Keith Fitz-Gerald
Investment Director
Money Morning/The Money Map Report
KYOTO, Japan – Mention Japan and many people think of Geisha, castles and samurai. Mention investing in Japan and the image of an impenetrable wall comes to mind.
I’ve been extremely fortunate to have seen all of this firsthand – and not just once, but on a pretty consistent basis [...]

Keith Fitz-Gerald
Investment Director
Money Morning/The Money Map Report
Billionaire investor George Soros thinks the worst of the global financial crisis is behind us.
In a June 20 interview with Polish television, the Hungarian-born Soros acknowledged that this has been the most serious crisis he’s seen in his lifetime, but said, “Definitely, the worst is behind us.”
For those that [...]

We’re finally going to see some serious reforms in the credit card industry but the new legislation won’t take effect until February 2010. Until then, hold on to your asteroids. The cash strapped credit card companies are going to do almost anything they want in the meantime to make up lost ground. Expect interest rates [...]

According to NHK news tonight – If you took 1,000 Yen bills and stacked them on top of each other in an amount equal to Madoff’s mess, the resulting pile would be more than 62 kilometers high. Talk about reaching new heights…yeesh. What a scumbag.

Earlier this year I suggested that banks will begin booking record profits from two unlikely sources that would confirm it’s business as usual: 1) derivatives contracts and 2) the writing up of toxic assets. And I endured relentless criticism from my detractors who couldn’t imagine that banks would be allowed to do such things.
Well not only [...]

Keith Fitz-Gerald
Investment Director
Money Morning/The Money Map Report
Right now, there’s more than $9.5 trillion in cash on the sidelines – or more than twice the amount of money currently invested in stock mutual funds, according to MoneyNet.inc and the U.S. Federal Reserve. Private equity firms alone are believed to hold as much as an additional $1.3 [...]

The 50 day SMA crossed over the 200 day SMA on June 23rd for the first time since 2007. In technical circles, this is called the “golden cross” and it’s typically regarded a bullish indicator by technical analysts. So will the S&P 500 extend its rally as a result? I think it’s too early to [...]

One of the hallmarks of any great civilization is its ability to produce technically complicated machinery. I’m not talking flat screen TVs here but stuff like space ships and, closer to earth, aircraft. China not only is building both, but accelerating its production pointing out yet again that investors who think the country is dying [...]

After an epic battle (at least if you believe the Ministry of Whitewash), Congress approved retained a ”cash for clunkers” provision in its latest war spending bill and sent it on to the President. Ostensibly aimed at helping the auto industry, it’s yet more evidence of the kind of fiscal incompetence that got us into this mess in [...]

They also said the stimulus was adequate…What they’re not saying is that if you factor in the “cash” circulating in China, the actual growth could be more like 9%+… Still, better late than never. This reaffirms my expectations and what I’ve been telling investors for years. It should also reinforce why China should be an important [...]