Featured Trades: (TAKEOVER WARS), (BHP), (POT), (SNY), (GENZ), (IFX), (HPQ), (DELL), (BP), (INTC)   1) The Coming Takeover Wars. The spate of takeover bids we have witnessed in recent weeks, the BHP Billiton (BHP)-Potash (POT) deal, the Sanofi Aventis (SNY)-Genzyme (GENZ) deal, Intel’s (INTC) acquisition of Infineon Technologies (IFX), and the ongoing bidding war by [...]

Featured Trades: (SOUTH AFRICA), (EZA) South Africa iShares ETF 2) On Safari in South Africa. When I first visited South Africa (EZA) as a journalist in 1979, I was stuffed into the trunk of a car and smuggled into Soweto, a fenced off  ‘township’ , so I could write about the appalling living conditions there. [...]

Featured Trades: (BILL CLINTON) 3) Lunch With Bill Clinton. I opened the e-mail at my usual wake up time of 4:00 am. President Bill Clinton was playing at the Presidents’ Cup PGA tournament at the Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco today. Would I have time for a chat about US economic policy afterwards? [...]

Featured Trades: (SILVER), (SLV) iShares Silver Trust ETF   2) Silver is Hot, Hot, Hot. Those who followed my advice to watch silver should by now have the precious coins raining down upon them (click here for ‘Why the Really Big Play is in Silver’ ). Since then, the precious white metal has jumped 8% [...]

Featured Trades: (GOLD), (GLD), (GDX) SPDR Gold Shares Trust ETF Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF 3) China’s Insatiable Appetite for Gold. Gold bugs and naysayers alike take note. When the world’s second largest and fastest growing economy liberalizes gold ownership by individuals, who happened to be the planet’s most fastidious savers at a 17% rate, [...]

Featured Trades: (GOLD), (GLD), (GDX) SPDR Gold Shares ETF Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF 1) The San Francisco Money Show. I attended the Woodstock of investment conferences last week, the San Francisco Money Show, which offered an entertaining three ring circus of traders, foreign exchange models, options platforms, newsletters, cruises, video broadcasts, and more. The [...]

Featured Trades: (STEVE FORBES) 2) A Chat With Steve Forbes. I sat down with Forbes magazine publisher and perennial Republican presidential candidate, Steve Forbes, whose father, Malcolm, I knew from my journalism days in the seventies. He was there formally to promote his new book, Power Ambition Glory, but I couldn't help but sense his [...]

Featured Trades: (WHISTLEBLOWERS) 3) Be Careful Who You Snitch On. Buried in the recently passed Dodd-Frank financial reform bill are massive financial rewards for turning in your boss. The SEC is hoping that multimillion dollar rewards amounting to 10%-30% of sanction amounts will drive a stampede of whistleblowers to their doors with evidence of malfeasance [...]

Featured Trades: (PETER F. DRUCKER ON MANAGEMENT) 4) Peter F. Drucker on Management. If you have been living in a cave for the last 71 years and missed the work of management guru, Peter F. Drucker, here is your chance to catch up. I just finished reading The Essential Drucker, a weighty tome of 368 [...]

SPECIAL BOND BUBBLE ISSUE   Featured Trades: (TREASURY BONDS), (TIPS), (TBT) ProShares Ultra Short 20 year +Treasury ETF 1) Don’t Buy That Treasury Bond. Another week later, and Treasury bond prices have raced up to even dizzier heights, breaking more records for over valuation. According to the Investment Company Institute, outflows from equity mutual funds [...]

SPECIAL BOND BUBBLE ISSUE Featured Trades: (RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE), (BAC) 2) Another Nail in the Coffin for Residential Real Estate. Those few, like myself, who believe that the residential real estate market has another down leg ahead of it, got their smoking gun yesterday. July existing home sales cratered 27.2% to a seasonally adjusted rate [...]

SPECIAL BOND BUBBLE ISSUE Featured Trades: (GOLD), (GLD), (GDX) SPDR Gold Shares ETF Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF 3) Why Gold Seems Unbreakable. While the rest of the world has been going to hell in a hand basket, gold (GLD), (GDX) refuses to take a serious dip, and is threatening the old $1,260 high. Today, [...]

SPECIAL BOND BUBBLE ISSUE Featured Trades: (TREASURY BONDS) 4) Its Official: China is Unloading its Treasury Bonds. It looks like the smart money these days is found in China. While American investors have been scrambling over each other to buy more Treasury bonds at historically low yields, China has begun quietly unloading some of its [...]

'If you look at previous times in US history when bond yields were this low, the returns have been quite poor. Bonds now have many elements of a bubble. We're at the end of the debt super cycle. First we had a large banking crisis. The next step is a large sovereign crisis. This means [...]

Featured Trades: (BEHAVIORAL TARGETING) 1) So You Think They're Not Watching You on Your PC? Hey! You there, staring at this monitor. This is your PC talking to you. No, not you over there standing in the background. I'm talking to the guy sitting in front of me poking at my keys. Ouch! That one [...]