Author Archives: Jason Ruspini

About Jason Ruspini

Senior Vice President at Conquest Capital Group, Research - New York, U.S.A.

Gold and Real Interest Rates

The impact of real rates on gold is becoming more widely appreciated, which in itself worries me. Part of the reason I like gold is that there is so much noise around it and few seem to understand what drives … Continue reading

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Technological change and asset returns

Peter Thiel thinks our entire civilization and culture is predicated on accelerating technological change. Specifically, technological growth has an important but poorly understood impact on economic growth, asset returns and the need to work over the course of one’s life. … Continue reading

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More Garbage Words: Social Security, “A Minor Fiscal Issue”

Paul Krugman calls Social Security a minor fiscal issue, citing this report in which Social Security spending as a percent of GDP levels off at around 6% in 2030. For someone whose blogging modus operandi is pointing out disingenuous arguments … Continue reading

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Mark Thoma, Superficial Blogger

His post, “The Myth of the Social Security Shortfall”, here, but if you don’t want to defer thinking, read Mish Shedlock on pension underfunding instead. Yes, taxes will have to go up, but it’s not as though sunsetting the Bush … Continue reading

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The Interdependence of Prices and Gold

I gave a talk on Thursday night at the New York Investing Club meeting. The basic points: Gold does well when real rates of return are low. Real rates describe the price of gold much better than inflation alone. This … Continue reading

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CFTC Takes Jurisdiction Over “Prediction Markets”.

First, a hearty congratulations to Robert Swagger and Trend Exchange. Along with the Cantor Exchange folks, they have run quite a gauntlet, and although there remains a tremendous obstacle in the form of the Lincoln amendment, I consider these exchanges … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Limits of Transparency

Jacqueline Best’s The Limits of Transparency is carried by sensible concerns on the tension between efficiency and stability, the tension between promoting employment and stable money, and the political implications of seemingly neutral economic policy. However, while economists, market participants … Continue reading

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A Note on the Impotence of the Efficient Market Hypothesis

No one who makes a living trading really cares about EMH, but I’m not sure why failure to predict under EMH is that surprising. Markets do more discounting than predicting. That’s part of the reason why stocks are volatile — … Continue reading

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What Does Gold Hedge Against?

“Not inflation”, the gold critics will shout, in one of their go-to arguments. This is what we hear from CNBC’s Mark Haines at every possible chance: since 1980, gold has not kept up with the CPI and so shouldn’t be … Continue reading

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Paul Krugman Tries to Foist Specious Argument in Tobin Tax Debate.

It was a nice try but short term financing wasn’t a root cause of the crisis. Highly leveraged, incompetent financing, along with a host of agency problems and too little, not too much, trading share most of the blame. Since … Continue reading

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