capital investment

Recently, I posted a video of Peter Schiff making the argument for small government and resisting stimulus. As I see much to like in Peter Schiff's views, I sympathisize with the broad themes of his message. However, I do not feel he is…

I read about ConocoPhillips taking a massive $34 billion writedown and my first reaction was glee. Why? This type of draconian response demonstrates that the glut of oil we now see will soon be a deficit. The oil patch is notoriously…

Peter Schiff is that market wizard people were laughing at just a year ago because of his extreme views. Well, things have turned out much as he has indicated they would. So, now he has a captive audience. And what is he saying?…

In my book, losing a gargantuan $125 billion qualifies you as the dumb money. This appears to be what has happened at Abu Dhabi's leading Sovereign Wealth Fund. I had been warning all throughout 2008 that the Sovereign Wealth Funds were…

We are in a secular bear market. What this means for many pensioners or for many about to become pensioners is great uncertainty about the quality of their retirement. I expect this uncertainty to translate into anger regarding the move…

Given the fact that this site is called Credit Writedowns, you would expect me to take a fairly skeptical view about the growing consensus regarding a rapid recovery in 2009. I do, in large part because I understand that banks face many…

On Wednesday morning the U.S. Department of Labor released the latest report on claims for unemployment insurance. The week to December 20th saw 586,000 new claims for unemployment insurance on a seasonally-adjusted basis, which is a…

I have been arguing for some time that the credit bubble has been replaced by a government bond bubble because much of the liquidity pumped out by the world's central banks is not going to increased lending. As this money must be invested…

Jim Chanos, the famous hedge fund guru and short-seller does not think stocks are going to be up for long.  He sees the recent rally on the back of promised government stimulus as temporary and expects markets to resume their downward…