The Best One can do Now !

  The best one can do now is hold onto sections of stocks one knows are going to be needed in future to supply the needs of the world popula...

About Me

Retired but always looking for new challenges.

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Greek Default

The 30 June 2015 was default day. It has been obvious that this day has been coming for a number of years. This has not been a purely Greek fault and  the main drivers  such as France and Germany have been responsible for much of the pain Greece will now have to bear. The Euro monetary unit is certainly not based on democracy as last year when Greece was first entering a greater discomfort zone and they proposed a  democratic referendum to decide if they should break ranks with the Euro Unit ,draconian action was promised against  the then government, who were then incidently pro Euro.  So resentment was built up against the union. Obviously the main drivers of the Euro monetary unit wanted give their private citizens time to unwind their exposure to Greece.
Now towards the end of the saga they seemed to impose more impossible conditions upon Greece, knowing full well that Greece could not meet them so as to shift the blame fully to them and away from the Union. Greece gave in on most points ,but then always more was required.
  To say that Greece only represents about 4% of the Euro trade and will have only minimal effect upon the union in a break up is also not true. Do remember the citizens and their government have withdrawing Euros from those been injected into their banks which might now might be billions.
So when Greece returns to their original currency,  which say they devalue by 40% then they will still have the Euros which could threaten the stability of the European Union. These moves of the major countries in Europe are not lost on other Mediterranean  countries I am sure.
 Another worrying aspect of this debacle is that Greece has always been a staunch member of Nato.  No doubt Russia would help Greece and those ties would weaken!

Monday, June 1, 2015

THE WORLD IN TURMOIL

Sure there is always some conflict going on some where, but usually these can be ignored as they do not affect us directly.
How ever when the largest powers start actively increasing their military hardware ,then we have to take notice.
Rest of this post is beneath updates.
3/6/2015 Real Estate update see index above.
8/6/2015 My Specialist List Update.
10,15/6/2015 smaller cap shares transfer to update above.
The former communist countries namely RUSSIA and CHINA have slowly being moving to  more open societies in the last decade and they have generally thrived. Now how ever  as the capital systems start to struggle due to the world wide recession over the last five years, these countries find they can not meet the aspirations of their restless citizens, as they demand even more freedoms.
Thus Russia has become embroiled in a war with a former part of their Socialist Republics namely Ukraine. As the western countries generally support the latter ,they have whipped up patriotism and suppressing freedoms in Russia.
China on the other hand have started on a massive naval build up, supposedly to protect their coastal integrity ,by claiming islands that belong to other countries , well beyond their borders as their own .How ever this could eventually lead to them taking a greater stake in the mainland, land which is part of Russia now. Russia might regret it's stance to the West, a fact which is not lost to their leadership I am sure!
It is time to settle the Ukraine crises in a manner that is fair to all.
NATO is upping their vigilance after some air intrusions by Russia and the US has promised to help Far East nations with their land integrity.
We  South Africans might have signed a treaty with the BRIC countries ,but we had better stay neutral as 70% of our exports go to the West.

All this might have a good effect upon mining strategic metals and minerals as both sides will want to buildup reserves as quickly as possible.

Friday, May 1, 2015

The Great Carbon Credit TAX SCAM !

Yes our government along with others in the world can not wait to get their hands on more taxes to waste on meaningless projects and themselves!
 Do remember that with out carbon dioxide no life would be possible on earth!
Sure we don't want to live in a smoky environment or where     chemicals put artificially high amounts of poison in the air or drinking water. The problem should be attacked in another way, say  by tax credit incentives for better management of immediate environments.
Luckily the last volcanic eruption in Iceland in four days has negated every human effort in the last five  years to lower   CO2   in  the atmosphere.
Please teach your children that plants need CO2 to synthesize into oxygen for us to breathe.
As for global warming, the earth now seems to be in a cooling cycle so now the term "Climate Change" is being  used.
ANOTHER NATURAL PHENOMINA!
1. Labels at the bottom of posts  and in the side-bar can be used to cluster subjects on the same subject
2. Its a good idea to bookmark this page
3.The latest update is always at the top of the page

Friday, April 3, 2015

Commodities Prices

Commodities including precious metals, oil ,iron    and manganese  prices will continue to stay low as long as the producers are reluctant to reduce production as the only way they can stay in  business! Take Saudi Arabia the  worlds largest exporter of oil refuses to produce less although the oil price has halved. Same goes for iron ore miners as they feel they can profit at lower prices so putting smaller rivals out of production.

LATEST  UPDATE PAGES ARE POSTED AT THE TOP OF THE INDEX ABOVE
FINAL AUTUMN UPDATE 27 Apr

20 Apr My Specialist Revised  list
7,11,16 Apr Small Caps
11 Apr Spring Derivative and Share List
11 Apr Winter Derivative  and Share List.
14,22 Apr  METAL AND MINERAL LIST

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Keeping Our Breathable World Safe



 We should thank JAPAN for the  innovative way  they are introducing ecological changes to the world. A world leader indeed! Using Fuel Cell  technology for the next Olympic games is a great step forward .
They are show-casing the Hydrogen economy, which  is something the rest of the world will have to quickly consider if we want to save our planet as cities become more polluted all the time. Electricity is to be produced solely by fuel cells at the games and all government Honda and Toyota cars will also be powered by fuel cells, during the games.
This is where we South Africans enter the scene as we produce over  70% of the world newly mined platinum, as it is platinum fuel cell that is being used.

Do read for more information about platinum   Our Mineral and News        http://2010plusstocktrends.blogspot.com

Sunday, February 1, 2015

THE WORLD DEFLATIONARY ENVIRONMENT

   This state of affairs has been well documented  and commented upon. I therefore wish only then to point out some of the effects upon our  Southern African region.
Rest  of   this post below notes
1.Latest update at bottom of index above.
2,Use the left hand side bar to cluster articles on various subjects.
3 Read Our Mining and Mineral News for latest on those subjects see above for address.  See the NEW page in the side-bar on Mining houses and Holding companies.
   At this stage we have to believe that the bond buying programme ,now called their "quantitative easing  programme " despite all its inefficientcies in the Euro zone will help reverse the deflation which is now gripping this region. After all the American QE has definitely left the economy there in a better mode. 
   As far as we go on our REITS on the JSE that concentrate on Europe are flying as they are now buying European property portfolios in their depressed markets and will hopefully provide good growth as they restore their confidence.
   On the negative side is our export of all kinds minerals . There is really not a market now for our base and industrial metals with falling prices as well as our precious metals, and only rare metals prices are holding up. As mines become unprofitable they forced to either close or cut back drastically on staff ,leading to social unrest which might come back to bite the Western world sooner than they think. Another unfavourable outcome is that Eastern Socialist countries are moving into Africa mining whole sale and buying up these assets at fire sale prices!

Thursday, January 1, 2015

BACK TO THE FUTURE ?

   The world has had a great reprieve, with literally the collapse of the oil price  per barrel of crude, near the end of 2014.  The main question now is ,is this a temporary state or will the oil price rebound?
  I ascribe to the theory that it will stay low for a longer period that might be at least a number of years, before a slow recovery takes place.
  Forty years ago the Middle-East supplied almost 85% of the worlds supply cheaply around less than 22 US   Dollars per barrel. What a shock when the Arabs decided to use oil as a weapon against the Western Worlds support of Israel. They cut the supply off  completely resulting the price rising fast and rationing being imposed in many countries. The price shot up to well above 100 US Dollars per barrel . Since then the world has striven to lessen its reliance on this source for power generation.
Slowly but surely other sources of petroleum supply have been developed such as tar sands in North America ,also fracking, shale oil and deep sea drilling in places other than the Middle East.
   Added to this mix the world has become more aware of pollution effecting the quality of life from fossil fuels. Now solar power, nuclear  power and still in its infancy but quickly gaining ground are fuel cells,  wind  and sea movements are becoming competing sources of energy.
  All this is  giving a new spurt to the world and as a lower petroleum price is going to have a wonderful knock on effect to the price of transport and constant increases of price.
  I really can not see the stock market having a major crash during the next couple of years. Of course markets some times become over heated and then sudden retreats in price of around 20% or slightly more can occur, but generally the markets recover from these blips as can be seen on a graph of main markets over the last hundred years.
SEE NAOMI'S COMMENT ON 5.1.2015    http://2010plusstocktrends.blogspot.com