JakilaTheHun's Blog

Keeping Up with CAPS Folks

JakilaTheHun — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:16:48 GMT

I saw that David in Qatar and Chris Graley made 'catching up' posts, so I thought, "why not me?" Actually, I've been meaning to do this for awhile. Except this post is more about keeping up with people I've met on CAPS.

As some of you might have noticed, I haven't been blogging here much lately. I still occasionally contribute over at Seeking Alpha and on my own economics blog

From the Malthusian Nectar blog.

Being doing a lot of research into economic policies of the 1920′s. I’m really surprised at how much reality diverges from the traditional narratives. Far from emb...

High Unemployment Partly the Result of Minimum Wage Increase and Obamacare

JakilaTheHun — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 11:50:20 GMT

From Malthusian Nectar blog

The stubbornly high unemployment rate over the past few years has perplexed many. Even while the stock market recovered, unemployment has...

FDIC, Moral Hazard, and "Too Big to Fail"

JakilaTheHun — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:26:32 GMT

From Malthusian Nectar

The relationship between FDIC insurance, large banks, and the concept of “Too Big To Fail” (TBTF) is one of the more troubling aspects of our financial system. What most people don’t understand is that ...

"Investment Bias" or Why Americans Have Such a Fetish for China

JakilaTheHun — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:11:32 GMT

From my Malthusian Nectar blog

I’m continually puzzled by the American fetishism for China’s economy. I had commented on a blog post the other day and a woman made two replies. First, she criticized my claim that Wal-M...

Why Do Houston and Dallas Continue to Grow?

JakilaTheHun — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:20:09 GMT

From Malthusian Nectar

This morning, I was reading over the 2010 US Census population figures for major metropolitan areas. If you’re interested, you can view the rankings of the top 366 metropolitan areas

From Malthusian Nectar

Today, I encountered what I would consider to be a

From my blog, Malthusian Nectar

-------------------------

With the rapid decline of the Chinese real estate market, we are starting to see China’s central government step up and try to tackle its cooling ...

Netflix's Management Has Learned the Wrong Lesson

JakilaTheHun — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:09:36 GMT

I’m almost dumbfounded after reading about Netflix’s new plan to split its DVD and streaming services. A few months back, Netflix decided to end its bundled streaming + DVD plans, charging for both services separately. For...

Housing Might Rebound Stronger than Expected

JakilaTheHun — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:29:00 GMT

The original version of this article can be found on Seeking Alpha at this link. You can view the enlarged versions of the charts there.

-----------------------------------------

We a...

Can Beazer Homes Avoid Bankruptcy?

JakilaTheHun — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:28:44 GMT

I have been bullish on homebuilders since last November. Thus far, that investment has not paid off but the builders are selling at historically low levels and I continue to view this sector as a good long-term bet. Of course, I’d advise anyone buying in to be prepared for an emotional rollercoast...

One Liberty a Good Buy in an Irrational Market

JakilaTheHun — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:41:21 GMT

There’s nothing I love more than a good old market bloodbath. Too many investors look for a herd and follow their emotions to make investment decisions. For those investors, the S&P being down over 6.5% in one day is disastrous. For me, I look at prices and when I see the tag on something I want dropping 10% in a day, I’m much more likely to load up.

On that note, early on Monday, I checked my invest...

Performance of mREITs vs. Other Asset Classes

JakilaTheHun — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:20:29 GMT

Due to my own cautiousness regarding the market right now, I have shifted a greater percentage of assets into mortgage REITs (mREITs). My basic thesis is that the US debt ceiling deal, coupled with eurozone problems, is going to lead to a retraction of money in the real economy that will result in interest rates remaining subdued in the US. This will make mREITs an attractive investment class. In my previous article, I noted four mREITs...

Four Mortgage REITs with Insider Buying

JakilaTheHun — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 14:01:32 GMT

Mortgage REITs have dropped over the past week based on fears surrounding the debt ceiling issue. Yet, perhaps the exact opposite result should have occurred. While people will initially view the debt deal as a “bullish sign," in fact, it’s just the opposite. It could very well ignite the next recession, as more money is pulled from the economy. Couple this with continued problems in the eurozone and a potential East Asian crisis, and ...

CPI, Housing Prices, and The Great Stagflation

JakilaTheHun — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:39:12 GMT

Back in April, Floyd Norris of the New York Times wrote one of the most insightful articles I have encountered all year. He decided to look at CPI if home prices continued to be included in the index after 1983. This, of course, requires a little bit of explanation.

The lack of independent monetary policy within the Eurozone is one of the more economically destructive aspects of the system. Every individual nation in the 17-member grouping is forced to adopt a common monetary policy; even while they all continue to function as sovereign nations otherwise. The result is that money supply in each individual nation cannot be adjusted for the observed market conditions. In my view,...

Greece is the First Domino in a Crumbling Eurozone

JakilaTheHun — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:53:06 GMT

Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan, recently made some interesting remarks on the Greek debt crisis. Not only does Dimon believe that Greece won’t default, but that if it does, it will merely be a minor blip.

<...

Babbling About Keynes, Part I

JakilaTheHun — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:57:04 GMT

Keynesian spending policy is one of the most misunderstood areas of economics. I do not consider myself a Keynesian and my own views are probably closer to the Monetarism and the Chicago School of Economics. All the same, I do believe it’s important to understand the actual logic Keynes employed.

Keynes provided more insight into economics, than...

The Eurozone and Its Demise (Some Thoughts)

JakilaTheHun — Wed, 25 May 2011 15:55:54 GMT

I've been a critic of the Eurozone's basic structure for awhile. In essence, the Euro is a 17-nation currency peg, that strips away the independence from each central bank's monetary policy. This is almost like a reversion to the gold standard, in that nations that need to increase money supply can not. Therefore, they get stuck in a deflationary spiral.

Some thoughts:

This is a string of thoughts on economic debates and issues. Take it for what you will. It's just one man's attempt to reason through the economic problems of our day. All constructive responses are welcome.

(1) The debate on whether capitalism or socialism is more...