HTWW shares another dark fantasy!

Silly. It's simply a mistake to define globalization as trade in commodities and manufactured goods. True, rising energy prices will force a recalculation on how "the heavy stuff" is produced and shipped. But globalization isn't just moving weight from A to B. It's primarily a free flow of ideas. A free flow of capital. A free flow of services. Those variables are not impacted by energy prices. No, HTWW. Globalization's advance has just begun.

Great post HTWW! Fascinating. Maybe Al Gore was right after all.

Get some!

I simply insist you converse in a civil manner. Perhaps you would have more success communicating with other readers if you did so.

Concerning Buffett, he simply does not share your doomsday world view. He shares mine. It's true Buffett expects higher oil prices, primarily due to a resumption of global economic growth.

The Oracle was interviewed by Businesswire last week (11/3). Please watch it. Mr. Buffett clearly states the economy is rebounding; tremendous progress has been made in one year. He believes in our system. He also states employment will improve and your kids will live a better life than us.

P.S. I was serious about the Petrobank (PBG on Toronto exchange) recommendation. Buy a few shares for the kids.

Final tally:

Rockstar 3

Scorpio 1

Game. Set. Match.

Dearest Scorpio, all that anger is gonna burn you up. Some civility please.

First, Gluskin Sheff & Associates is a good shop. Being a Canadian firm, their equity portfolios are heavily tilted to local commodity producers. Good for them! Rockstar is invested similarly (free tip: Petrobank). The portfolio is overall defensive, with an elevated cash position. Still mainly equities though. In review, GS&A’s portfolio is much more aligned with Rockstar’s than Scorpio’s.

Score: Rockstar 1, Scorpio 0

Warren Buffet? Such an odd comment. Sure rail freight is down big. It should be. But the Oracles acquisition of Burlington Northern is all you need to know about where he thinks rail freight will be. One of the greatest Americans of all time, btw.

Score: Rockstar 2, Scorpio 0

Paul Krugman? He’s all yours. His position isn’t as hopeless as Scorpio’s, but close enough.

Final tally: Rockstar 2, Scorpio 1.

excellent article and a great story about an emerging chinese middle class; a clear sign that globalization works!

As an aside, if chinese consumers want a netbook with more horsepower, Nvidia's ION chips pack a GPU onto an Atom processor. Good stuff.

Bah. At least HTWW is consistent. Don't like a data point? Counter it with an irrelavent story about a local pizza parlor (HTWW has "feelings" after all). Truth is, HTWW is the queen of selective data mining.

Challenge yourself! How do you interpret the data? So consumption is relatively flat; patters of consumption are also shifting. More necessities and less luxery. Maybe that's the real story.

Hey Scorpio! You know what's really embarrassing?

Reading posts from a washed up hippie in Hawaii and an assistant to an associate professor in nowhere UK discussing a move to France. Nobody is stopping you, but perhaps you should get off the couch first.

That is embarrassing. And pitiful. A Certain a waste of bandwidth.

Hey Godot!

If you and Dr. Map are right and we have to eat our spouses and children, will they be crispy and taste good with ketchup?

Ha!

Dude you are always late. When are you going to post under Walter Map again?

Bah!

Your are on the right track today, HTWW. One quick note. Gross at Slate is correct that the large cap companies that comprise the S&P 500 are globally oriented, and are responding to a resumption of global growth. This is very good news.

What this theory does not explain is why US small cap companies - say those that comprise the Russell 2000 - have dramatically outperformed the S&P500. These companies are much more domestically oriented than the big boys.

So global growth (Asia focused) cannot be the whole story.

I think some clarity comes with a change in perception. Dicount for a moment the headline grabbing YTD returns or returns since March 9 (the bottom). Equity markets are still significantly off all time highs achieved around October 2007.

Volatility is extraordinary. What we are experiencing is a market recalibration, as much technical as fundamental.

The world did not end (sorry Walter Map and Scorpio69!) yet we have significant challenges ahead. We may not reach those October 2007 levels for some time.

Envy is an emotion that occurs when a person lacks another's superior quality, achievement, or possessions and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it.

I'm not so sure i would put our dear HTWW author at the high end of the journalistic pay scale....

fascinating article and excellent read

well said

Thanks for the link to the WSJ article; it was excellent.

Perhaps the subject of "net short" is becoming a distraction. That said, you cannot deduce from article that Goldman was net short; a disproportionate return is not evidence the book was net short. The article indicates that the traders took selective risk (shorting 06-2 index) which could have more compensated for a net long position in higher quality market segments.

In any case, the WSJ article suggests that the riskiest short positions were made by younger traders, AGAINST the initial desire of more serior management.

Makoweb - contrary to your claim, there is no reference in the article to Goldman being net short, either explicit or implied.

Perhaps Goldman was net short. No evidence to support the claim. Clearly, they wanted to be. But at the time liquidity was evaporating fast. We don't know exactly how quickly they liquidated the long book and entered into the short positions.