The Case for Going Global Is Stronger Than Ever

The Case for Going Global Is Stronger Than Ever
The US Markets Are Still In Trouble
Undercapitalization
Emerging Markets Still Undervalued
Global Capital Shift Is Accelerating
The Biggest Growth Will Be in the Most Obvious Places (and Sectors)
Conventional Diversification Won’t Cut It Any Longer
Risks (and there are plenty)
Maine and QE3, Operation Twist, etc.?

As will be clear below, I had finished an earlier version of this week’s e-letter, but the events of the last few minutes require a few paragraphs. As I write at the end of the letter, Bloomberg kept their satellite truck here in Maine, as they had got advance warning of the downgrade by S&P of US debt and wanted to interview a number of the economists here, including your humble analyst. I can’t rewrite the letter at this late hour, but will send you additional comments on Monday. And you can go to www.bloomberg.com and see everyone’s remarks, including mine. It will be there somewhere, they promise me.

And now, a few questions and observations are in order.

First, as I walked to the area where the Bloomberg was shooting to go on, Jim Bianco and John Silvia told me that S&P had downgraded the Fed. I laughed and said, “If you guys want to make me look like a fool on TV, you have to at least make up a credible lie.” They kept insisting it was true. I finally asked Mike McKee of Bloomberg and Barry Ritholtz, who was on-air, if it was true. They claimed it was, too. I was still wondering if they were setting me up, but even Roubini (who wouldn’t do that to me) said it was true.

So, if the Fed, which doesn’t issue credit and can print money, can be downgraded because it holds AA+ debt, then why and how in hell can the ECB, which holds hundreds of billions of euros of the junk debt of Greece and Ireland and insolvent banks not be downgraded on Monday? And the Bank of Japan? REALLY? What are these guys smoking? Do we now downgrade GNMA? Of course. And the FDIC? What the hell will repos do on market open? The NY Fed says it won’t affect anything. Don’t ask me, I just work here. And how can you rate France AAA? And still give AA or more to Italy when the market is saying they are getting close to junk?

Side bet for Monday. This could make me look like an idiot, but I think treasury yields fall as the risk-off trade increases. Can this come at a worse time for a nervous market? By the way, maybe you want to go long Kimberly Clark, as they make Depends (the adult diapers here in the US, for my non-US readers), because sales are going to skyrocket all across the financial markets.

Aarkstore Enterprise || Worldwide Flat Glass Market: 2011 Edition ...

Flat glass is a type of glass which is primarily manufactured in plane form and then can be bent, curved or rolled as per the requirement. Flat glass can be manufactured by a number of processes, like float, rolled and sheet, out of which float process remains to be the most widely used one and around 90% of the total flat glass worldwide is manufactured through float process. Primarily, the flat glass is used in building products or construction industry, automotive industry and some specialty industries including PV cells and display market, among the others. Construction industry accounts for the maximum share in the flat glass consumption, followed by automotive, with some but growing share in the specialty industries.

The global flat glass market has increased in terms of available capacity as well as demand form the past few years, but declined in 2009, mainly due to the global economic recession. In terms of demand, China has been the largest market for flat glass, followed by Europe and North America. China is also the largest flat glass producing region, and is the only country where the demand had not been affected by the global economic recession, that started in late 2007.

Flying

The AOPA pilot, voice of general aviation

The Immortal Beaver, The World's Greatest Bush Plane

Popular Mechanics

Airline and railroad labor and employment law, ALI-ABA course of study materials