Debt paydown still top priority for Teck

Vancouver-based Teck Cominco may find itself sitting a lot more comfortably than was the case six months or so, but CEO Don Lindsay made it clear on Thursday that he won’t be happy until the company’s term loan is paid down and it once again merits investment-grade ratings. One year ago, Teck borrowed $9,8-billion to [...]

Brand Disloyalty

The Daily Reckoning The US dollar is a sort of monetary brand. And like any other brand, it can fall out of favor. Even iconic brands can rapidly lose their “must-have” caché. Sometimes, a brand can disappear entirely, as did Pan American Airways or “Members Only” jackets. But there is always something else waiting to [...]

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Joseph L. Shaefer submits: The title of this article is of course borrowed from the brilliant book of the same name written in 1841 by Charles Mackay. The book deals with 3 “delusions”: "National Delusions", "Peculiar Follies", and "Philosophical Delusions". While dealing with The Crusades, alchemy, witch-hunts and other follies, the parts that interest us [...]

What Causes a Depression?

The Daily Reckoning It is a gray morning here in London. We sit in the building with the golden balls, look out the window, and wonder… …how does it all work? We’re doing some serious thinking this week. What is it that actually causes a depression? A stock market collapse? Or too much debt? How [...]

Something Borrowed, Something New

A bug’s life is the life for me. Such was the anthem at the Phoenix Silver Summit in late February, where gold and silver bugs reveled in a fiesta of bullish numbers. Confronting a perfect storm of dour economic news, Roger Weigand, Ted Butler, and their newsletter-writing next of kin predicted a golden forecast for [...]