. 17, 2007 – Get Out of Dollar-Denominated Bonds While You Still Can!
May 1, 2007 – Uranium Stocks are Finally Getting the Attention They Deserve
Apr. 23, 2007 – The Emperor’s New Clothes Abound in the Investment Industry. Don’t Get Cheated by Your Advisor
Apr. 20, 2007 – Use Intelligent Strategies to Push Risk Back onto Investment Firms
Apr. 19, 2007 – In Risky Markets, Follow the Behavior of the Ultra-Rich, Not the Rich
Apr. 12, 2007 – The Secret to Investing

Gold Investments (37 articles) - Use traditional rules to invest in gold stocks and you’ll lose money hand over fist with this asset class. Learn more about one of the most important components of every portfolio for future years to come. See the full database, including the most recent articles that may not be listed below, by clicking the above link.

April 23, 2008 – Will U.S. Markets Crash Now or Later?
Feb. 4, 2008 – Could Chinese New Year’s Fuel the Next Rally Higher for Gold Stocks?
Jan. 29, 2008 – Even After This Strong Run, Gold Stocks are Still a Bargain Today. Here’s Why.
Jan. 5, 2008 – A Sneak Peak at Our Premium Level Information
Nov. 4, 2007 – Is Hyperinflation Coming to the U.S.? It’s Time to Stock Up on Gold.
Nov. 4. 2007 – Gold is the Best Investment Today, History Tells Us So.
Nov. 2, 3007 – Gold Expensive at $791/oz.? Not by a Longshot
Jun. 5, 2007 – Learn How NOT to Invest in Gold
Mar. 30, 2007 – Navigate the Minefields of the Investment Information Highway
Mar. 7, 2007 – This Bounce in Gold Markets Merits a Cautious Approach
Mar. 6, 2007 – Gold Stocks Correction – What it Means?
Feb. 28, 2007 – How to Profit from a Weakening Market, Gold Stocks, & More, Part II
Feb. 28, 2007 – Buying Opportunity in Gold Stocks
Feb. 28, 2007 – How to Profit from a Weakening Market, Gold Stocks, & More, Part I
Feb. 23, 2007 – Uncover the Ignored Asset Classes
Feb. 12, 2007 – How Do I Know that Institutional Money is Still Not on Board with Gold?
Jan. 25, 2007 – If You Don’t Own Gold Stocks, You Need To
Jan. 23, 2007 – Building Wealth Requires More than Just Contrarian Investing
Jan. 14, 2007 – Use the Long Tail of Investing to Accurately Predict the Price of Gold
Jan. 11, 2007 – The REAL DEAL about Gold and Energy
Dec. 13, 2007 – Commodities and Asians: Apparently We All Look Alike
Nov. 6, 2006 – Sometimes Silence is Golden
Oct. 10, 2006 – Shock and Awe Awaits Global Markets
Oct. 4, 2006 – Is Gold’s Correction Over Yet?
Oct. 2, 2006 – Fiat Currency Concerns Give Rise to a Gold & Silver Backed Currency System
Oct. 1, 2006 – The Gold Timeline – A History of Gold Prices
Sept. 16, 2006 – Has the Commodities Bubble Burst? No, No, No!
Sept. 13, 2006 – Sell the Rumor, Buy the News
Sept. 11, 2006 – Gold’s Speculative Stigma is Unwarranted
Sept. 3, 2006 – Gold’s Glitter is Genuine
Aug. 14, 2006- Knowing Your History is More Important to Creating Wealth than Fundamental Analysis

Financial Crisis, Dollar Crisis & Recession Proof Investing (30 articles) – Foolish investors’ eyes lit up as New Century Financial dropped from $30 to $20 a share during the recent subprime mortgage fiasco. Their hearts thumped with excitement as shares dropped from $20 to $10 and they doubled down. When shares dropped to $5 they thought it had to be the bottom and put their last remaining money into New Century. A month later, they lost everything. There is similar optimism surrounding the dollar today from self-declared currency experts. Discover why the dollar is much more likely to go the way of New Century than experience a comeback like Muhammad Ali’s Rumble in the Jungle. For the most recent articles, perhaps not listed below, click the above category link.

June 26, 2008 – The One Question That Will Have the Greatest Impact on Your Financial Future
May 14, 2008 – What’s Driving the Price of Oil Higher? It’s the Dollar, Stupid!
April 30, 2008 - How Low Will the Feds Go?
April 17, 2008 – Monetary Inflation. How Increased Paper Wealth Can Translate into a Lower Standard of Living
March 3, 2008 – Why Investors Will Never Make Money in this Bear Market
Feb. 20, 2008 – The Secret to Building Wealth in Volatile Markets
Feb. 6, 2008 – Is Recession in the U.S. Coming? We’re Already in One.
Jan. 28, 2008 – The Outcome of the Fed’s Interest Rate Cuts? History is the Best Oracle.
Jan. 24, 2008 – The Fed’s 0.75% Interest Rate Cut – A Recipe for Future Disaster
Dec. 7, 2007 – The Dollar Panic. Is it Real?
Sept. 19, 2007 – Signs of a Peak Investment Crisis Keep Coming
June 18, 2007 – Alan Greenspan’s Call of Checkmate on China is Premature
June 17, 2007 – PIMCO’s Bill Gross and the Economist Agree with SmartKnowledgeU 6 Months After the Fact!
May 28, 2007 – The Politics of Higher Oil Prices
May 26, 2007 – Asian Countries Pooling Reserves to Protect Themselves from the Incredible Shrinking Dollar, Part II
May 25, 2007 – Asian Countries Pooling Reserves, Part I
May 3, 2007 – The Death of the 3-Year Treasury Note
Apr. 1, 2007 – The Next Cold War Will be an Economic One
Jan. 25, 2007 – Dollar-Denominated Bonds Faltering
Jan. 9, 2007 – Use the Longtail of Investing to Accurately Predict Dollar Behavior
Jan 7, 2007 – 10 Reasons Why Dollar-Denominate Bonds Aren’t Safe
Dec. 21, 2006 – Iran Presents More Trouble for the U.S. Dollar
Dec. 7, 2006 – The U.S. has Perfected the Incredible Shrinking Dollar

Free Stock Picks (24 articles) – While our top-shelf stock picks and ideas that have since returned 100% to 200% returns are reserved for our members only, here read articles about some mid-shelf stock picks and ideas that have already returned 30% returns in less than a year. Access the full database, including the most recent articles that may not be listed below,  by clicking the topic link above.

Jun. 4, 2007 – To Prove the Effectiveness of Our SmartKnowledgeU™ Investment System, Even Our Weakest Picks that We’ve Given Away for FREE Have Soared
Apr. 29, 2007 – After BAIDU, Possibly Focus Media
Apr. 2, 2007 – Profit, Don’t Lose From Market Corrections
Apr. 2, 2007 – Global Warming Presents Easy 30% Gains for Underground Investor Readers
Mar. 13, 2007 – Beware the Perpetual Bulls, Part II
Feb. 18, 2007 – Banking Sector FY 2008 – Positive for Japan & India, Negative for China
Jan. 4, 2007 – Chinese Technology Companies to Watch in 2007
Dec. 19, 2007 – MSFT and Internet Protocol Version 6
Dec. 12, 2006 – It’s Time to Keep a Close Eye on Indian Stocks ICICI & HDFC
Dec. 7, 2006 – The Ocean Becomes a New Growth Point in the World Economy
Oct. 30, 2006 – What’s the Safest Place to Invest in the Oil Industry Now?
Oct. 30, 2006 – You’ll Find Ignored Investment Opportunities in the DRC & Libya
Oct. 23, 2006 – Indian Banks Anyone? Four Letters: HDFC
Oct. 9, 2006 – Don’t Believe the Hype – Avoid Chinese Bank Stocks

The Peak Investment Crisis & Stock Market Crash (57 articles) – Bubbling underneath the surface, there lies a peak investment crisis. When it hits, savvy investors will build a fortune. Unfortunately, most investors will be blindsided and lose great fortunes instead. Access the entire database, including the most recent articles that may not be listed below,  by clicking on the above category link.

Nov. 4, 2007 – Is Hyperinflation Coming to the U.S.? It’s Time to Stock Up on Gold.
Nov. 4. 2007 – Gold is the Best Investment Today, Part II
Oct. 15, 2007 – Our New Forum on Facebook: Crisis Investing
Oct. 9, 2007 – Beware the Turbulence that Lies Beneath the Surface, Part I
Sept. 20, 2007 -The Signs of a Peak Investment Crisis Keep Coming
Sept. 19, 2007 -Why the U.S. Fed’s 0.50% Rate Cut Won’t Save the Markets
Aug. 9, 2007 – More Gov’t Foolishness Again
Jun. 29, 2007 – Don’t Let the Strength of the U.S. Markets in the First Half of 2007 Fool You
Mar. 11, 2007 – It’s the Difference Between Chasing & Building Wealth
Mar. 6, 2007 – What this Correction Means for Gold Stocks
Feb. 28, 2007 – How to Profit From a Weakening Market & Gold Stocks
Sept. 9, 2006 – The Peak Investment Crisis
Aug. 11, 2006 – How to Protect Your Portfolio During Turbulent Markets

A New Investment Paradigm for the 21st Century (11 articles) – Fundamental and Value investing may take years of patience to pay off (i.e. Apple Computers was a huge value stock at $13 a share and took more than four years of waiting to pay off huge), Growth investing often leads to chasing hot sectors that correct rapidly. Discover why changing conditions in today’s global market has created a new investment paradigm that is hands down the best way to invest today. Click the link above to see all articles, including the most recent articles that may not be listed below,  in this category.

Jul. 24, 2007 – How to Invest Like the World’s Greatest Investors
Feb. 25, 2007 – Frontrunning Can Make You a Fortune
Jan. 30, 2007 – The New Paradigm of Successful Investment Strategies
Jan. 21, 2007 – 10 Reasons the Longtail of Investing is the Only Way to Build Wealth
Jan. 16, 2007 – Use the Longtail of Investing to Predict Major Market Events with High Accuracy
Jan. 9, 2007 – Accurately Predict U.S. Dollar Behavior
Sept. 1, 2006 – What Mark Cuban Failed to Realize About Investing

The Biggest Investment Myths (62 articles) – All investment professionals, from investment firms to financial consultants to the financial journal purposely spread tales of lies and deception. Jim Cramer, an investment professional that amassed a fortune as a hedge fund manager, recently stated that the last thing he ever wanted to do is to tell the truth. Find out why deception is part of the game in the investment industry.  Click the category link above to access the full database, including the most recent articles that may not be listed below.

Oct. 25, 2007 – New Home Sales Went Up. So What?
Oct. 15, 2007 – Beware the Turbulence that Lies Beneath the Surface, II
May 6, 2007 – Economic Reports Drive Short-Term Behavior, but Hardly Represent the Truth
Mar. 21, 2007 – The Short-Term May be Rosy, but Beware the Financial Crisis that is Building Steam
Mar. 4, 2007 – Foreign Markets aren’t as Risky as the Pundits Say
Feb. 23, 3007 – Evolve Your Investment Strategies with Evolving Technology
Feb. 6, 2007 – My Problem with Investment Newsletters (except ours, of course!)
Feb. 4, 2007 – 10 Questions to Help You Find a Superior Financial Consultant
Jan. 30, 2007 – A New Paradigm of Successful Investment Strategies
Jan. 25, 2007 – Despite Evidence to the Contrary, Millions of Investors Will Believe Whatever they Want to Believe
Jan. 7, 2007 – 10 Reasons Why Dollar Denominated Bonds Aren’t as Safe as You Think
Jan. 5, 2007 – How Understanding MMA Champions will Make You a Better Investor
Dec. 18, 2006 – The True Determinants of Wealth Have Nothing to do with Asset Allocation
Nov. 12, 2006 – The Greatest Investment Myth Exposed: Why Modern Portfolio Theory WILL NEVER Make You Rich.

Wealth Literacy (88 articles) – Wealth Literacy is the new Financial Literacy. Financial Literacy may teach you to be fiscally responsible but you can still be financially literate and remain poor. Wealth Literacy fills in all the holes of Financial Literacy and teaches you how to build wealth today. Click the category link above to see new articles that may not be listed below.

Oct. 15, 2007 – Our New Facebook Investment Group – Crisis Investing
Oct. 9, 2007 – Beware the Turbulence that Lies Beneath the Surface, I
Apr. 23, 2007 – Beware the Emperor’s New Clothes -Don’t Get Cheated by Your Adviser
Apr. 20, 2007 – Intelligent Investment Strategies Push Risk Off of You & Back onto Investment Firms
Apr. 19, 2007 – In Risky Markets, Follow the Behavior of the Ultra-Rich, Not the Rich
Apr. 17, 2007 – Why Wealth Literacy is More Important than Financial Literacy, Part II
Apr. 15, 2007 – Why Wealth Literacy is More Important than Financial Literacy, Part I
Apr. 13, 2007 – Pop Investing is All the Rage, but it’s a Loser’s Game
Apr. 12, 2007 – The Secret to Investing in 3 Easy Rules
Apr. 10, 2007 – Build Wealth by Answering These 5 Questions
Mar. 30, 2007 - How to Navigate the Minefields of the Investment Information Highway
Mar. 12, 2007 – The Short-Term May be Rosy, But Beware the Financial Crisis that is Building Steam
Mar. 11, 2007 – The Difference Between Chasing Wealth and Building Wealth
Feb 23, 2007 – Uncover the Ignored Asset Classes
Feb. 21, 2007 – Why Traditional Education Stifles Your Ability to Build Wealth
Feb. 15, 2007 – 7 Habits of Highly Effective Investors
Feb. 8, 2007 – 10 Reasons Why a Professional Athlete’s Best Friend Needs to be his Financial Adviser

Politics and Stocks (30 articles) – Think you don’t need to understand politics to be a good investor? Think again. If you don’t understand politics, you’ll never fully understand the most likely future direction of global stock markets, oil, gold, and currency markets. Click the above category link to see the full database of articles, including the most recent articles that may not be listed below.

Apr. 11, 2007 – Building Great Wealth in Stocks Requires Understanding Politics
Apr. 1, 2007 – The Next Cold War will be an Economic One
Apr. 1, 2007 – Possible U.S. Military Intervention in Iran
Mar. 13, 2007 – To Err on the Subject of Chinese Tariffs May Expedite a Shakespearean Tragedy
Dec. 17, 2007 – Do Free Markets and Free Trade Exist?

Oil Crisis (15 articles) – Think oil prices are controlled by supply and demand, futures traders, or Peak Oil Theory? Think again. Discover the true determinants of oil price behavior, primarily dollar devaluation. Click the above category link to see the full database of articles, including the most recent articles that may not be listed below.

May 14, 2009 – What’s Driving the Price of Oil Higher? It’s the Dollar, Stupid!
May 28, 2007 – The Politics of Higher Oil Prices
Nov. 26, 2006 – Does the end of Mid-Term Elections Mean Higher Gas Prices Again?
Nov. 8, 2006 – The Peak Oil Theory was Created by – You Guessed it – Big Oil!
Oct. 30, 2006 – The Safest Place to Invest in the Oil Industry Now? – Oil Refiners, Pipeline Manufacturers, Deep Sea Platform & Drilling Manufacturers, and 4D Imaging Companies
Oct. 30, 2006 – You’ll Find Ignored Investment Opportunities in the DRC and Libya
Oct. 12, 2006 – How Has Prince Bandar bin Sultan Affected Oil Prices in Years Past?

Uranium Investments (3 articles)– The bulk of this information is contained within our members only area, but you’ll find an article or two here. Click the above category link to see the full database of articles, including the most recent articles that may not be listed below.

May 1, 2007 – Uranium Stocks are Finally Getting Some Attention. Better Late than Never.
May 1, 2007 – What Does Uranium Futures Mean for the Future of Uranium Stocks?

Africa Investments (5 articles) – For the more daring investor willing to place small bets for HUGE returns, Africa awaits.

Canada Investments (4 articles) – Articles about Canada and the Canadian stock market and hands down some of the best opportunities in ANY global stock market.

China Investments (21 articles) – Articles about Chinese stocks and the Chinese stock market.

India Investments (4 articles) – Articles about Indian stocks and the Indian stock market.

Japan Investments (4 articles) – Articles about the Japanese economy and stock market.

Russia Investments (1 articles) – Articles about the Russian economy and stock market

U.S. Stocks (25 articles) – Articles about U.S. stocks and the American stock market.

Vietnam Investments (3 article) – Articles about Vietnam and the explosive yet unregulated Vietnamese market.

Investment Psychology (22 articles) – One of the most important but yet most overlooked and ignored aspects of investing is psychology. Discover how an improper mindset can be the difference between huge losses and huge gains in your portfolio. Click the above category link to see the full database of articles, including the most recent articles that may not be listed below.

Feb. 7, 2007 – Investors Should Apply the Rule of Shopping 101 to Buying Stocks
Jan. 3, 2007 – Will the 2006 Year End Rally Continue into 2007?
Dec. 21, 2006 - Perception Can Overrule Reality in Driving Behavior but Reality Will Overrule Perceptions in Driving Outcome
Nov. 30, 2006 – The Recency Effect Hurts Investment Decisions
Nov. 2, 2006- Canadian PM Stephen Harper & Hungarian PM Ferenc Gyurcsany – the More Things Change the More They Stay the Same
Nov. 2, 2006 – Irrational, Not Rational, Behavior Often Drives Markets
Oct. 24, 2006 – The Financial Media are Like Bad Weatherman
Oct. 8, 2006 – The SmartKnowledgeU Reader’s List
Oct. 4, 2006 – Hungarian PM Ferenc Gyurcsany: We LIED Morning, Noon, & Night!
Sept. 26, 2007 – Move Over Harry Potter! The Deceptive Wizardry of Fund Managers
Sept. 17, 2006 – When it Comes to Investing, You Get What You Pay For
Sept. 16, 2006 – Why Do People Believe One of the Dumbest, Most Flawed & Deceptive Measures of Economic Conditions?
Sept. 13, 2006 – Why Book Smarts Won’t Help You Build Wealth
Sept. 10, 2006 – Investment Psychology 101
Aug. 24, 2006 – To Become Wealthy, Abandon Widespread Beliefs About Investing
Aug. 18, 2006 – Following Mainstream Media Will Lead You Down a Disastrous Investment Road
Aug. 3, 2006 – Following Short-Term Fluctuations Will Create Poor Investment Decisions

Options Investing (10 articles) – We don’t discuss options much here but occasionally, if there is a compelling play, we’ll write an article or two.

Water Investing (1 article) – Read articles about investing in water as a commodity as the world’s fresh water supply becomes more scarce.

The Zen of Investing (42 posts) – Read articles from our resident martial arts expert regarding how understanding principles of martial arts can make you a much better investor. A combination of “The Art of War” and “The Art of Investing” if you will. Click the above category link to see the full database of articles, including the most recent articles that may not be listed below.

Technorati Tags: investment blog, investment strategies, dollar crisis, financial crisis, oil crisis, stock market crash, howto invest gold, recession proof, best ways to invest, Wall Street bailout

In January of 2007, I wrote an article called “Ten Reasons Why Dollar Denominated Bonds Aren’t as Safe as You Think.” Here, I’m updating that same article, taking into account what has happened in the past year. Many people think of any type of dollar denominated bonds, whether they are U.S. corporate bonds or U.S. Treasury bonds as a safe place to park your money for reliable sources of income stream. In fact, the U.S. Treasury Department on their own website, even tout U.S. Treasury Securities as a “great way to invest and save for the future.” Many people believe this rubbish because they are advised of this by a horde of financial consultants that provide poor advice. Even today, I still read articles of money being moving into U.S. bonds as a “safe haven” given the continuing volatility in global markets. Many people think of U.S. Treasury bonds as safe because of the “federal guarantee”. The ten reasons below render that federal guarantee irrelevant.

(1) The often repeated financial consultant statement that bonds are a “safe place” to park your money, especially if you are older, is a myth.

Think of the losses of the U.S. dollar versus other major global currencies in the past two years. A greater than 8% decline against the yen (which is amazing given that the Bank of Japan had set interest rates between 0% and 0.50% during this time), an 11% decline versus the Pound Sterling; a whopping 19% decline against the Euro. If we look at emerging market currencies, the losses are just as pronounced. In just the past two years, the dollar has lost an incredulous 19% against the Thai Baht and almost 23% against the New Zealand dollar (I mention the New Zealand dollar and Thai baht because these currencies are commonly held currencies in Asian currency baskets offered by major banks as a hedge against the falling dollar). If you hold dollar denominated bonds with a 5% income stream and your dollars have lost 20% of purchasing power, are you really happy with a net 15% loss?

(2) Many of those in the retirement phase of their lives are convinced to invest in longer maturity bonds because of poorer yields of short-term bonds. As the Euro gradually replaces the U.S. dollar as the international currency of choice, the longer maturity necessary to ensure a return of face value on bonds presents a significantly greater risk.

(3) As interest rates go up, the face value of bonds go down, and vice versa. Right now, Wall Street strongly expects the U.S. Federal Reserve to continue slashing interest rates to try to save the faltering U.S. economy. Thus, the face value of bonds should rise, but so what? Despite the release of retail sales statistics yesterday that illustrated that Americans are continuing to spend money, I’ll tell you why this news is highly negative and not “positive” as it was spun by the investment industry.

Fact: According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the savings rate in the U.S. was -.0.4% in 2005. The savings rate in the U.S. was -1.0% in 2006. The figures are not yet out for FY2007, but you can bet the bank that they are negative and look worse than the 2006 figures. The only other two years in American history when savings rates were negative were 1932 and 1933 during the Great Depression.

So this is why yesterday’s market rally will be short lived. Yes the rally may continue a little bit longer, but if it does, it will only continue because the thundering sheep herd is being misled by the spin doctors. The odds greatly favor U.S. markets continuing to pullback further this year and also dragging other global markets down with it. Retail figures were reported yesterday that Americans are continuing to spend, which given the reports above, can only be interpreted one way: Americans are going deeper into debt. This should have been a HUGE red flag, but instead, the markets rallied almost 200 points. The stock market cheerleaders came out in mass yesterday. RAH RAH RAH, Americans are still spending, despite being broke. This is GREAT news, they cheered! Yes, if it’s unbelievable to you that the investment industry believes this, it’s unbelievable to me as well. But this foolish media “spin” can not prevent a greater economic crisis that is firmly on its way from unfolding.

Furthermore, at some point and time, the U.S. Federal Reserve will try to block global flight from the U.S. dollar by propping up interest rates, not cutting them. Here you suffer twice. Once from a loss of purchasing power and twice, from a devaluation of the face value. See number (2) why holding a long term bond until maturity may not be an option. And even if the Federal Reserve keeps in line with Wall Street expectations, that’s bad news too.

4) As the dollar loses value over time, banks and other financial institutions will increase interest rates on loans and other financial instruments to compensate for the heavy losses they are incurring on a weakening dollar. As your costs of doing business and living rise, yields from bonds won’t cut it anymore.

(5) As the massive yen carry trade continues to unwind, which might not happen soon because the Bank of Japan is expected to keep its benchmark interest rate at 0.5%. Again, the fact that the dollar has lost value to the yen despite the “free yen” policy of the BOJ is downright scary. Last year, I wrote, “as every single major world currency pounded the dollar, the Yen was just about flat against the dollar. In the coming year to eighteen months, it will be the Yen’s turn to pound the dollar.” Despite the fact that the BOJ maintains a free yen policy and primarily due to an unwinding yen carry trade, the yen appreciated from 125 yen to the dollar to about 108 to the dollar today. A 14% increase in strength. Again, scary.

(6) While most people think that there has been no further attack on the U.S. by terrorists since 9/11, there has been a far more devastating ongoing attack – an ongoing economic war. Though this fact is not discussed at all in the mainstream media, Osama bin Laden has repeatedly stated that his number one goal is to topple the U.S. as an economic power. The attacks on the Twin Towers were symbolic of that goal. However, if he achieves his goal of debilitating the U.S. economy through the draining of U.S. resources in the current prolonged war in Iraq, this would make him far happier than any overt attack he could accomplish.

So far in this economic war, the Iraq war has been estimated to cost U.S. taxpayers as much as $2 trillion dollars with at least another $1 trillion in expenditures before any troop withdrawal can realistically happen.

(7) In response to (6), the U.S. Federal Reserve has expanded the dollar money supply to provide funding for the war. With no end in sight to this war, we can expect the dollar money supply to continue to expand, therefore placing more downward pressure on the dollar.

(8) The U.S. has no powerful allies to keep the dollar strong. With protectionism sentiment stronger among the newly elected Democratic U.S. Congress in 2007, the U.S. certainly has no friends in China, the largest holder of dollar denominated debt at over $1 trillion. Certainly when the U.S. Congress moved to block the Chinese state-sponsored bid for U.S. oil giant Unocal because they viewed such an acquisition as a threat to national security, the Chinese government certainly viewed this action as hostile to their business interests. Now, the Chinese government is moving lots of money from their central bank reserves into a much more private Sovereign Wealth Fund, in chunks of $200 billion at a time. This I believe is an effort to keep quiet their continuing efforts to convert devaluing dollars into real hard assets. Yes, the “nuclear option” as China’s dollar policy decisions are referred to, is still on the table.

(9) The largest holders of Petrodollar reserves include Russia, Venezuela, Iran and other Middle Eastern countries. Read that list again. There is not a single nation strongly friendly to the U.S. on that list. Officially, the Gulf Nations pledged at the end of 2007 not to decouple their currencies from the dollar. If you are as naïve as to believe that “official” pledge, go graph the currencies of the Gulf Nation against the U.S. dollar. In the past two months, you will observe radical strengthening of some Gulf Nation currencies against the dollar. If they were really keeping their currencies pegged to the dollar that means that their central banks would be slashing interest rates in line with the U.S. Federal Reserve. These FX charts show a different story.

(10) When people finally realize that (1) through (9) are true, there may be a flight from the bond market, causing bond prices to tumble.

Lastly consider this. I expect all major currencies to fall this year. The ECB eventually has to cut interest rates as the U.S. Feds large interest rate cuts has forced their hand. The intrinsic value of all paper currencies is zero. If the dollar is reported as rallying against the Euro, it will only mean that the Euro is devaluing faster than the dollar for the time period that is being reported, or vice versa. In the past two years. Despite the enormous appreciation of other major currencies against the U.S. dollar, the performance of gold and silver has blown the performance of all fiat currencies out of the water. Gold has appreciated by 71%, and silver by 91% against the dollar in just the past two years. This is because gold and silver are real currencies while all paper currencies are backed by nothing and have intrinsic values of nothing. So yes, I will continue to view money that pours into dollar denominated bonds as the “stupid” money and not as money that has found a “safe haven”.

_____________________________________
J.S. Kim is the founder and Managing Director of SmartKnowledgeU™, an investment consultation company that teaches investors how to make a fortune from the coming global economic crisis.

Technorati Tags: gold, silver, U.S. Treasury bonds, currency trading, dollar crash, dollar crisis

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – Sales of new homes (in the U.S.) rebounded in September from summer sales levels that were much weaker than previously reported, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Sales increased 4.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 770,000 from a revised 735,000 in August. Previously, August’s sales had been reported at a 795,000 pace. September’s sales were slightly higher than the 758,000 pace expected by economists. The three previous months were revised sharply lower, which means the housing market was much weaker in the middle of the year than previous believed. Sales of new homes are down 23.3% in the past year.

Now the consensus was for new home sales to come in around 760,000 to 780,000 which was about spot on as the reported figures came in at 770,000. Now that would have been a decline from previous month figures at 795,000 and more bad news for the housing market. So how do you spin bad news into good news that the sheep herd will follow? Revise last month’s sales figures down enormously from 795,000 to 735,000. Now we have a healthy increase month to month! And incredulously I watched homebuilding stocks rise the very minute this “good news” was released. In addition, U.S. stock markets rebounded from morning lows to turn higher on the release of these “good” home sales statistics. Looks like the federal spin doctors achieved their goal.

On the U.S. Census Bureau’s website, this is how new home sales are defined: “A sale of the new house occurs with the signing of a sales contract or the acceptance of a deposit.” The house can be in any stage of construction: not yet started, under construction, or already completed. Typically about 25% of the houses are sold at the time of completion. The remaining 75% are evenly split between those not yet started and those under construction.” Hmmmm. So 75% of new home sales are for homes not yet started or still under construction. And with this being a buyer’s market and not a seller’s market in the U.S., we should assume that of those 75%, all will be completed and sold for skinny, weak margins, right? Right. I have no idea why the masses look to such indexes as accurate barometers of the economy. Next thing you know, we’ll hear that inflation is still in check, haha.

Technorati Tags: new home sales, flawed government statistics, erroneous government statistics, housing bottom

I’ve often mentioned that the U.S. stock market can APPEAR healthy even when the underlying economy is in worse shape than an alcoholic on a kidney dialysis machine. And this is just one of those instances right now. As markets continue to climb higher on manufactured, political-agenda serving government statistics and interest rate cuts, rally cries from all the bulls (aka sales people, I mean company men and women) that this is bull run of historical proportions and that you better come along for the ride started already a couple of weeks ago. And how soon people forget the dot.com crash in March 2000 that subtracted trillions of dollars from the personal financial statements of investors. Back then, the exact same statements were being offered to the public masses that will once again be offered in the very near future as the political juggernaut no doubt will try its best to manufacture one last bull run into the 2008 Presidential elections. Remember from the dot.com rally, that irrational movements higher can last an irrationally long time— this, I don’t dispute. I also have no doubt that any rally that is artificially manufactured with loose credit and low interest rates will experience a terrible ending (just look at how the artificially manufactured housing boom in the U.S. is playing out now). Peaks artificially manufactured by bankers are much different than the peaks of normal cycles that occur in the free market. Peaks that are artificially manufactured by bankers will always end up terribly.

During the meteoric rise of dot.com stocks at the end of the 1990’s, all throughout the U.S., money managers goaded investors into investing into a tech market and ignored the fact that dot com stocks were trading at outrageous multiples to earnings or at impossible multiples to non-existent earnings. This time around, especially if the Feds cut interest rates again on October 31^st, the messages from those whose job it is to get you to part with your money will be the same – “Don’t miss out on this bull run,” and so on. And given that the effects of interest rate cuts typically take several quarters to visibly appear in the economy, another interest rate cut instituted at the end of this October may be all that is needed to carry the U.S. economy for a while, thus giving confidence to world economies into the next U.S. Presidential elections (which of course, is the incumbent government’s desire- “If all falls apart after then, then it is the problem of the next cabinet, not ours!”). However, two points here. (1) I can’t see how the Feds can possibly keep this stock market afloat into next year’s U.S. Presidential election. With so much wrong with the economy, that’s a really long time to keep things afloat. And (2) Even as the talking heads will be urging you to invest money in the markets, you can still come out ahead—as long as you don’t invest the majority of your money in traditional stocks. Several asset classes in particular will skyrocket from this growing crisis even before it rears its ugly head, but most people will not receive the proper advice to do so.

From feedback I’ve been receiving from speeches I’ve been giving on this very topic, I’ve discovered that most people have not changed their investment behavior and are content on riding the rally higher until it bursts. Prior to the Fed’s decision on September 18^th to cut interest rates, Federal Reserve Governor Frederic Mishkin stated in a speech delivered at New York University that the Fed is “monitoring the situation and is prepared to act as needed to mitigate the adverse effects on the economy arising from the disruptions in financial markets.” Again, such statements reassure the thundering sheep herd of investors that all is well in Kansas and that Toto won’t be sucked away by an economic tornado. If the Feds do indeed slash interest rates again at the end of October, you can be sure that the thundering sheep herd of investors will once again rejoice in this decision, not understanding how this will stack the house of fragile cards even higher. Interestingly enough, in a speech given in Chicago on September 28^th, 2007, Mishkin stated, “We have also seen how governments, in their role as providers of emergency liquidity, can intervene to help put the financial system back on its feet and prevent a financial crisis from spinning out of control.” I disagree. The Feds, in fact, have been undermining the foundation that is the glue of the world economy, the U.S. dollar, and have deployed their best SPIN CONTROL to merely DELAY, not prevent, a financial crisis. And unless they hatch an elaborate scheme to replace the dollar with a singular North American currency, it can not end well. This time around, for those that wish to play irrationality again, not shifting your assets into the RIGHT types of assets before the irrationality ends will end up being a much more painful experience. Don’t forget, for more detailed commentary on how to protect yourself when the investment crisis hits, register at http://www.facebook.com and join the group “Crisis Investing.” I’ll soon be adding lots of info on this free investment forum that you won’t find anywhere else.

Technorati Tags: dollar crisis, investment crisis, build wealth, U.S. Federal Reserve

While investors will decide what to do based upon a mountain of statistics set to be released including the Consumer Price Index, the Consumer Confidence Index, the retail sales report, the consumer credit report, and the mother of them all, the Federal Open Market Committee’s decision about interest rates, the fact is that since all these reports are deceptive to some degree, short-term movements in the market will be shaped by public perception, but the reality that undercuts these reports will shape the market’s long term actions. Any statistician worth his or her weight in salt knows that you can manipulate any report to “prove” to the world whatever you desire despite the real numbers. I’ve written numerous articles about this on my blog, so I will not waste any time explaining why again here (just perform a search here on this blog if you want to know why these government reports are so deceptive).

For example, if I had followed Warren Buffet’s sentiments about a particular investment opportunity a year ago, I would not be sitting on some of the largest gains in my portfolio now (numerous stocks that have all appreciated by over 80% in less than a year). The fact is, even famously successful investors have been famously wrong in the past. And the fact is, rarely do any of their hugely successful investments garner any attention until AFTER they’ve already made a huge profit from it (meaning that years back when they made their initial investment, they did so under the radar screen). So this is precisely why as an investor, until you learn to do-it-yourself, you will never have the success you dream about.

Technorati Tags: Warren Buffet, consumer confidence index, politics and stocks, investment myths

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J.S. Kim is the founder and Managing Director of SmartKnowledgeU™, a comprehensive online investment course that uses novel, proprietary advanced wealth planning techniques and the long tail of investing to identify low-risk, high-reward investment opportunities that seek to yield 25% or greater annual returns.

We saw foolish people believe that New Century Financial was a bargain when subprime markets in the U.S. faced great difficulties, and its share price dropped from $40 a share to $20 a share over just several months and jumped in. Similarly, there are people that will have their fortunes destroyed when this global economic crisis rises to the surface and they behave in a similar way.

Sometimes stocks are on sale because they deserve to be on sale. New Century Financial was one such stock and those investors that dove in headfirst at $20 a share and amplified their mistake by doubling down at $10 or $5 obviously are now left holding an empty bag as the company has gone bankrupt. There is a time that will come soon that will afflict some of the largest stock markets in the world, both emerging and developed, where trillions of dollars in wealth will be destroyed.

I know that a lot of people will think that any talk of a future global economic crisis is ludicrous but that is why so few people actually build wealth through investing. Only the handful of people that take the time to really understand the economics that brew well below the surface of the Bloomberg reports and CNBC and the Wall Street Journal will readily prepare their investment portfolios for this crisis. And this crisis that seems inevitable to me will be much bigger than the U.S. Great Depression of the 1930’s and much larger than the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 because the conditions that are creating this crisis will have a much wider and more significant global impact than either of these two previous crises. Before those two crises hit, the overwhelming majority of investors believed that those people that believed a crisis was imminent were crazy. And during those times, salesmen and women in the financial industry were able to leverage the naivete of the thundering sheep herd to get them to do things that led to certain financial ruin.

If you believe that things cannot appear rosy on the surface even while an economic crisis is brewing, then one need only study history to prove this mindset to be fallacious. Do you know the U.S. stock markets had skyrocketed for about a decade straight and that unemployment was less than 1% immediately before the Great Depression hit. That’s correct. Less than 1%. You may have said that things could possibly not have been better in the U.S. economy back then. And this was right before most investors got smacked in the face by a 2,000 pound bear and lost their fortunes almost overnight. In a more contemporary case, during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis that hit SE Asia, and in particular, South Korea and Thailand, again South East Asian economies were experiencing growth rates in the high single to low double digits as foreign investment flooded these markets. In fact, things were so rosy in Thailand back then that the overall economic giddiness sparked a real estate boom, the evidence of which can still be seen today, over a decade later. Just drive through Bangkok, and you will easily spot empty shells of half-constructed office buildings and luxury residential buildings sprinkled throughout the city as these projects, half-constructed, had to be abandoned when the crisis hit and funds to complete them dried up.

These two cases of a booming surface-level economy accompanied simultaneously by great stresses broiling below the surface produced the appearance of overnight financial collapses, when in reality, the conditions that caused both these crisis had been developing steam for years prior. All any investor saw, however, was the result, when the steam blew the head gasket. In both instances, the very savviest of investors actually built great wealth both during the Great Depression and in Southeast Asia during the 1997 Financial Crisis as they monitored the economic conditions below the surface and knew that the advent of such crises were far more likely than not. Thus, they not only prepared for it but they were able to profit from it. We at SmartKnowledgeU™ see a situation brewing in today’s economy similar to these previous two, but only worse.

And though it is preventable, the actions needed to prevent it are so far fetched and unrealistic that we now see its occurrence as much more inevitable than preventable. Furthermore, the global economy is a significantly different creature than it was even as recently as 1997. The explosion of complex financial instruments, the growth of global trade and free trade agreements, and the boom in derivative markets (which now has grown to the hundreds of trillions of dollars in size) links many different financial assets and corporations in manners never seen before in history. For example, several decades ago, the crisis in subprime lending that is currently afflicting the states would affect just the subprime lenders. Now everyone from auto dealerships to investment houses are affected by a crisis in a seemingly unrelated industry.

Whether the onset of this new crisis starts this year, next year or five years out, the time to start preparing for it is now because once it starts, it will be too late to prepare. Your investment portfolio needs to be positioned to benefit from it well before it starts. So consider this part III of my advice to beware the perpetual bulls. The perpetual bulls have a much different agenda than yours. The only one you should be concerned about is how to not only protect your wealth but how to build great wealth during any situation that is likely to occur- whether that situation is strong regional growth or a global economic crisis.

Technorati Tags: peak investment crisis, new century financial, 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, great depression

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J.S. Kim is the Founder and Managing Director of SmartKnowledgeU™, a comprehensive online investment course that uses novel, proprietary advanced wealth planning techniques and the long tail of investing to identify low-risk, high-reward investment opportunities that seek to yield 25% or greater annual returns.

Because it is their job to get you to buy their services (aka “hand your money over to them”) and positivity sells a lot better than negativity, even if it is deceit-filled positivity. I know some people will say “but don’t you advocate buying stocks, or at least establishing partial positions of certain stocks, on major corrections?” and the answer is yes. However, this is vastly different than being a perpetual bull and saying buy anything in the Chinese markets, buy anything on the Hang Seng, buy anything in the Dow because you should ride the bull! This is what perpetual bulls do. They will tell you to buy when markets have risen dangerously high without corrections so that you ride them through the corrections. Then after you’ve lost a lot of money in the markets as a result of the correction, they’ll tell you “buy more!” because it’s a fantastic buying opportunity!

However, it can only be a REAL buying opportunity if you had not bought in to the market yet because you were aware that a strong correction was likely or if you were so far ahead of the game that now stocks that were up 100% before the correction are now only up 80%. It is NOT a buying opportunity if you just lost 10% to 15% in a stock, and the perpetual bulls want you to buy more of these stocks that are sitting on losses because they convinced you to buy when you should have been protecting profits instead or not entering new positions in the market at all.
Furthermore, beware the perpetual bull because he or she consistently manipulates statistics in a deceitful manner to convince you that you need to invest in the markets now and that you need to hand over you money to them now.

For example, towards the end of last year as U.S., Chinese and Indian markets rose higher every day, I saw many investment newsletters tout the Indian Sensex level of 14,000, and the exuberance of U.S. markets and Chinese markets as a reason every investor should pile into these markets and not miss out on historic runs. In fact, one email forwarded to me included a prediction of 14,000 for the Dow in 2007. I wonder what this same newsletter is saying now? In any event here is what this email stated in December of 2006.

“The Dow Jones industrial index closed at a new record high yesterday. And apparently, traders don’t think that this is all there is. This morning, before the markets opened, Dow industrial futures had run up 43 points to 12,552.

Irrational exuberance? Well, exuberance maybe, given the record earnings posted by companies, but if you ask me, nothing can be more rational than riding a bull market as it powers higher.

The U.S. Labor Department supplemented the optimism by indicating that the Consumer Price Index for November remained unchanged. Core CPI, excluding food and energy prices, was also unchanged.

If we’re seeing pops in the markets like yesterday, I think we may be in for a heck of a January Effect. I’d not be surprised to see the Dow knocking loudly at the 13,000 mark in early January. If this barrier would be broken, I don’t see any hindrance for the bull to go “hyper-bull,” heading toward 14,000 in 2007.”

In November, 2006, this is what I was saying in the Underground Investor blog: “Recently, headlines about record recent highs in the U.S. Dow, the India Sensex, and the U.K. FTSE have dominated financial headlines. However, 99% of these articles never explore the new index numbers in the proper perspective. Just as I have mentioned in numerous previous blogs that paying attention to the U.S. Consumer Price Index as a proxy for real inflation or the Consumer Confidence Index as a proxy for true economic strength is dubious at best, so are the reports about all these record global markets.” The reason I made these comments back then is that on an absolute number basis, many record highs are in reality nowhere close to record highs. The major indexes of country specific stock markets are not inflation adjusted.

If they were, then you would realize that for example, the U.S. Dow Jones Industrial Average index must clear the barrier of 14,000 on an inflation adjusted basis just to get an investor back to even from a starting point six years ago. When viewed in terms of real purchasing power instead of meaningless numbers, then even 13,000 is a level not to get excited about, and even 14,000 does not signify the midst of a great bull market. What Dow 14,000 means is that your money just recovered the purchasing power it had if you had invested in the Dow six years ago.

But it’s hardly surprising that the perpetual bulls supplement their arguments by citing statistics of even a greater dubious distinction like the Consumer Price Index (just conduct a search here on our blog for “Consumer Price Index” to understand why this particular economic indicator should hold no value whatsoever in your stock buying and selling decisions). In any event, advice that you read contrary to the perpetual bulls is often written by those not looking to cherry pick dubious economic indicators and present dubious interpretations to sell subscriptions or seeking to gather more assets.

That is the difference between learning how to build wealth versus chasing wealth. Listen to the perpetual bulls and you will forever be chasing wealth. Seek out the minority positions by those that actually take the time to dig down the rabbit hole to seek out the facts behind the propaganda, and you will build wealth.

So am I saying, to use the U.S. markets as one example, that the Dow will now not hit 13,000 this year? It may and it may not. However, the more important point to take away from this discussion is that there are a lot of economic conditions in all countries that represent reality that are never disseminated to the general public. Even in the face of the corrections, U.S. Secretary of Treasury Hank Paulson was already ensuring that his comments about the good health of the U.S. economy were spread far and wide by the mass media.

However, his statements belie the fact that there are still many highly negative conditions in the U.S. economy that lurk well below the horizon of the average investor’s sightline. Even if this recovery demonstrates that it has legs, these negative conditions will eventually bubble to the surface and blindside the same group that always is blinded by the perpetual bulls. This is the greatest reason to beware the perpetual bulls. Follow them and you’ll never build wealth.

Technorati Tags: wealth literacy, investment myths, consumer price index, politics and stocks, China, India, peak investment crisis

When I hear American financial analysts tout unreliable foreign company’s financials as the reason they avoid them, I only have to look at the past several years to find a whole boatload of American companies that had been embroiled in scandals for cooking the books. Among these companies were Adelphia, AOL Time Warner, Arthur Anderson, Bristol-Meyers, Squibb, Freddie Mac, ImClone, Citigroup, General Electric, JP Morgan, Lucent, Duke Energy, Dynergy, Enron, and Global Crossing. Want more? K Mart, Merck, General Motors, Qwest Communications, Reliant Energy, Tyco, Worldcom and Xerox all admitted cooking the books to promote share price in the past as well. And most recently, the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission is investigating Apple and over 100 other American companies for backdating options, which is just a polite way of saying that company executives stole money from shareholders.

So my point is that corruption exists in every country, developed or emerging. I have always maintained that financial analysts that spread fear of the risk of foreign markets only do so to cover up their lack of knowledge about foreign markets and their inability to invest wisely in such markets. It’s much easier to stick to what you know (domestic markets) by spreading fear to your clients about the risk of foreign markets.

Secondly, the many articles I’ve seen regarding the risk of foreign markets (which predominantly originate out of the American press) seems to ignore the role that U.S. companies play in increasing the volatility in emerging markets and in certain asset classes. Many hedge funds in the past made a relatively safe killing in the markets by playing the spread between what was basically interest free Japanese yen and 5%-6% interest-paying U.S. Treasury bonds. When you consider that many hedge funds are leveraged 10 to 1, you can see how profitable playing the spread has been in the past.

Although I haven’t seen statistics on this yet, with the rise in commodities and emerging stock markets as of late, I believe it is safe to assume that hedge funds had recently been borrowing yen to buy many assets much more risky than U.S. Treasury bonds. With hedge funds typically charging 2% of assets under a management in addition to taking 20% of all profits, I’m sure that many hedge fund managers had dreams of borrowing dirt cheap yen and chasing hot assets to earn enough money in one year to fund a retirement.

Say for example, that hedge fund managers had borrowed yen to buy long positions in Chinese stocks. Remember that many hedge funds are leveraged at ratios around 10 to 1, and use margined positions to accomplish this leverage. With a 9% one day drop, surely many hedge funds had to sell out of their long positions even if they desired to stay in to cover margin calls. Or perhaps with hedge fund manager Brian Hunter’s couple week loss of more than $6 billion still fresh in their minds, such a large one day drop in the Shanghai markets caused immediate selling by hedge fund managers as no one wants to become the next Brian Hunter.

Secondly, the Bank of Japan recently raised interest rates to 0.25% and then to 0.5%. Consider if the Bank of Japan raises their interest rates again, which I think will happen sooner than most people believe. All of a sudden, hedge fund’s (those that leverage the Yen) profit margins will be squeezed (if they aren’t being squeezed already), and those that are highly leveraged, will see the profit margins severely squeezed. In order to limit potential losses, not only will hedge funds will then be forced to buy yen to pay the borrowed yen back, but they will also be forced to unwind and sell off assets bought with the borrowed yen.

Last year, I blogged about hating the fact that silver and gold ETFs were introduced to the market and that the introduction of precious metal ETFs on the U.S. markets (even though they had existed for years in overseas markets) would introduce a lot more volatility to these markets as hedge funds would pump and dump them in search of the ever quick profit. The fact that they yen reached a 3-month high against the U.S. dollar the other day is further contributing to volatility in emerging stock markets and in precious metals. Many hedge funds used yen to buy long gold futures. As they were forced to unwind these carry trades as the yen continued to rise, they were forced to close out their positions in gold futures. As many hedge funds closed out their positions, they forced gold even lower as I surmise a mass exodus was created by the strengthening of the yen. It is important to note that this has nothing to do with the long-term outlook on gold but more to do with they risky behaviour of hedge funds and their detrimental contribution to the financial markets.

So by now it should be obvious how hedge funds contribute to increased volatility and instability in emerging markets and in certain asset classes. For some analysts to claim, as I have read this week, that foreign markets like China are risky because “Elderly people hang around in stockbrokers’ offices and play the Shanghai slot-machine because those offices are air-conditioned” is incredibly short-sighted and a superficial assessment of a very complex financial machine.

I’m not saying that my analysis here of the volatility of emerging markets is comprehensive by any means. However, I am saying that there are many more factors that influence the volatility of say, the emerging Chinese markets, than just Asians that view the stock market as another trip to Macau or Las Vegas. Most hedge fund managers seek to enter and exit markets as soon as profits are made, as I would too if I managed a hedge fund. If I had been as heavily leveraged as hedge funds typically are in many of my long positions in stocks I would have made several hundred percent profits on many of my positions. Certainly at this point, if I’m taking 20% of all profits as my fee, I’m going to cash out whether fundamentally speaking or not, this is the proper thing to do. Again, decisions driven by such considerations will introduce more volatility to markets.

However sometimes dips created in asset classes and markets create buying opportunities. If you understand the underlying fundamentals behind certain markets and asset classes, you’ll know whether such dips are a signal to take profits and sit back for a while and wait for the volatility to settle, or if they present a prime opportunity to pick up what are now undervalued assets. So the next time you hear a financial analyst tell you that it’s not possible to safely invest in emerging markets, you’ll know it’s just another excuse to conceal his or her inability to adequately evaluate and invest in foreign markets.

Technorati Tags: investment strategies, yen, gold ETF, silver ETF, wealth literacy

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J.S. Kim is the founder and Managing Director of SmartKnowledgeU™, a comprehensive online investment course that uses novel, proprietary advanced wealth planning techniques and the long tail of investing to identify low-risk, high-reward investment opportunities that seek to yield 25% or greater annual returns.