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Richard Benson

Richard Benson

Contributor since: 26 Feb 2010

Biography

Prior to founding the Specialty Finance Group in 1989, Mr. Benson acted as a trading desk economist for Chase Manhattan Bank in the early 1980's and started in the securitization business in 1983 at Bear Stearns, and helped build the early securitization businesses at Citibank and E.F. Hutton.

  • It's Deal or No Deal as the Hedges Clip Investors

    Published 28 September 2006 | viewed 4,546 times

    We're living in interesting times. A popular TV program called "Deal or No Deal" - a high-stakes game show of odds and chance - says…

  • Inflation Non-Cents

    Published 01 August 2006 | viewed 5,255 times

    When was the last time you actually bent down and picked up that penny you dropped? The U.S. penny is on its way to extinction…

  • Don't Roll the Dice on Wall Street

    Published 25 July 2006 | viewed 4,475 times

    Up until just recently the only bargains in the carry trade were achieved by borrowing at lower interest rates in the euro and yen. This…

  • Bernanke Scares Pavlov's Sheep

    Published 13 June 2006 | viewed 5,797 times

    This is a partial edited reprint of my article entitled "The Fed and Pavlov's Sheep" that was written and published in May of 2004. The…

  • Dollars on Sale, 30 Percent Off

    Published 08 May 2006 | viewed 7,376 times

    The dollar was once the almighty dollar. It became the world reserve currency. Every investor and government wanted dollars over all other currencies. Those were…

  • Existential Equity Extraction and Six Months to Housing Hell

    Published 04 April 2006 | viewed 14,523 times

    For the past decade, homeowners in the United States have been living in "Housing Heaven". In this heavenly place, profits are always made; prices only…

  • Beyond Keynes to Inflation

    Published 09 January 2006 | viewed 4,683 times

    Orthodox economic training in the United States in the post-World War II world, centered on the observations of John M. Keynes who claimed that to…

  • When Profits go Poof

    Published 15 November 2005 | viewed 5,443 times

    Wall Street executives are always creatively stating reasons why investors should buy stocks. Because corporate profits have been so good, they want investors to look…

  • Squeezing Americans Dry

    Published 07 October 2005 | viewed 7,164 times

    With rising inflation and debt payments, the household budgets of all of us are being squeezed. The picture does not look pretty. Let's first look…

  • Inflation Raising its Ugly Head

    Published 10 September 2005 | viewed 4,792 times

    Budget deficits to the left of us, money growth to the right of us, and an oil price shock behind us, will leave only inflation…

  • Slaughter of the Housing Speculators

    Published 19 August 2005 | viewed 13,384 times

    These days, "Get Rich Quick" has been the mantra for too many people trying to cash in while buying real estate speculatively. With so much…

  • China's Revaluation: "Big Journeys Begin with Small Steps"

    Published 03 August 2005 | viewed 3,665 times

    Just because the financial markets and press have responded to the revaluation of the Chinese currency with a big yawn, as China continues to take…

  • Goodbye Middle Class; Hello House Poor

    Published 08 July 2005 | viewed 8,429 times

    There's no question that home building, home sales with large capital gains, and record mortgage financing drives the economy, creating millions of jobs and generating…

  • Death of the Carry Trade

    Published 07 June 2005 | viewed 6,169 times

    In the financial markets, the term "Carry Trade" refers to the way that most financial intermediaries (money center banks, Wall Street investment banks, and hedge…

  • Keep Your Stash in Cash

    Published 11 May 2005 | viewed 8,686 times

    Risk is becoming a nasty four letter word. Stocks are down for the year, junk bond holders are lightening up as credit spreads widen, and…

  • America's Tribute

    Published 04 April 2005 | viewed 5,723 times

    The Asians remain shocked and in disbelief. Just when Japan, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong had accumulated enough dollars to buy oil to keep them…

  • Hotel "Debt" California

    Published 28 February 2005 | viewed 6,709 times

    The song "Hotel California" by the Eagles is a haunting reminder of what could be in store for the Baby Boom generation. The song's lyrics…

  • Why the World Loves America's Deficits

    Published 12 January 2005 | viewed 3,534 times

    At the end of last year, the nation's financial deficit - what the United States owes the rest of the world, minus what the rest…

  • Inflation Disinformation

    Published 29 December 2004 | viewed 4,400 times

    Now that the Pentagon has won the domestic war over the United States' intelligence services, our blinders have been removed and we are allowed to…

  • When Our Dollars Come Marching Home

    Published 03 December 2004 | viewed 4,472 times

    The financial and popular press has lately focused on the now obvious problems for the dollar created from our massive budget and trade deficits. Indeed,…