In Search of the Perfect Investment

The world economy is slow. There are few “obvious” strong tech growers — excepting Apple. With interest rates staying low forever (Bernanke mantra), investor focus (at least from all my friends) is towards dividend payers. The returns have been nothing short of phenomenal. A reader comments yesterday:

You may want to post daily charts of AGNC and MGTE for the past 12 months. The total return on each was over 50%.

Here’s my favorite AGNC:

Here’s MTGE.

AGNC is currently yielding 13.7%. MTGE is yielding 13.68%. I also own NLY which is yielding 13.1% and MITT which is yielding 13.4%.

Gold is on its way up, again. There’s more buzz. More people talking about it.

Sample of the talk. From Don Luskin, chief investment officer of the prestigious TrendMacro.

..The Fed’s commitment to a stay loose for a “considerable period” following recovery is the realization of our longstanding upside case for gold.

Australia kept its AAA rating. But rates on bank CDs have dropped to slightly under 5% a year. I can’t see the Aussie dollar going much beyond its present 1.044 to the U.S. dollar. So that “juice” won’t be there in future. I wonder if the Sydney Harbour Bridge is for sale?

That’s it behind the Opera House, which is as stunning in person as it looks on this stolen picture.

What should Mitt Romney do now?

He should peer deep into the abyss. He should look straight into the heart of darkness where lies a Republican defeat in a year the Republican presidential candidate almost couldn’t lose. He should imagine what it will mean for the country, for a great political philosophy, conservatism, for his party and, last, for himself. He must look down unblinkingly.

And then he needs to snap out of it, and move.

Peggy Noonan, a very smart lady who worked for Reagan, wrote the above in this week’s Wall Street Journal. Her entire article is worth reading. Click here.

The architecture of Andalucia. Two things we in the U.S. could learn:

1. Solar hot water. It makes sense in this ultra-sunny clime. But I’m told it makes sense in most places of the U.S. — unlike solar energy which makes no sense.  This is the solar water heating system in our rented house. It’s 8 feet wide x 6 feet deep (or so). Our water comes out hot, really hot, even at night.

2. Small windows. We worship large picture windows in the U.S. Here they have small windows and patios. The windows have wooden shutters, which cut out all the light. and keep all the heat in.and out.v When you open the shutters and/or the windows, you get plenty of light and cross ventilation. It makes huge sense. I love this window in the living room.

Favorite recent cartoons:

Harry Newton who is amazed at how small our world has become. Here am I sitting in a rented house three miles from Gaucin, a tiny little mountain town in Andalucia, Southern Spain.  And I’m updating my web site and occasionally selling or buying a stock — from the middle of nowhere. Our friends found the place on www.RusticBlue.com. The site gives you a nice overview guide to Andalucia. This is what they write about Córdoba:

Córdoba was the largest city in the world in the tenth century, the thriving capital of Al-Andalus, the name used to describe Moorish Spain which extended throughout almost all of the Iberian Peninsular. In its heyday it was considered the Mecca of the west.

Right in the centre of the city, surrounded by the old Jewish and Moorish quarters, The Mezquita of Córdoba is, along with Granada’s Alhambra Palace, the finest example of Islamic Art in the western world, the grandest and most beautiful mosque constructed by the Moors in Spain. When the Christians reconquered the city they were so overwhelmed by its beauty they could not bring themselves to destroy it (as was their custom). Here they built their Cathedral inside the existing Mosque!

It’s one of only a handful of man-made places in the world which literally takes your breath away.