As I write, the sun is just peeking over the horizon. It is dawn in Dubai. Out my hotel window, I can see two buildings with cranes over them and in the distance another building in scaffolding. For a city that was once booming and turned bust -- as with ...read more
Are the Bears Turning Bullish?
Sep 30th, 2009 | By Chris Mayer | Category: Featured, Investing Strategies, Macroeconomics
Some of Wall Street’s most prominent bears are turning bullish right now. But that doesn’t mean that your small-cap portfolio is safe. Here’s why these brilliant minds think that we’re back on the path to recovery -- and why they’re wrong.
I was in Manhattan last week attending Grant’s Fall Investment ...read more
A New Age of Corporate Takeovers Could Soon Emerge
Sep 3rd, 2009 | By Chris Mayer | Category: Featured, Investing Strategies, Macroeconomics
Inflation can do tricky things to markets. It creates distortions. In those distortions, an intrepid investor can find some big moneymaking ideas. I think we've got one opening up in oil and gas, and it is not without precedent in financial markets. In fact, it's starting to look a little ...read more
Forget BRIC… These Emerging Economies Hold the New Keys to Growth
Aug 26th, 2009 | By Chris Mayer | Category: Featured, International, Macroeconomics
It's become widely accepted when talking about emerging economies to focus on the so-called BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China. But there is a very important region that gets lost in that discussion.
And it’s a region that holds the key to growth opportunities that could eclipse the growth ...read more
Oil and Molybdenum Are Poised for Future Gains
Aug 4th, 2009 | By Chris Mayer | Category: Commodities, Featured
The oil price is stubborn, like a two-year-old who refuses to eat his mashed peas. Despite all evidence that the market is well supplied, oil is over $70 a barrel again as I write. Taking the view out to the horizon, though, I think it will go higher and will ...read more
Depression Then and Now: Three Eye-Opening Charts
Jun 30th, 2009 | By Chris Mayer | Category: Featured, International, Investing Strategies
“Planet Earth is probably the riskiest it has been since the day before the meteor landed in the Yucatan and wiped out most life.” -- Donald Coxe
This is an eye-opener. Whenever I talk about the Great Depression and compare it with what is going on today, I get a lot ...read more
Two Ideas for Investing Success
May 28th, 2009 | By Chris Mayer | Category: Featured, Investing Strategies
I was reading Marty Whitman’s new book Distress Investing. The book is about investing in distressed situations that will involve reorganization, possibly via the bankruptcy process. As the “Principles and Techniques” subhead implies, the book is mainly for practitioners. However, in the course of some rather technical discussions, Whitman makes ...read more
How to Profit from the War on Greenhouse Gasses
May 13th, 2009 | By Chris Mayer | Category: Featured, Investing Strategies
The EPA recently ruled that too much carbon dioxide is threatening the planet. What this does is make it a lot easier to regulate and tax emitters of this gas.
So here we are in a shaky economy tottering on a ledge and along comes the EPA ready to shove it ...read more
Why You Shouldn’t Move to Bonds
Feb 27th, 2009 | By Chris Mayer | Category: Featured, Investing Strategies
Most investors like to put their money in something that has done well. Most don't put their money in something that has done poorly. The last 10 years gives us a stark portrait of what's done well and what hasn't. And we're starting to see a major psychological shift in ...read more
Buffet’s Investing in Railroads in Early 2009
Feb 6th, 2009 | By Chris Mayer | Category: Featured, Investing Strategies
The Financial Times led off one headline column this week thundering:
“The world economy will this year suffer its worst performance for more than 60 years with a serious risk that 50 million people will lose their jobs, international organizations warned yesterday.”
The consensus has gelled. Now it’s just a matter of ...read more

