Fundamental Analysis

The US Financial System Is In Danger Of Collapsing, Researcher Warns

By Ron Hera, Hera Research, LLC Famed Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises wrote in his seminal work, Human Action (originally published by the Yale University Press in 1949), that “There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion.  The alternative is only whether the crisis should come…

Borrowing to invest a risky solution to a savings problem

By Wealth Foundations Borrowing to invest has appeal to some high income professionals The Global Financial Crisis clearly revealed the dangers of attempting to accelerate wealth accumulation by borrowing to invest. Many were left owing considerably more to their lenders than their investment assets were worth. However, for many high income earning professionals in their…

Explainer: what are safe haven investments?

By Richard Heaney, University of Western Australia Safe haven investments are investments that provide a low level of risk during periods of extreme economic uncertainty. The problem is that a safe haven investment is a safe haven investment until it is no longer a safe haven investment. There are a number of assets that are…

Fear the no-grow zone: has technological innovation reached its final frontier?

By Fabrizio Carmignani, Griffith University The economic profession lacks a unified theory of economic growth. Textbooks and academic journals contain a plethora of models and paradigms which generate different (and sometimes contradictory) predictions about the mechanics of the growth process. Amid this intellectual confusion, an element in common to the bulk of modern growth models…

Accountants Are Not Always People You Can Trust

Something seems out of whack when you can buy a new push bike for your child for the same price it costs an accountant to leave ‘please call me back’ messages on your voicemail. Push bike versus empty voicemail messages? Hmmm…which offers more value? Something seems out of whack when an accountant can bill indiscriminately…

Economics and the brain: how people really make decisions in turbulent times

By Paul Harrison, Deakin University In a 2008 paper on neuroeconomics, Carnegie Mellon University economist George Loewenstein said: “Whereas psychologists tend to view humans as fallible and sometime even self-destructive, economists tend to view people as efficient maximisers of self-interest who make mistakes only when imperfectly informed about the consequences of their actions.” This view…

Where To Find The Stocks To Buy And Sell

The share market is one of the few places where you can profit when things go wrong as well as when things go right.  Savvy investors with solid reason to believe a company is in trouble, or soon will be, can bet on the downward movement by selling the stock short.  You know the procedure. …

Searching the Short List for Investing Opportunities

The share market is one of the few places where you can profit when things go wrong as well as when things go right.  Savvy investors can research a stock and with solid reason to believe the company is in trouble, or soon will be, they bet on the downward movement by selling the stock…

A recession-proof stock

By Guy Carson, Clime Asset Management Beginning with the takeover of Foodland in 2005, Metcash Limited (ASX:MTS) has continued to establish itself as the significant third player in the Australian grocery market with 19% market share (See Figure 1). Its 2009 results released last month further emphasised its significant position within the market and reaffirmed…

A simple method for finding dirt-cheap stocks

We often want to buy a stock on the cheap – and to do this we need to find how much the company’s shares should be worth. But how do you know if the current share price is too high or too low? There are many valuation methods around that attempt to calculate the ‘true’…