Update No. 51 – 16/03/12

I read a variety of economic and investment blogs on a daily basis, more economic than investment because I don’t want to have my investment ideas too heavily influenced by others current thinking; yet understanding the global economy can only benefit from a wider consumption of views (especially those contrary to your own).  A number my regular fodder are on the links tab of my website, but a great many others that I read regularly are not – no particular reason, than that the page would soon become very long.

This week I thought I’d link-out to some great material I’ve stumbled across lately.

Firstly, to this Felix Salmon piece about the latest US unemployment data called ‘The employment recovery is real’.  I’ve linked to Felix before; he is an outstanding economics blogger who should be a daily read for anyone with a genuine interest in the global economy.  I liked this piece because it finally seems to come around to the real US recovery story, which I started telling in October last year and went on to revisit here, here & here (among others).  Mainstream media are finally buying into the fact that the reverse of the oversupply which led to the housing crisis has gone on for too long and the longer it goes, the greater the likelihood of a slingshot recovery when the market finally reacts.  US Unemployment remained steady at 8.3% despite 227,000 jobs created as more people commenced an active search for work.

Secondly, I wanted to draw (much deserved) attention to this article, by an economist named Scott Sumner, who teaches economics at Bentley University.  Scott’s blog – The Money Illusion I am a huge fan of, his views, generally on economics seem to quite closely parallel mine.  The linked article talks about the economic mistake of taxing capital and it is absolutely correct in its thinking in my view.  Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure it would be nearly impossible to apply on a practical level, but if an efficient way could be found, there is no question a society employing such a taxation system would advance economically much more quickly than an equivalent society employing anything used in any of the advanced economies presently.  I would think that such a system would need to be coupled with a hefty ‘death tax’ to maximise intergenerational productivity.

Finally, a third article I would also like to draw regular readers to, by Peter Thornhill, whose website is on my links tab.  Peter gives a lot of talks on investing, chiefly focused on the investors mindset, with a lovely focus on the ‘dangers’ of holding cash.  Peter rarely updates the ‘my say’ tab on his website, sometimes only once a year, but when he does it is invariably (like his book) well presented and well worth the read. The chart on this article is particularly instructive for anyone thinking retirement with a substantial proportion of their capital tied up in cash is a wise path to choose – Tony Hansen 16/03/12.

EGP Fund No. 1 Pty Ltd. Up by 9.6%, leading the benchmark by 2.81% since January 1^st. Since inception, EGP Fund No. 1 Pty Ltd is Up by 5.49%, leading the benchmark by 12.95% all-time (April 1^st 2011).