In this issue: Europe: Greek House Sport: Olympics Economy: The Markets GREEK CHAOS Are you aware about what has been going on this week in Greece with regards to their stock exchange? In case you aren’t, it is beyond carnage. The exchange had been closed for five weeks in order to avoid exactly what has been going on. It opened this week and the rout was on. The powers that be may have expected a drop but probably didn’t anticipate the full extent. Neither did we. As of Thursday the drop was well over sixty percent and more damage expected in the days to come. The bottom has dropped out and even though it is a small market compared to that of the world, other markets are being affected as well. It is, as we can imagine, across the board and the so-called ‘experts’ are scrambling. We would be scrambling as well if we were invested there. (We aren’t) And as we speak there are more sell orders that are responsible for spiking the prices even lower. Talk about confidence in their system from their own people! We are not happy about this even though we never hid our feelings about the so-called repeated ‘bailouts’. From our point of view, this ongoing process was badly thought out, badly executed and only succeeded in fracturing public opinion. www.fosterelliotltd.com WEEKLY REPORT August 11 - August 18 ⌘ Issue 32 / Volume 15 It has done a lot more to damage the European Union than anything else. Would you disagree? And before we continue, could we ever forget Tsipras’ thwarted attempt to negotiate with the Russians? There is no doubt in our mind that he would have sold us down the river if Putin had even showed the slightest willingness. In spite of all these considerations, we do sympathize with the lost wealth. But we should also keep in mind that it is not a true indication of the state of the country. After all, what percentage of Greeks are invested in the markets? Do you get our point? In any case, it is what it is and we in Europe are left to gather up the pieces. This has been a disaster from start to finish and, unfortunately, there is no win in sight. As far as we are concerned, survival is the only goal. We hate to beat a dead horse but it is an issue that remains constantly on our minds. We wish it wasn’t so. POLITICAL CORECTNESS This has been a theme that is very important over in America.
Transcript
In this issue:Europe: Greek HouseSport: OlympicsEconomy: The Markets
GREEK CHAOS
Are you aware about what has been going on this week in Greece with regards to their stock exchange? In case you aren’t, it is beyond carnage. The exchange had been closed for five weeks in order to avoid exactly what has been going on. It opened this week and the rout was on. The powers that be may have expected a drop but probably didn’t anticipate the full extent. Neither did we.As of Thursday the drop was well over sixty percent and more damage expected in the days to come. The bottom has dropped out and even though it is a small market compared to that of the world, other markets are being affected as well. It is, as we can imagine, across the board and the so-called ‘experts’ are scrambling. We would be scrambling as well if we were invested there. (We aren’t) And as we speak there are more sell orders that are responsible for spiking the prices even lower. Talk about confidence in their system from their own people!
We are not happy about this even though we never hid our feelings about the so-called repeated ‘bailouts’. From our point of view, this ongoing process was badly thought out, badly executed and only succeeded in fracturing public opinion.
It has done a lot more to damage the European Union than anything else. Would you disagree? And before we continue, could we ever forget Tsipras’ thwarted attempt to negotiate with the Russians? There is no doubt in our mind that he would have sold us down the river if Putin had even showed the slightest willingness. In spite of all these considerations, we do sympathize with the lost wealth. But we should also keep in mind that it is not a true indication of the state of the country. After all, what percentage of Greeks are invested in the markets? Do you get our point? In any case, it is what it is and we in Europe are left to gather up the pieces. This has been a disaster from start to finish and, unfortunately, there is no win in sight. As far as we are concerned, survival is the only goal. We hate to beat a dead horse but it is an issue that remains constantly on our minds. We wish it wasn’t so.
POLITICAL CORECTNESS
This has been a theme that is very important over in America.
It has gathered steam in Europe as well. But, it must be said, that it is predominantly seen more over in the states. In spite of the fact of the notion of freedom of speech, this is more and more being ignored. However, with Donald Trump this mold is being broken.Perhaps this is where people actually like and respect him. Perhaps fear is a better word. After all, he is the only one who is standing up and saying what he thinks in spite of potential consequences. He seems to have no fear and is basing his campaign on this notion. And people are noticing and are walking on eggshells around him. We had the occasion to watch some show last week and one of the commentators (we forgot his name) grudgingly admitted that he was scared of Trump and didn’t dare cross him for fear of some kind of reprisal. He has said so many inappropriate and politically incorrect statements that it boggles the mind. And we are left to wonder what will be next. He has attacked Mexicans, Jon McCain, and women in general. Where will he go next? Who will his next victim be? We certainly are curious and there is no doubt that he is by far the most interesting candidate. In fact, as far as we are concerned, he is the only interesting candidate.
His rants have already cost him dearly. He lost contracts with Macy’s and Univision to name a couple. And there could be further fallout as well. The money we are talking about is not chump change either. He has already lost potentially millions in revenue and maybe more to come. We are surprised because money has always been his bottom line. This is not a man who likes to be parted from his fortune. He has made this clear in the past and he has even sued when he felt he was undervalued.
In any case, we can be assured that as long as he is in the race, his charisma will dwarf that of the other candidates. It is such a placid bunch that this is not all that difficult. We can’t imagine Trump as president and the very idea scares the hell out of us. We refuse to accept this far-fetched notion and are waiting for him to self-destruct. If the truth be told we never would have thought he would make it this far and that he would be taken seriously. How do you feel? Stay tuned…
OLYMPICS
As we all know, the Olympic Games will be coming to us next year and they will be held in Rio. Considering that the World Cup was recently held in Brazil as well, do you find this to be a coincidence? After all, Brazil had never held such major competitions before and now, in the course of two years, they are to be hosting two of the biggest events on the planet. How could this be?Before the World Cup, we were nervous and actually predicted that it would be a potential disaster. After all, when we consider the disparity between the rich and the poor, this sentiment is entirely understandable. We well remember the anger in the country about the money being spent to host the event. We should keep in mind that this is a country with an overwhelming amount of poor people and the billions of dollars being spent could certainly be spent elsewhere. Or at least so it would seem.And now we are doing it all over again and the reactions are similar. What about health care? And schools? And transportation? Aren’t these issues that have to be dealt with? Hosting the Olympics comes with a huge price tag and we are simply wondering where all the money will
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come from. Infrastructure needs to be improved, transportation constructed, roads built and so on and so on. We refuse to say that it will be a disaster but the potential is there. Brazil is admittedly a beautiful country and the people are considered very friendly. However, in spite of all this, there is an element of danger and violence undermining the whole scenario. We have heard this time and time again and it becomes impossible to ignore. We can’t tell you how many people that we have spoken to have mentioned that during their travels to Brazil, they experienced something extremely negative. In any case and we will try to be as optimistic as possible.
THE MARKETS
It was not quite the week that we would have liked. In fact, it wasn’t even close. The markets are soft and are trending downwards. In fact, we are quite anxious about this coming Monday. We are well aware of the effects of momentum and the last month has demonstrated that in spades. There are some positive signs and we tend to look towards that. A positive job report can’t be ignored. The economy is fairly stable and housing prices are holding. The Fed is always a worry but we don’t anticipate them being too aggressive. That being the case, we are not about to panic. We have had such a good run and we don’t feel as though our time is over.
As for Gold, the best that we can say is that it is holding steady. We expected it to be higher and it becomes a very difficult commodity to predict. We still are not even thinking of selling our position. We know that there is pressure but we will not take the easy way out. As far as we are concerned, it is always a safe haven and will continue to be as long as we are on the gold standard. We are frustrated; we assume you are too. Hold on because it will get better.
CONCLUSIONS FOR THE WEEK
We hope that you enjoyed what we had to say. The Greeks are still in the news and we welcome the day that that will no longer be the case. As for the subject of political correctness, we find that to be an interesting topic that will continue to be discussed. As for the Brazil discussion, we plan to follow up on that in the near future. After all, it is right around the corner. No commitments for nex week but we will be looking for something juicy.Without further ado, we now want to say good-by and in spite of the uncertain markets, we hope that you are able to rise above the fray and make lots of money!
