Baltic Dry Index. 3018 -89
"The Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin, upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization, upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institution and our Empire."
Sir Winston Churchill. June 1940.
When Mr Churchill delivered his speech to the House of Commons on June 18, 1940, he didn't have to wait long for the Battle of Britain to commence. On this day in July 1940, the Nazis opened the Battle of Britain with an unsuccessful attack of British shipping in the Channel off Kent.
RAF Spitfire
While the G-8 junket winds up today in Italy without producing much of anything meaningful, much to ordinary citizens relief, the second most important man at the US central bank was delivering a veiled threat to the US Congress, where a move is underway to bring in audits of the Fed's increasingly suspect books. "Audit us and we'll crash the economy," seems to be the Fed's Vice Chairman's threat. Not that they haven't done a pretty good job of crashing the US economy anyway, thanks to their policy under the Greenspan-Bernanke Fed. Clearly the Fed has something to hide after 38 years rigging the markets in support of the fiat currency dollar reserve standard and the crony banksters. Below, Reuters covers an increasingly rattled Federal Reserve as the US public becomes ever more aware of the reckless folly of the Fed.
Kohn warns Congress on meddling in Fed's affairs
Thu Jul 9, 2009 2:46pm EDT
WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve on Thursday launched a robust defense of its independence and warned that efforts in Congress to put monetary policy under political sway would hurt the economy.
Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said opening up some of the U.S. central bank's most sensitive decisions to political scrutiny could result in higher long-term interest rates and hurt the United States' credit rating. Kohn was speaking before a Congressional panel where he was seeking to beat back a proposal that would open policy decisions by the U.S. central bank to audits by a federal watchdog agency.
"Any substantial erosion of the Federal Reserve's monetary independence likely would lead to higher long-term interest rates as investors begin to fear future inflation," he said in testimony prepared for delivery to a House of Representatives Financial Services subcommittee.
Kohn's testimony comes as Congress debates President Barack Obama's plan for regulatory reform, which envisions the Fed taking on an expanded role monitoring risks across the entire financial system to help ward off future financial crises.
The proposal has increased calls for greater accountability at the central bank, which was already facing heavy scrutiny from lawmakers angered by its role in bailing out Wall Street.
Public anger over last year's financial crisis and Fed-backed bailouts of investment bank Bear Stearns and insurer American International Group has created a popular backlash that could gain momentum in Congress.
A bill put forward by Representative Ron Paul, a Texas Republican, would expose the Fed's decisions on monetary policy and emergency lending to audits by the Government Accountability Office. It has won support from a majority in the House of Representatives
----The GAO is currently prohibited from auditing these areas. Kohn said removing this exclusion would be highly detrimental and could lead investors to worry politics -- not economics -- would guide the Fed's decisions.
"The Federal Reserve strongly believes that removing the statutory limits on GAO audits of monetary policy matters would be contrary to the public interest by tending to undermine the independence and efficacy of monetary policy," he said.
He also said it could "cast a chill" on monetary policy deliberations by making officials nervous ideas they throw around behind closed doors could become public.
http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN0945907120090709
Across the Atlantic another central bank was digging a deep hole too. The old lady of Threadneedle Street was mugged by the Gilt vigilantes. Yesterday the Bank did a u-turn on its policy of printing money, completely confusing the markets. Fiat currency is increasingly an arbitrary political plaything of ever more ineffectual elitist ivory tower central bankers. We haven't seen anything yet as fiat currency starts to fly apart. Below, the Independent covers yesterday's reverse at the Bank of England.
City is caught by surprise as Bank stops 'printing money'
Pound gains ground against dollar while Government bonds slip
By Sean O'Grady, Economics Editor Friday, 10 July 2009
The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee surprised and disappointed markets yesterday as it signalled a possible end to its programme of "quantitative easing", known colloquially as "printing money".
As was universally anticipated, the Bank left interest rates at their historic low of 0.5 per cent, but it drew back from committing itself to spending the final £25bn of the £150bn allocated to it by the Chancellor in March, as many thought likely.
In a statement, the Bank merely said that it intended to complete its current programme, dividing opinion in the City as to whether this meant that it would announce a renewed QE programme in August alongside its Inflation Report, or whether this is the beginning of the end of this extraordinary phase in monetary policy.
The prospective loss of such a large purchaser of government bonds pushed gilt prices sharply lower and the yield on the benchmark 10-year gilt up by around 15 basis points to 3.76 per cent after the announcement at noon, a significant movement. The pound strengthened by about 1 per cent against the dollar, again in response to the unanticipated move by the Bank.
-----Far from clarifying matters, City economists were left confused, the opposite of the effect the MPC usually likes to achieve.
While the western central banks monetise and bailout their bankrupt banking system, China was again making waves for the dollar. Below the FT covers yesterday's L'Aquila developments.
China attacks dollar's dominance
By George Parker and Guy Dinmore in L'Aquila, Krishna Guha in Washington and Justine Lau in Hong Kong
Published: July 9 2009 19:03 | Last updated: July 9 2009 19:03
China has launched its highest-profile criticism of the dominant role of the US dollar as a global reserve currency at a meeting of the world's biggest economies.
Dai Bingguo, Chinese state councillor, raised the issue on Thursday when he joined the leaders of four other emerging economies for talks with the leaders of the Group of Eight industrialised nations – including US President Barack Obama – in the earthquake-damaged Italian town of L'Aquila.
The remarks, in front of Mr Obama, caused concern among western leaders, some of whom fear that even discussion of long-term currency issues could unsettle markets and undercut economic recovery.
"We should have a better system for reserve currency issuance and regulation, so that we can maintain relative stability of major reserve currencies exchange rates and promote a diversified and rational international reserve currency system," said Mr Dai, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.
While he did not name the dollar, Mr Dai was unequivocal in calling for the world to diversify the reserve currency system and aim at relatively stable exchange rates among leading currencies.
---- Analysts said Mr Dai's comments – which follow earlier statements by the People's Bank of China in March – appeared mostly political in nature. While China desires in the long run to move to a more multipolar global financial system, Chinese officials understand that there is no alternative to the dollar in the short term and may not be for many years.
---- The challenge also serves as a shot across the bows for the US at a time when China is concerned about giant US government deficits and the Federal Reserve's unorthodox monetary policy. Beijing wants the US to take seriously its obligation to sustain the value of China's nearly $2,000bn in US Treasuries.
Separately, Joseph Yam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, said Hong Kong might consider diversifying more of its US$200bn reserves away from the US dollar.
Mr Yam said he had an "open mind" as to whether the territory would invest its reserves in renminbi-denominated assets.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/81f3125a-6cae-11de-af56-00144feabdc0.html
The FT quotes unnamed analysts complacently assuring us that "Chinese officials understand that there is no alternative to the dollar in the short term and may not be for many years." I have little faith in such assurances or such complacency. In Washington there is no sign of anything except continued application of voodoo economics. The dollar reserve standard is heading for an eventual giant inflation. I think that Beijing has put the world on notice of a major change in the works. Stay long precious metals. Events in Xinjiang have just timely demonstrated why few will want a Yuan reserve standard to replace the dollar reserve standard, but a larger international role for the Yuan is coming nevertheless. My guess is that we end back up on precious metals after an unsatisfactory time on an unstable multi-polar fiat currency regime.
Below, more follow up to the Rio Tinto arrests.
China risks protectionist bonfire over Rio Tinto arrests
China's detention of four staff of mining company Rio Tinto will raise some alarming questions for foreign companies, write John Foley.
Published: 8:20AM BST 10 Jul 2009
It sounds like something from a John le Carré novel. Four employees of Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian miner, have been arrested in China for allegedly stealing state secrets. The development could have serious consequences for the Middle Kingdom.
At first glance, the arrests look like sour grapes. Rio last month withdrew from a planned $19.5bn tie-up with Chinese metals firm Chinalco at the eleventh hour. That dealt a severe blow to corporate China's pride. It was not the first time that a major Chinese company had failed to consummate a Western marriage. Moreover, Rio appears to have rubbed salt in an open wound: it reportedly squeezed a higher price to sell its iron ore to Chinese steelmakers than they initially wanted to pay.
The incident may be merely a matter of semantics. China's definition of "state secrets" is broad. Unmentionables can be as mundane as state plans for land use, or as sinister as annual execution rates. Since China's iron-ore negotiations take place with big, state-owned firms in smoky back rooms, it's not inconceivable Rio staff could have heard something they shouldn't.
But either way, foreign firms will probably take the arrests as confirmation of their suspicions that corporate China is indivisible from the state. Those concerns were already heightened following the blocking of Coca Cola's purchase of Huiyuan fruit juice in March, and Chinalco's eagerness for board seats at Rio.
----- Even small acts of cross-border aggression, like arresting a foreign citizen on spurious grounds, could throw fuel on protectionist bonfires. President Barack Obama is soon to consider a plan to impose US tariffs on Chinese tyres. India's accusations of Chinese trade dumping are growing more numerous.
Chinese politicians perceive a simple equation: trade barriers mean fewer exports, mean higher unemployment, means social unrest. After riots in its north-western Xinjiang province, that's an extra worry China can do without.
In oil news, offshore Brazil's Tupi field may not be all it was hyped up in 2007-2008 to be. Even if all the expected oil is there, getting it out is proving much harder than anticipated by the industry experts. With the economic recovery in the west stalled at best, oil prices are under pressure again as demand continues weak.
Dry hole in offshore play shows Brazil oil risks
Wed Jul 8, 2009 11:27am EDT
By Brian Ellsworth
RIO DE JANEIRO, July 8 (Reuters) - A consortium of companies failed to find oil in deep waters off Brazil's coast, officials said on Wednesday, a sign the South American nation's push to become an energy exporter is still fraught with risks.
The news came a day after state-run Petrobras said it suspended production at a pilot well in the massive Tupi field, highlighting the challenges of pumping crude through a thick layer of salt miles below the ocean's surface.
Such setbacks may prove a blow to government assertions that Brazil's sub-salt fields have no exploration risk -- a key argument for a pending legal overhaul that would change terms for oil companies investing in new offshore projects
A consortium including Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), Hess Corp (HES.N) and Petrobras (PBR.N)(PETR4.SA) did not report an oil find in the Guarani well of BM-S-22 bloc after drilling there, according to statements by Hess and Exxon Mobil.
Brazilian law requires companies to promptly inform the National Petroleum Agency if they find oil while drilling exploration wells under concession.
A Deutsche Bank report released on Wednesday put the total cost of the well at $140 million.
-----On Monday, Petrobras said it had to halt production at a well in the Tupi field, which contains at least 5 billion barrels of oil, because of an equipment problem. It did not say when the well would be functioning again.
The incidents demonstrate two key risks of developing sub-salt fields -- the chance oil reserves may be less than expected and the difficulty of producing under deep water at extreme temperatures and high pressures.
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0837991820090708
Oil Weakens as Recovery Hopes Dim
By JAD MOUAWAD Published: July 9, 2009
Oil prices briefly fell under $60 a barrel on Thursday after nearly two weeks of uninterrupted declines, as traders and investors acknowledged that a global economic recovery would take longer than hoped.
At the end of a volatile trading session, crude oil futures pared their losses, settling at $60.41 a barrel, up 27 cents, after falling as low as $59.25 a barrel during the day in New York. The price of oil has fallen by about $10 a barrel in the last six trading days, or nearly 17 percent. Oil rose to $72.68 a barrel in June, its highest trading close this year on optimism about a fast recovery.
Thursday's session followed the release of a weekly report from the Energy Department showing a substantial increase in gasoline inventories in the United States, with total oil inventories reaching their highest level since 1990. The report, widely viewed as bearish for oil markets, also signaled weaker-than-expected consumption.
"The bottom line is that it's all about demand and the lesson here is that the recovery is going to be a long and bumpy road, and not a smooth and straight line," said Michael Wittner, the global head of oil research at Société Générale, in London. He expects prices could fall as low as $50 a barrel in the short term.
---- The economic outlook remains murky at best. This week, the International Monetary Fund said the global economy would shrink 1.4 percent this year, a bigger decline than its April forecast of 1.3 percent. At the same time, the monetary fund also predicted stronger growth than it had initially forecast for 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/business/energy-environment/10oil.html?ref=business
Another summer weekend and time to visit again the second International Festival of Falconry at the nearby Englefield Estate in Berkshire. After the weather fiasco of the Queen's first garden party of the season at Buckingham Palace, remember to bring along a golf umbrella. Have a great weekend everyone.
The International Festival of Falconry.
http://www.falconryfestival.com/
At the Comex silver depositories Thursday final figures were: Registered 63.09 Moz, Eligible 53.59 Moz, Total 116.68 Moz.
"You ask what is our policy. I will say, it is to wage war with all our might, with all the strength that God can give us, to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime."
Sir Winston Churchill. May 1940.
Battle of Britain Campaign Diary
Date: 10 July 1940
- Weather: Showery in south-east England and Channel. Continuous rain elsewhere.
- Day: Convoy raids off North Foreland and Dover.
- Night: The east coast, home counties and western Scotland attacked.
Me-109
http://www.raf.mod.uk/Bob1940/july10.html
Crook's & Scoundrels' Corner.
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
The Madoff money trail gets interesting.
Madoff Trustee Says Vizcaya Hedge Fund Ignored Suit Against It
By Erik Larson
July 8 (Bloomberg) -- The trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff's investment-advisory business told a judge that British Virgin Islands-based hedge fund Vizcaya Partners Ltd. missed a deadline to respond to a lawsuit accusing it of taking $150 million in fake profit from Madoff's firm.
Trustee Irving Picard asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland in Manhattan to enter a so-called notice of default against Vizcaya, setting the stage for a default-judgment motion by Picard that could force Vizcaya to turn over the money.
Picard sued the so-called feeder fund in April over claims Madoff transferred $150 million to Vizcaya less than 90 days before his Dec. 11 arrest for running a $65 billion Ponzi scheme, the biggest in U.S. history. The Vizcaya money must be returned under U.S. law and should be used to repay Madoff's victims, according to the complaint.
Recovery of Vizcaya's alleged Madoff money may hinge on cooperation by authorities in Gibraltar, the home of the hedge fund's bank, Banque Jacob Safra (Gibraltar) Ltd., which also was sued by Picard. The notice of default that Picard requested on July 6 doesn't apply to the bank.
Lifland last month asked Acting Chief Justice Anthony Dudley in the Supreme Court of Gibraltar to turn over $10.7 million of Vizcaya money that it's holding, court records show. The court took possession as part of a legal action against the hedge fund by financial authorities in the U.K. territory on the southern tip of Spain.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601170&sid=aNnNDG6EWAzE
Madoff Trustee Seeks $1 Billion Harley Default Award
By Erik Larson
July 6 (Bloomberg) -- The trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff's investment-advisory business asked a judge for a default ruling against Harley International Ltd., arguing that the hedge fund failed to respond to a lawsuit accusing it of taking $1.07 billion in fake profit from Madoff's firm.
If trustee Irving Picard's July 2 request is granted, the hedge fund, run by Cayman Island-based Euro-Dutch Management Ltd., would be ordered to return money it allegedly withdrew during the six-year period before New York-based Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC collapsed in a $65 billion fraud. Harley is being liquidated in a Cayman Islands court.
---- Harley, a so-called feeder fund that allegedly directed more than $2 billion of investor money to Madoff since 1996, didn't respond to the trustee's May 12 complaint, and a one- month deadline to do so wasn't extended, according to a June 30 affidavit filed by Elizabeth Scully, one of Picard's lawyers with the firm Baker & Hostetler LLP in New York.
Battle Over Assets
If the motion is granted, Picard may end up battling Harley's creditors for its remaining assets as they are sold. Kinetic Partners LLP, the company that's liquidating Harley in the Cayman Islands, held a meeting of the hedge fund's creditors on the Caribbean island on June 16, according to its Web site.
Picard sent Kinetic a notice of his motion for default judgment, court records show. Kinetic spokeswoman Charlotte Luer didn't return a call seeking comment, while a call to Euro-Dutch Management in the Cayman Islands wasn't answered.
------ According to Picard's complaint, Harley received "unrealistically high and consistent annual returns" of about 13.5 percent from 1996 to 2008. The hedge fund allegedly withdrew most of the disputed $1.07 billion in the two years before Madoff's Dec. 11 arrest. The hedge fund withdrew a total of $425 million in the 90 days before Madoff's firm collapsed, Picard says.
Lack of Transparency
Madoff's compensation arrangement for Harley and the company's lack of transparency "should have caused an experienced investment entity like the defendant and its managers to question the legitimacy of Madoff's operation," Picard said in the complaint.
Harley managed $2.76 billion as of Oct. 31 and returned an average of 10.9 percent annually since April 1996, according to a monthly update sent to investors.
Euro-Dutch's directors are former Fortis Fund Services directors Anthony L.M. Inder Rieden and Dawn Davies, according to the firm's 2007 financial statement. Fortis Prime Fund Solutions Ltd. was the administrator of Harley at the time of the report.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601170&sid=a27.xRz1a98M
+++++++++
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished June:
DJIA: -377 UP. NASDAQ: -365 UP. SP500: -401 UP. All 3 indicators reversed in November 07, ending long term buy signals starting the bear market. All three have now reversed signalling the end of that bear market and start of a new bull market. However, few if any bull markets have started from such a weak set of starting conditions, a reflection that the current recession is unlike any other post World War Two recession.
Sunspots – A 22 year colder world?
Spotless Days July 08.
Current Stretch: 0 days
2009 total: 142 days (77%)
Since 2004: 653 days
Typical Solar Min: 485 days
New Solar Cycle Prediction
May 29, 2009: An international panel of experts led by NOAA and sponsored by NASA has released a new prediction for the next solar cycle. Solar Cycle 24 will peak, they say, in May 2013 with a below-average number of sunspots.
If our prediction is correct, Solar Cycle 24 will have a peak sunspot number of 90, the lowest of any cycle since 1928 when Solar Cycle 16 peaked at 78," says panel chairman Doug Biesecker of the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center.
----"Even a below-average cycle is capable of producing severe space weather," points out Biesecker. "The great geomagnetic storm of 1859, for instance, occurred during a solar cycle of about the same size we're predicting for 2013."
The 1859 storm--known as the "Carrington Event" after astronomer Richard Carrington who witnessed the instigating solar flare--electrified transmission cables, set fires in telegraph offices, and produced Northern Lights so bright that people could read newspapers by their red and green glow. A recent report by the National Academy of Sciences found that if a similar storm occurred today, it could cause $1 to 2 trillion in damages to society's high-tech infrastructure and require four to ten years for complete recovery. For comparison, Hurricane Katrina caused "only" $80 to 125 billion in damage.
-----The latest forecast revises an earlier prediction issued in 2007. At that time, a sharply divided panel believed solar minimum would come in March 2008 followed by either a strong solar maximum in 2011 or a weak solar maximum in 2012. Competing models gave different answers, and researchers were eager for the sun to reveal which was correct.
"It turns out that none of our models were totally correct," says Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA's lead representative on the panel. "The sun is behaving in an unexpected and very interesting way."
----Right now, the solar cycle is in a valley--the deepest of the past century. In 2008 and 2009, the sun set Space Age records for low sunspot counts, weak solar wind, and low solar irradiance. The sun has gone more than two years without a significant solar flare.
"In our professional careers, we've never seen anything quite like it," says Pesnell. "Solar minimum has lasted far beyond the date we predicted in 2007."
-----According to the forecast, the sun should remain generally calm for at least another year. From a research point of view, that's good news because solar minimum has proven to be more interesting than anyone imagined. Low solar activity has a profound effect on Earth's atmosphere, allowing it to cool and contract
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/29may_noaaprediction.htm
Sunspot cycle 24: Together with sunspot cycle 25, the next two global cooling cycles. The new "Dalton Minimum?" Well over a year now with low sunspots numbers, and counting. June was the 20th month of yet another low number of 2.6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalton_Minimum
Smoothed sunspot numbers (SSN). 2007, Oct. 0.9. The end of cycle 23.
Sunspot cycle 24: Nov 1.7. Dec 10.1. Jan 3.4. Feb 2.2. Mar 9.3 April 2.9. May: 2.9. June 3.1. July 0.5. August 0.5. Sep 1.1 Oct. 2.9. Nov. 4.1 Dec 0.8. Jan 1.5. Feb 1.4. Mar 0.7. Apr 1.2. May 2.9. June 2.6.
Sunspots. http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml
The count. http://sidc.oma.be/products/ri_hemispheric/
Why a New Minimum. http://sesfoundation.org/dalton_minimum.pdf
The "Carrington Event," September 1, 1859.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/06may_carringtonflare.htm
This week's featured links: Silver & Gold Miners + Rare Metals.
With US trillion dollar deficits stretching as far as the eye can see, and voodoo economics the order of the day at the central banks, I think it is now time to begin selectively scaling into precious metals companies that mostly meet the following criteria:
Adequate cash reserves. Good management. Strong in-ground reserves or prospects. NAFTA based, or else located in countries with strong rule of law.
Endeavour Silver Corp. TSX: EDR. http://www.edrsilver.com/s/Home.asp
Semafo TSX: SMF http://www.semafo.com/home_company_intro.php
ATW Gold Corp. TSX.V: ATW. http://www.atwgold.com/
US Silver Corp. TSX.V: USA. http://www.us-silver.com/s/Home.asp
Excellon Resources Inc. TSX: EXN. http://www.excellonresources.com/
First Majestic Silver Corp. TSX: FR http://www.firstmajestic.com/s/Home.asp
New Jersey Mining Company. OTCBB: NJMC
http://www.newjerseymining.com/index.html
Atna Resources Ltd. TSX: ATN. http://www.atna.com/s/Home.asp
International Wayside Gold Mines Ltd. TSX.V: WYG.
http://www.wayside-gold.com/s/Home.asp
Shoreham Resources Ltd. TSX-V: SMH
The story of rare earths and metals is mostly one of China producing and exporting, Japan, America and everyone else importing. Vital to our new technologies, and lifestyle, and critical to hybrid and electric cars, Rare Earth Elements and Heavy Rare Earths, are a strategic choke point held in China's hands. Lately China has been squeezing that choke point. I think that AVL at Thor Lake Canada, has a property of global importance. A property with the ability to offer NAFTA access to REEs and HREs for the decades ahead. As America and the west move to reduce over dependence on oil from unstable regions, we will see demand for rare metals take off.
Avalon Rare Metals Inc. TSX: AVL. www.avalonraremetals.com
Warning.
Sadly we are all in unexplored territory. The world has never before entered a severe recession/depression while operating on fiat currency. As is widely apparent, the central banks haven't a clue and are making up the rules as the flounder along. They never saw it coming they claim, although it was obvious to many fine writers though not unfortunately in the mainstream media, that a giant financialised derivatives gambling economy would always end badly. There are no experts now, for the simple reason that we have never before faced such a sudden synchronised and deep collapse in the global economies.
The unfortunate fact that we are operating on fraudulent currencies is highly likely to mean it all ends many months from now, in a fiat currency revulsion, but only after the monetary authorities have first tried pouring in endless amounts of newly created money. A derivatives gambling world with an estimated quadrillion dollars of face value has to be unwound and the losses absorbed. A quarter trillion dollars alone for just failed scamster AIG. No one has any idea any more of whose balance sheet is real, and whose is fraudulent in America, possibly with the connivance of the Homeland Security Czar, under cover of "national security." Is JP Morgan Chase's massive derivatives book correctly accounted for? It's anyone's guess but I doubt it. The present policy of the day is to run up gargantuan national debt, and to issue unenforceable bank guarantees far beyond most nations' ability to stand behind them, largely in the hope that something will turn up along the way. In this sort of investing environment, cash, gold and silver and tangible assets are favoured over stocks and intangible assets.
As always, it's important to do one's own due diligence if thinking about making an investment. No one has more at risk in an investment than you do yourself. In these difficult economic times, there will likely be several false bottoms before the real one arrives and hindsight allows us to confirm that the bottom is in. Even then, a "V" shaped rebound is highly improbable. For the rest of 2009 patience and caution should rule investment decisions. When the urge comes to rush out and buy stocks for the recovery that's always just around the corner according to the media, the best advice is to lie down until the feeling passes.
Graeme Irvine
London Irvine Report: www.londonirvinereport.com/
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