The Market Fever Index, issue 4
Last month, the index stood at 122 (2273 items, with 2065 in the previous month and 1939 items originally). This month, perhaps because of Easter or perhaps because the smart money is now moving towards real estate, the index fell back to cover only 908 items, which gives us a value of just under 47.
To see if there is anything real going on, I will now also use a broader sample, changing the search to encompass the whole world. This search produces a total of 374,000 hits for the week in question, which now becomes our baseline or 100.
Let’s see what happens next month, with both series.
Meanwhile, my new book is out. Here is what Amazon says about Waves of Change: Managing Global Trends in the Financial Services Industry.
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Written in the middle of a global economic crisis, this book is about a better future. Patrick Callioni identifies and describes the major waves of change that are coming our way over the next decade or so and then provides practical advice on what to do (or avoid doing) to benefit most or suffer least from what is to come. He describes some of the problems with the present regime of regulation “We are regulating to catch the motes of dust floating in the air, rather than the beams that end up poking out the eyes of our financial markets” and suggests “regulation should focus on rewarding the good, rather than punishing the bad”.
He also analyzes some of the behavior that helped to create the ‘Credit Crunch’ – “They took healthy debt – mortgage debt that was likely to be repaid – mixed it up with toxic debt –mortgage debt not likely to be repaid – and then sold the debt on as prime, safe debt, creating untold damage”.
Then he presents the waves of change that are coming: the challenges of new technologies; the business opportunities opened by reactions to climate change; and demographic changes as workers and managers are no longer predominantly baby boomers. He also warns of future signs of impending financial setbacks that should be avoided: “A financial crisis will occur only when the fuel is there, in the form of an investment bubble”.
In his previous book, Compliance and Regulation in the Financial Services Industry, Patrick Callioni successfully predicted most of the course of the current economic downturn. Over-regulation is as dangerous as under-regulation, so he proposes the creation of a federated network of trust. Throughout this exciting book, he emphasizes the increasing importance of knowledge capital, value that is not captured by existing accounting standards, and in particular soft intangibles (knowledge assets, time assets, motivational assets etc) and he proposes guidance on their measurement and profitable management.
If you should want to buy it, though, I suggest you get it from the Book Depository in the UK, here. It is slightly cheaper and they do not charge for postage.
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Patrick Callioni is a former senior public servant, with the Queensland and Australian Governments, and is now the Managing Director of consulting company, Enterprise Intelligence Pty Ltd, which specialises in helping business to do business with government and vice-versa. His book Compliance Regulation and Financial Services is available at Amazon
www.enterpriseintelligence.net.au
BostonL
September 1, 2010 at 9:57 am
Housing Investment
There was a long time where home house loans were called "the most significant investment an individual ever makes". Then the housing crisis arrived and long overstayed its welcome. Home values went too low. This was after the home values were already too high. Sales of homes haven’t been this low in 15 years. Prices on homes are going down making deflation concerns go up. Investing in homes is a bad decision, according to a Federal Reserve official. A financial expert explained that investments and expenses are mixed up when it comes to getting homes.Getting a house loan can help you when you want to buy a home.It can help you with your expenses in the future.
Cristy H
December 28, 2010 at 9:20 am
Everyone has been facing
Everyone has been facing financial problem. Debt consolidation is just one of the many ways to solve the problem. Debt settlement relief corporations have been multiplying at a fast rate in the past few years. Government restrictions are being put in place because of the companies that are not on the level. Despite new regulations, some of these businesses are simply disregarding them. A simple cash advance is not enough for these businesses, they always want more.