The Sizemore Investment Letter

Greece is no stranger to economic crises such as the current one. The country has been in debt since its independence and has gone through a cycle of borrowing and defaulting numerous times. Foreign powers have always had an interest in maintaining Greece’s stability, so previously they always agreed to refinance its debts. The only new factor in Greece’s ongoing crisis is that the country is not as strategically important to outsiders as it was before the end of the Cold War, so foreign governments are not as interested in loaning Athens money.

With the passing of Steve Jobs, Apple (Nasdaq: $AAPL) loses its iconic founder, the tech world loses a true visionary, and all of us lose a hero of American capitalism.  Rest in peace, Mr. Jobs. The press is full of eulogies that describe in detail the man’s remarkable accomplishments in revolutionizing the technology world.  But [...]

The rating agency lowered Japan to “AA-,” citing Tokyo’s lack of a coherent strategy for dealing with its soaring debt, which now stands at 200% of GDP.

I commented in a previous article that “if you think that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is unpopular, consider the tragic case of Takahashi Korekiyo, who served as Bank of Japan governor from 1911-1913 and as finance minister and prime minister in the 1920s and 1930s.” Mr. Takahashi helped to pull Japan out of the Great [...]