Wiley, are you concerned about SWJ’s real estate holding company? I am looking for a pure water play without any real estate attached.
“SJW Land Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of SJW Corp., owns and operates parking facilities. SJW Land Company also owns commercial buildings and other undeveloped land primarily in the San Jose metropolitan area, certain properties in the states of Florida, Connecticut and Texas, and a 70% limited partnership interest in 444 West Santa Clara Street, L.P.”
vrudny, I don’t have the confidence in the renminbi that you have. China’s banks have hidden very effectively a huge amount of bad debt. They are overbuilt, and soon, their factories will sit idle. Then what happens to the banks? I am more worried about the yen than the US dollar. I do not want to buy yen, preferring the currency of a stable established economy, like swiss franc or euro.
Also, does anyone have any idea why Roubini would call gold a “barbaric relic”? I asked him, so maybe he will answer.
I couldn’t help but chuckle when vrudny mentioned having a “friend”… China is a communist country, and there’s no transparency whatsoever. Even Japan (not communist) had a serious problem with obscure and hidden banking practices that were part of the asset bubble bursting there in 1990 that hasn’t recovered yet 16 years later.
As for Roubini’s relic commment, I think he was being sarcastic. I wish he would read what he posts before pushing the ‘submit’ button: all those grammar slips detract from his credibility, not to mention his overbearing tone. I bet his scholarly papers are nothing like that thanks to the peer review process.
I saw your postings in his blog. I think he’s Italian. Not all surnames ending in “-ni” are Persian.
JG — allowing room for differing views, that’s the beauty of democracy, isn’t it? I generally try to keep my mind open. As I said, I am not that interested in politics, but I do care about impacts of policies. And I generally also think about long-term/unanticipated consequences of decisions. So if a politician in action doesn’t bring good policies to the table, then he or she will lose my respect.
There are many very knowledgeable people here, and I’ve learned quite a bit, and I think that it’s a good things that views differ…otherwise it’d be boring.
Roubini’s blog today regarding my question on gold and whether he speaks farsi. He actually responded to me; I think I’m in heaven…
“Schahrzad: thanks for your continued interesting comments. I say that gold is a barbaric relic as there is a bunch of “gold bug” who believe that all the world’s problem would be solved if we were to go back to a gold standards; these hacks are usually the supply-sider voodoo economics believers who think – against all evidence – that tax cuts increase revenues. So, i am wary of supporting the role of gold. and yes in periods of inflation gold can be an hedge; but so can many other commodities; what is so special about gold? so, i’d rather us get rid of our gold obsession.
best, nouriel ps: btw i speak farsi extremely poorly
