Technology Moving Forward Smoothly

The technology sector is the best performer since the March lows.  It is performing well quietly. It is not attracting traders. No big moves up and down, just steady progress. Here is a chart from Bespoke.

The second leading sector...

Read more »

Economic Recovery Continues

Home sales fell 2.7% in August; not great news but not unusual. Home buyers have always liked getting settled well before the start of the school year. Home sales August 2009 were up 3.4% over home sales August 2008, so, while the headlines say there was a decline, the rebound continues. The rebound can be seen in the depletion of inventories. New home inventories are at the lowest level in...

Read more »

Bio-engineered Teeth!

Yesterday, in response to the cash for clunker program and the dying post office monopoly, I wrote the following: In 1911, Thomas Dixon completed "The Root of All Evil", his third novel in a trilogy that attacked populist socialism. History does not actually repeat itself but it certainly does rhyme with itself. Today, US citizens are collectively borrowing billions of dollars and raising future tax requirements by billions of dollars to buy old autos from individuals for $4,500 each. It is wonderful and ironic that "The Root of All Evil" can almost instantly be downloaded onto an Amazon Kindle for only 99 cents or onto a Sony Reader for FREE! Once again, FREEDOM will triumph over socialism! The "Group Think Socialist" incorrectly believe that the purchase of the clunkers will help the environment. In fact, this car buying subsidy will increase the number of miles driven and the gasoline burned for many years to come. On the other hand, the total savings, including environmental savings, from electronic delivery of news and mail will be enormous. (visit http://stocksorbonds.blogspot.com to read the entire article) Today, I call forth the ghost of Thomas Dixon in response to socialized medicine. There will never be enough money to provide all the health care we would like. We cannot repeal the law of scarce resources. We can only hope to make the most of the resources we have. If one objectively looks at the trillions of dollars that have been lost and the environmental damage that has been done because of the US Postal Service Monopoly, one must appreciate the silliness of proposing increased government control of health care. (The postal service monopoly would have lasted many more decades if the AT&T monopoly continued.) Our socialist leaning, power hungry, elected officials want to direct the spending of trillions of dollars. Their latest "land grab" is to fix the health care "crisis". The "crisis" that they have created in reality and in perception by throwing money at a financially busted Medicare and Medicaid system and by repeating the mantra that 45 million Americans are uninsured. In the meantime, publicly funded and privately funded research is rapidly discovering health miracles. For the first time, scientist have bio-engineered an organ, a mouse tooth. In only 45 days, they can now grow a tooth from a few cells extracted, engineered and replanted. Before long, growing other replacement organs will be achieved. Yes, eventually, even the human heart. That is, unless the government gets in the way. People are healthier today because the knowledge of good sanitation practices has been spread and because we have discovered treatments and cures for diseases. In preparation for "going back to school", millions of children are getting physical check-ups. Many of them are being seen by nurse practitioners and their parents are paying about one third the "doctor rate". The price of quality medical care will fall if the market is allowed to work. From the investment angle, we should note that at the bottom of the recession, the ten year growth in manufacturing jobs in America was negative 3.7% and the ten year growth in Health Care jobs was 2.4%. Home Health Care jobs increased by 5% and auto manufacturing jobs fell by 6.7% (Pew Research). For long term growth, it is clear that heath care growth will exceed manufacturing growth, but growth and profits often diverge. Ford Motor shares have increased about 500% since hitting bottom. The rebound in auto sales will continue even after the cash for clunker deal is over. During the past three years, the fleet of cars on the road has aged and it will be replaced. Manufacturing jobs in America have declined for one reason only, labor priced itself out of the market. As a result, Ford and others have been forced to jettisoned labor and to substitute capital. The classic rules of economics do not go away. Monopolies, including labor cartels, are seldom "natural", markets adjust. The auto situation is one of higher sales with lower costs, which means fat profits. In a few months, shares of GM and Chrysler will come to market. Brokers will be pushing those shares. The time to buy is now. It will be years before grown teeth will be a service delivered at a profit. If you know of a good way for investors to participate in health care delivery, I'm all ears. In the meantime, I will encourage investors to purchase Ford and other consumer cyclical stocks. The recession is over; the world did not end. The in-trade betting is that the congress will not find the votes to raise the massive amount of taxes that their health care proposals would require. Indeed, the in-trade odds that the massive cap and trade tax proposal in any form is less than 50/50 for passage. The future is bright because innovations are flowing forth. Government imposed monopolies and oligopolies stifle innovation. The change from $3 per minute long distance calls to free long distance calls would never have happened if the AT&T monopoly had been allowed to stand and the price of postage today would probably be double. Sure the change has not been all fun and games. Change is naturally hated by most of us. It is difficult to move outside of our comfort zones, but it is important to keep moving in the right directions as best we can. Keep in mind that in today's dollars those $3 phone calls are the equivalent of perhaps $10 or more. Jack

SEE - SAW, SEE - SAW, SEE - SAW

The see-saws are moving. When merger mania and hyper leveraged transactions ended, the big investment banks dropped. Regular banking activity is ready to boom. Business construction has largely taken the place of residential housing and the construction loans are being handled through "normal" banking transactions.

See-saws are all over the place. Exxon Mobile, at the king of the hill, has taken a hit. While the price of oil has moved from 82 to 95 the price of the stock moved from 92 to 95 and then back to 92. Believe it or not, the average price the consumer has paid for a gallon of gas this year is less than the average at the same time last year. The oil companies are having a more and more difficult time of passing through the higher prices of oil, demand destruction has occurred. Refining margins have collapsed. The traditional see-saw, oil on one end and high tech on the other is in evidence.

If you don't believe these two segments see and saw, take a look at the past blow off peaks. During 1999, when the tech bubble was fully extended, the price of a barrel of oil was $12. During the oil record setting days of 1980, technology stocks were at selling at decade low PE ratios, Business Week's front cover was about the death of tech. The current boom in tech is well underway, tech stocks are up an average of better than 30% year over year. Even Microsoft, which had been stagnate for years, is moving up sharply relative to oil stocks.


Yesterday, the US Dollar rose on the same day that interest rates were cut. The pundits suggest this was because the FOMC cut only a quarter when they could have cut a half. The fact is that the US economy is very strong and growing and there is reason to buy dollars. The GNP grew 3.85% the last quarter, this is the inflation adjusted rate of growth and it is well above the long term trend. Real disposable income growth was off the chart. The "see" has already "sawed" in regard to export and import growth, in the past year, US growth in manufactured exports was over 16% and imports of goods grew by less than 3%. The see-saw in export-imports will lead to the turn in the dollar (assuming Congress fails to override the Bush veto of the billion dollar tax increases offered by Congress).

NO USED PIANOS PLEASE

In response to my piano story yesterday, I got feedback from a friend who just sold her baby grand. Her kids are almost grown and she needed the space for other things. She confirmed my story. The value of all but the very best of used pianos has fallen dramatically. Charities, churches and auction houses often refuse pianos. I feel compelled to reiterate this situation because it is the crux of the disinflation story and since writing the story I heard two more TV pundits talking about how the government inflation numbers are false. TV pundits, like "news" reporters, fall into the trap of telling half truths because only those who tell exciting stories get more air time. One pundit mentioned this morning that if you have children headed toward college then you understand that the inflation rate is still very high.

Sorry Charlie, the full price of college tuition is paid by only the very few. The great majority of students get very substantial discounts in one way or another. At my alma mater, UNC-CH, the top 10% of the students now get a totally free ride! By jacking up the price, the perceived benefit of the scholarships are greater. When a top student has the opportunity to accept the $100,000 scholarship from one school or the $80,000 scholarship from the other, he is inclined to take the free ride at the $100,000 school. Under such circumstances, the price at the $80,000 school is apt to rise quickly to the $100,000 price.

College tuition and the price of a hospital operation are just two of the misleading numbers people use to say that inflation rates posted by the government are false. Both are misleading because almost no one pays the full tuition cost and almost no one pays the posted hospital operation price. If the price of an operation soars from $20,000 to $40,000, was the inflation rate 100%? What if a number of new programs were offered to allow large discounts to those who have no insurance? What if the large insurance companies went from a 20% discount to a 50% discount? In other words, if the Medicaid reimbursement rate went from $7,000 to $9,000 and if the private pay persons best negotiated rate went from $15,000 to $22,000 and the insurance reimbursement rate went from $17,000 to $25,000 then the real inflation rate was a weighted average of the various payment rates. When the government agrees to pay x percent of the total price, there is strong incentive for the price to be raised.

The same phenomenon happens in private industry all the time. For example, airline seat pricing follows a similar pattern. One legacy airline might raise prices and wait to see who follows. Chances are, the price increases are rolled back on 70% of the routes due to competition from low cost carriers. Then many of the highest priced seats are offered "on sale." The net increase is often only a tiny fraction of initially announced price increase. There were something like 17 across-the-board ticket price increases in 2006 and 9 so far in 2007 but the average price of an airplane ticket per mile flown is still about 15% below the price available in the year 2000. The point is that one cannot look at the head line numbers to determine the rate of inflation.

TV pundits who like to obsess over the price of oil fail to consider the efficiency of the US economy. We use a tiny fraction of the oil we used 30 years ago to do any particular task. In the "old days" huge quantities of oil were used in "non-transportation" pursuits. Today, the problem to be addressed is to convert transportation away from the use of liquid fuels. That process will take time but the market will make the switch smoothly if the politicians will stay out of the way. As usual politicians shoot the smooth process in the foot by such things as silly regulations. They might enact CAFE standards to try to force the issue, but mandating high mileage cars takes away the incentive from the consumer to make the more fundamental changes needed. Why ride the buss or move closer to town if the price of fuel is held down through regulations? In other words, we need to let the see-saw in this area as it does daily in all other non restricted areas.

INTERNATIONAL - DOMESTIC, SMALL - LARGE

The science of constructing an investment portfolio is a complicated process. The good news is that one does not need to understand the science of the internal combustion engine to drive a car well and one does not need to understand all the give and take involved in portfolio construction in order to invest well. Indeed, the person who thinks he is the best is often the person who has the biggest wreck or the one who goes out too far out on a financial limb.

As we move toward the end of an economic cycle, it will become more and more important to buy big companies. However, there is no rush to go all "big" right now. As a general rule, buying "big" adds a defensive element to a portfolio. Indeed it is intuitive to think that buying growth rather than value adds an aggressive element to a portfolio. Such cross currents can easily confuse even the "experts". As I have often stated, about 90% of performance is a result of asset allocation. Stock picking can be fun, exciting, highly profitable and very humbling but not at all a necessary investment skill. Indeed, most people would be better off using the dart board approach to stock selection. THE REASON THIS IS TRUE IS THAT STOCKS ARE SOLD THROUGH THE NEWS MEDIA AND IF A STOCK IS IN THE NEWS IT IS NOT THE BEST ONE TO BUY!

It is easy to conform to the opinion of others, the good news is that the herd is typically right during the first couple of years of the prosperity phase. Right now, one does not have to go it alone to make serious money.

At the current time, if an investor wants to try the dart board approach now, I suggest that he limit his dart board to big cap US companies. I say this knowing that over the long haul, small stocks beat large stocks and international growth beats US growth. I doubt that my message is clear because it is time to be very aggressive in the defensive area of "big cap".

When one end of a see-saw goes up, the other end must go down. The difference between see-saw movement and stock market movement is in order of magnitude and in terms of relativity. If oil stocks go up 20% over the next 4 years while tech stocks go up 100%, then there was a see and saw. Big oil integrated oil is "big cap value", the QQQ index is big cap growth. My forecast is that the QQQ will outperform big oil considerably over the next few years.

IT TAKES MONEY TO GROW A BUSINESS

Anyone with experience running a small business knows that the reason so many small businesses go out of business is because of inadequate cash. New business owners often incorrectly assume that profits are the key to success. Of course, in the very long run, a business needs to turn a profit. Having run a resort rental business, I can tell you that cash is king. Year after year, for decades we experienced tough cash flow and negative profits. The good news was that the value of the properties appreciated dramatically while all the rents and then some went to pay all the expenses.

Now that the economic mid cycle turn is here, the availability of financing is tighter. Starting a small business will be harder than it was over the past 5 years. Venture capital will be more and more dear. Funding will be available to profitable businesses but they will need solid balance sheets.

The reason to favor large caps in the current environment is that large caps tend to be "self funding." The current run up in Microsoft (most all of my friends own Microsoft through their ownership of the Q's) makes the point well. Microsoft has accumulated billions of dollars of cash and has all the more cash flowing-in. The coming build out of the mobile Internet (it will be an ongoing renovation over the next 50 years) will require huge amounts of money. Big companies which have the cash to move on opportunities have the advantage.

The smartest of the smart will continue to bring forth innovations. Facebook is an example of innovation capturing imagination and making the founder a multi-billionaire quickly. However, the only way for you to own a piece of Facebook right now is for you to own a piece of Microsoft. At the same time, Google is making big move after big move to compete directly with Facebook. It is my belief that churches, businesses and other organizations will soon adopt the Facebook "method of communication." Programs like Facebook and Myspace started as "virtual homes for teenagers" but are proving to be a valuable productivity tool for business. A number of businesses offer password protected communities of users. Email will eventually be relatively passe'.

The battle for dominance in all the the fast growth areas is ongoing. Millions of innovations fail to catch-on. Now is not the time to try to find the next Google, Yahoo, Myspace or Facebook. These companies have a head start on systems that have room to grow. As you all know by now, I believe Google's location specific mobile platform adds will be the most profitable of all time. Besides, by the time Facebook shares are available to you directly, they will cost an arm and a leg.

BIG PHARMA

Since a number of my readers work for big pharmaceutical companies, I must mention that the good times are upon you. The see saw of healthcare is swinging back into your direction. The momentum will grow at a gradual pace during the early part of the prosperity phase but like a see saw the speed will increase right to the apogee of the move. Within a few years, the compounded returns will be better than most "expert" expectations.

BUY, BUY, BUY!

BIG STOCK MARKET PROFITS AHEAD

TWO REPORTS TODAY BECAUSE THE BIG TURN IS HERE!

Many investors are holding back because they fear the economy is entering a recession. For me, the economic question is, "Are we in the late stages of the mid cycle contraction or are we in the early expansion phase that follows the mid cycle correction?"

I could easily argue either case because in the late contraction phase the bond market rallies and in the early stage of expansion technology stocks lead the way up. The key point is that there is almost always an overlap in the bond market rally and in the move in stocks. For example, during the 80's mid cycle turn, the bond market rallied from June of 1984 until November of 1986. The stock market rally was slow to crank up but did well in 1985, not bad in 1986 and then exploded up in 1987.


The overlap is already here. The bond market has rallied for months. Indeed the current rally started all the way back in July of 2006. The excitement is in the stock market. The big move by Microsoft today shows that the next economic phase of expansion is underway.

The fly in the ointment has been the price of oil. In the typical cycle, the peak in commodity prices would occur just before the big up turn in stocks. The current blow off in oil makes it look too early for the big upturn in US growth stocks but the weight of the evidence is that the big turn is already here. The blow off in oil is just that. Oil option speculators are making such high returns that they are now giddy with delight. This is a sign of a top. As always, I must state that tops are impossible to call. They are much tougher to call than bottoms which are also almost impossible to call. Yes the infinite is even bigger than we think!

Just because the big turn is here, it does not mean that stocks will go up in a straight line. There is still much uncertainty about tax laws that congress would like to pass. The majority in Congress are hungry for new dollars to spend. The democrats in control desire to shift the automatic tax increase of the AMT to other taxes. The fact is that the government has done well without these new taxes. The 20 million or so taxpayers who have not been subject to AMT will not know the difference if the AMT was repealed. The game of substituting other taxes increases for these tax increases is nothing more than the power hungry wanting more power.

The good news is that the Bush veto will hold. Only minor tax increases will pass this year. I still believe there is a tiny chance that a major reform will be negotiated, but the more probable scenario is that this Congress will leave town as one of the many "do nothings". There has been thousands of hours of talk but so far no accomplishments. Gridlock at the federal level is often a good thing.

Given the likelyhood of no major damage to the economy, large US companies are in the sweet spot. Foreign investors will buy American once the dollar turns. Small profits will be amplified into big profits. There are BIG MARKET PROFITS AHEAD!

ROUNDING THE BIG CURVE, WE ARE IN THE TURN

It is fun to own the Q's during this turn. Almost every day, a different stock leads the way to higher prices. Today, Microsoft will lead several of the Q's higher. Wow! Microsoft has finally made the turn! Microsoft dramatically outperformed the market from 1986 until 2000. Microsoft is one of those "almost super rich stocks for me". I came very close to "loading the boat" with it in 1986 and would have made 10's of millions of dollars had I done so. Since 2000, the stock has dramatically underperformed. The turn is here.

After beating the estimates and raising the guidance after the market closed yesterday, the stock is up better than 11% in pre-market trading. Of course, companies like Dell, Intel and HP will be pulled along for a nice ride. The boom, boom, boom of the world economy means that billions of computers will sold during the coming prosperity phase of the business cycle. As we all know, it costs Microsoft virtually nothing to make another copy of VISTA. Billions of copies will be sold. Of course, even more billions of smart phones and games will be sold.


TURN, TURN, TURN

This morning on CNBC, John Snow repeated one of the great false beliefs of the TV pundits. Those, with the mind set that a recession is surely near, find it easy to suggest that the consumer is about to stop spending because he is no longer able to use his home as an "ATM Machine". We have been hearing this garbage for three years or more and it has not happened yet. It will not happen because it never was the case. You cannot stop doing something if you never started doing it in the first place. Even at the peak of the home refinancing binge, only 9% of home borrowing went to make other purchases, such as SUV, and most of these purchases would have been made anyway. The home was wisely used to lower the cost of financing but in only a relatively few cases was it used to expand financing beyond the buyers capacity to repay.

The sub prime story also continues to be used to suggest things that are simply not true. Of those who bought homes with no money down, 85% of them will keep making the payments and they will have been converted from renters to owners. Of the other 15%, the opportunity to own has not turned into the blessing that it could have been but a renter who temporarily "owns a home" with no money invested will lose no equity when he loses his deed. When politicians cry about the poor people who are losing their homes, they imply that consumers are losing billions in equity to greedy and evil hedge fun managers. What really happened was that these aggressive investors borrowed money at very cheap rates of interest to benefit by lending these funds to poor credit risk buyers. The aggressive investors made out like bandits during the good times. If you borrow $95,000 at 1% interest and lend $100,000 at 4.5% (including your $5,000 equity) your annual net interest income is $3,550 or 71% return on equity. Those who are losing their $5,000 equity right now have in most cases had several years of $3,550 net earnings on that same $5,000.

The bottom line is that this story is being used to put fear into the hearts of investors when it is time to be an aggressive investor.

SO FAR, I HAVE BEEN PARTIALLY WRONG ABOUT OIL

The price of gasoline has come down as I suggested it would but the raw commodity has not yet rolled over. Who would have guessed that after 8 to 10 increases in interest rates and after 8 to 10 increases in reserve requirements, that China would continue to grow so fast? The good folks at GAVEKAL research wrote a good book titled "THE END IS NOT NEAR" but who really believed those guys? The GNP of China has once again grown by better than 11%. Where is the clearing price? Of course, if I could predict the precise answer to that question, given that no one else can, I would be a multi-billionaire. We really should think of China like a great growth stock. The current price of shares is very high but there is still great potential for growth. Still, given my belief that the US dollar is about to climb and that within 4 or 5 years high returns will be found in fewer and fewer of the biggest companies around, I am not excited about investments in China right now.

A major oil supply company executive says that there are plentiful supplies of oil. In the liquid market, he can buy all he wants and then some. He says financial speculators are jumping on all news of potential international conflict and bidding up the price. He points out that the skirmishes between Turkey and Kurdistan are not even close to where the oil flows.

We are now at such an extreme level that the break will be like the bursting of a damn. The speculators will not be able to get off the long side fast enough. It is my belief that a deal with Iran is brewing. Once a deal is made, about $30 per barrel in risk premium will fall out of the price.

Keep in mind, the turn in Microsoft is a part of the same process of the turn in oil. The substitution effect includes enormous spending on electronics as a way to reduce dependence on oil. The USA and many other countries have dramatically reduced our use of oil over many years. China is investing heavily to reduce its dependence. Some of these investments will take years to complete but many others are already producing results. Indeed, China is in the process of building 30 nuclear power plants which will replace oil in many a manufacturing process. In the USA, oil usage declined .7% during a year of dramatic export growth. Pundits who say there is no evidence of reduced demand are not looking at the total picture.

The good news is that the world has been hit by the blows of higher oil and taken the punch well. One key ingredient has been the success of economic science. The central bankers have not dried up all the money to stop inflation and thus thrown the world into recession. Instead, money has been available and it has been used to "go around" the "oil problem". Billions of dollars are being spent on billions of projects from coating windows with film to sun powered algae farms.

Those who use high gasoline prices as an example in their constant complaints about inflation do not want to acknowledge that the cost of manufactured goods continues to come down. When China buys oil at ever higher prices but produces end products for less than their prior prices, the net result is not inflation.

CHINA MUST SLOW DOWN

Sooner or later, growth in China must slow. The combination of the rising Yuan with higher interest rates and higher reserve requirements will ultimately do the job. A slow down in growth from 11% to 6% would be a huge event. The China stock markets could be hit very hard by such an event. Always remember that the price of shares is set by the value of the future earnings discounted to present value. If growth slows, future earnings slows and prices fall.

BUY USA, BUY USA, BUY USA GO MICROSOFT GO!

THE BIG $$$$$ TURNS ARE HERE!

Big money turns are happening all around the world. For example, Cisco just purchased a WiMax company. Up until now, Cisco was not a player in the WiMax market and did not feel the need to be there. The problem for Cisco is that WiMax is proving to be the key to the rapid coverage of huge areas of Brazil, India, China and other developing nations. The growth in telecoms and Internet services in developing countries is huge and quick because there is no competition from a previously built fixed wire system.

The standardization of WiMax protocols is causing the system to spread at a rapid pace even in the USA. Sprint and ClearWire are just two of the early USA leaders. Google has inked a partnership deal with these guys and because Google has purchased billions of dollars of fiber optic capacity and telephone nodes, the speculation continues that Google could build out a nationwide WiMax supplemented Internet/Phone system in a hurry. My guess is that the next big Google move will be to start a VOIP system. Much of the system is already in place. Adding the 700mz TV spectrum, the stuff that goes through walls, would give Google the ability to cover the whole country quickly. The big phone companies are dug in deep and a country wide network would cost billions so several partners may be involved. Even Apple has expressed an interest in buying spectrum. Google will attempt to remain the software provider and let others sell the hardware and the service.


Since Google became public, the stock has risen from $85 to $650+. During that time, Apple has gone up twice as much. I believe Apple is over valued but it certainly has momentum. I continue to hold shares in accounts and inside QQQQ, QLD and other funds. If I had enough money to buy all of Apple, I would buy Google instead and invest the other half in something else. This statement may sound silly but I have used this logic to great advantage in the past. For example, when I suggested buying CAL at $6 per share, I wrote that LUV at $17 per share was dramatically over priced. I said that if I had the money to buy all of LUV that I would buy CAL, AMR, UAUA, DAL and NWA instead and invest the remaining 9 Billion Dollars elsewhere. Since that time, LUV has gone nowhere and CAL has gone up from $6 to $36. Even today, those who do not understand the situation are over paying for LUV while the growth in international traffic is huge.

Back to the big mobile turn, Google's purchase of Jaiku shows us once again just how much change is in store. Jaiku has the potential to automate everything from your address book to your photo album. It is kind of a Twitter on steroids. Give your teenage child a Jaiku phone and you will know his location, to whom he is talking, see the world from his camera lens and keep records of all his activities. It sounds like a spooky big brother deal but those who like it are crazy about it. Coworkers have found Jaiku to be a huge time saver; notes and contacts are automatically shared across the network. Husbands who stop for groceries access the list prepared by their spouse and automatically leave the message that the shopping has been done. Put a Jaiku on a child and he will not get lost for long.

The big turn in the Internet is that it will go mobile big time over the next several years. Buy the QQQQ's and hang on for the ride. Ideas are coming hard and fast. I did not buy more VM Ware when it was spun off from EMC but I have enjoyed the ride since EMC still owns 86% of the stock. It is impossible to see which of the big firms will produce the next winner. Ebay is babying another fascinating purchase and Amazon is selling high dollar goods rapidly while the pundits keep talking about the consumer being tapped out.

BIG, BIG, BIG TURN AHEAD

Understanding what most others do not understand is the path to BIG MONEY. The REALLY BIG MONEY TURN is close at hand but most investors expect the dollar to continue to fall.

The really big money turn is that the value of the US Dollar relative to most other world currencies is about to climb rapidly. The brief history of the dollar is that it was very weak in 1986 and again in 1995 just before those mid cycle turns, once the dollar turned, it climbed and climbed and climbed some more. In the latest cycle, it peaked in the year 2000 just as the average American went "all-in" during the Internet bubble. Since that time, the dollar has fallen and fallen some more and it is now at about the same level as it was in 1995. In the year 2000, one could buy a Euro with a dollar and get back about 20 cents in change. Today, one needs $1.42 to buy one Euro. The consequences are huge. The reason US manufactured exports grew at the huge rate of 16.1% over the past year is because our goods are now very cheap. If you do not believe that the dollar is down, take a trip to London and be sure not to forget your American Express Card. The exception has been the Japanese Yen. Japan is the other major exporter of capital goods. China, on the other hand is at the other end of the see saw. China is the ultimate labor intensive goods producer. Even so, in the past year, the Chinese Yuan has appreciated against the dollar.

How many .27 basis point interest rate moves are enough to slow this country down? The Chinese government is tightening the screws. The coming slowdown in China will not be a bust. Still, if growth were to be cut by half or two thirds, the demand for commodities will be curtailed. The big turn in commodity prices is at hand. Prices will not collapse but the relative performance of high tech companies which use commodities will far out do the performance of the resource companies.

THE BIG TURN

The dramatic slowdown in the US housing market, which has taken down the price of lumber and which is pushing down of the price of other materials, is giving US Central bankers the motivation to cut short term interest rates. A cut in short term interest rates will stimulate the US economy. The strong growth in the US will increase the demand for dollars. As the dollar increases in value, it will create its own demand for more dollars because foreign investors are paid a bonus when US investments go up in dollar terms. The US and Japan make the most sophisticated capital goods products. Now that the recovery is over, it is capital goods producers that will benefit from future economic growth.

During the past 5 years, the carry trade has been a big winner for the big investment banks and the hedge funds. These investors borrowed Yen at very low rates of interest and swapped for other currencies in order to earn higher rates. The problem is that the big turn is also here in regard to the Yen. The Yen is the other currency that will appreciate dramatically over the coming years. The big turmoil in the financial markets for the past couple of months have been the result of the unwinding of the carry trade. The sub-prime mess is not nearly as big a problem as is perceived. Indeed, the largest of all mortgage lenders, Country Wide, announced today that it will provide refinancing for sub-prime loans.

Let me put it this way, on my way around Winston-Salem today I counted dozens of commercial projects underway. The construction includes everything from office buildings, manufacturing facilities, health care facilities, bridges, roads and restaurants. Yes, housing construction has fallen 48% !!!! since the peak of January 2006, however, even now housing construction is about double the units that were built during the 1993 slump! Adjust for size and features and the down turn is not nearly as big as it looks. About 35% of new houses being built today have three car garages, extra baths and even home theaters. I visited a three-bedroom three-bath Parade of Homes property this past Saturday and was surprised to see that it had three car garages on either side. In my book, it takes a boy with toys to want a 6 car garage home. Now, do not tell me that a recession is at hand. Housing construction has fallen dramatically but the current 6 and a fraction % home mortgage rate makes homes far more affordable than the last time oil prices were at $80 per barrel, at that time mortgages were priced at 15%! With more people at the prime age to upgrade to a larger home, I expect the housing market to turn up strong within a few months. TURN, TURN, TURN, TO EVERY THING THERE IS A SEASON!

THE BOTTOM LINE IS that investors should recognize that the coming turn in the dollar will mean that US stocks will generally out perform international stocks. It is time to under weight international stocks. The second half of the business cycle is a time when big cap growth will generally out perform small cap value. By the end of the cycle, the big mutual funds will be crowded into fewer and fewer big cap stocks. In other words you can get a jump on the crowd by buying IBM and GE. You will not make as much with these in the short run but they will keep on moving up for several years.

YES WHAT I WROTE YESTERDAY ABOUT AT LEAST TWO US PIPELINES IS TRUE

There is now enough new tar sand oil flowing from Canada that two pipelines that historically carried oil from the Gulf Coast to the mid west have been reversed. This situation will continue until the large refinery in Illinois and the large refinery in Indiana are upgraded, the permits have already been approved! If the new refinery planned for South Dakota is constructed, it will be fed by yet a new pipeline from Canada. This new Canadian oil will be a significant factor among many that will cause the turn around in the price of oil.

OPEC having pledged to increase production by 500,000 barrels per day effective November 1 has jumped the gun. High oil prices are apparently causing cartel members to cheat by several hundred thousand barrels per day. In addition, production increases keep coming from Angola, Canada, Brazil and a large number of places that are hard to spell or hard to find on a map. Another place where the pipeline flow is being reversed is between Kenya and Uganda. Once again this is probably a temporary condition. After big discoveries in Uganda, several of which are just across the border from Kenya, Kenya is eager to get in on the goodies. A Canadian major has just signed contracts to explore the area. A few billion barrels here and there and you eventually get to that marginal price break.

The cross currents are incredible. The US congress is about ready to give up on its latest and craziest energy bill. Yes, if the bill were to pass, the wealthiest of corn farmers would get about 100 million dollars more in subsidies. This time the subsides would be paid for by increasing the tax on oil companies. Duh! we need more oil so lets tax the production of it more? The good news is this bill is another that cannot get past a Bush veto. In the meantime, the UAE government has issued $2 Billion in bonds in order to help with its purchase of Canada's Prime West Energy. The turn is certainly here when a middle eastern country is borrowing money to buy oil assets! I suppose the bonds were sold at a discount to avoid the payment of interest but the move is still significant.

PROGRESS IN IRAN

It is hard to see the progress toward a solution to the Iranian "problem". However, the US, Russia and Iran are currently doing a triple tango. The US has signaled that it will delay the construction of the European Missile Defense System if Russia will help stop the Iranian Nukes. Russia has signaled Iran that it will support Iran militarily if Iran will stop making the hard dangerous stuff. The leadership of Iran has done the a two step. The grand leader has undercut the power of the public leader. Stay tuned. A settlement would reduce the oil risk premium by $10 to $20 per barrel!

THE TURKS AND THE KURDS ARE OUR FRIENDS.

The war in Turkey is now 23 years long. More than 30,000 Turks have been killed. Most Americans do not even know about the war. I suspect that the recent big public brouhaha was carefully timed for political and economic reasons but this does not matter. The key point is that peace is finally a possibility. The semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan is enjoying relative peace and prosperity. Oil producers from around the world are beating a path to the countries door. The leaders of Iraq have quickly "outlawed" the rebel PKK factions that have been fighting the Turks. Iraq will join the Turks in putting down the rebellion. Of course, some of the Kurds within Turkey will continue the fight but the pressure to end the madness is coming from all sides. Turkey and Kurdistan are both middle east success stories. Turkey has a large and growing economy. In a show of support, the US has given Turkey several surplus war ships.

By the way, the source of much of the international information is Stratfor. You should sign up for a trial subscription if you are interested in international affairs. Some of the tech information is from GigOM which is a free Internet service.

CONGRESS CONGRESS CONGRESS

The democratic congress continues to find itself in a very deep hole. The problems keep piling up. Yesterday, Hank Paulson wrote a letter saying how important it is to get the AMT fix done promptly. If Congress does not act very soon, about $75 Billion of tax refunds to the public will be delayed. The cut off for reprogramming IRS computers is upon us. Last year, a few refunds were delayed and the recipients were not happy. The problem is that there are currently about 20 million people effected by the AMT for the very first time. In addition, there are other tax breaks that must be extended as a part of the same bill. Trent Lott and John Kyle are starting to have lots of fun while pushing democrats to act.

The latest proposal is to allow the democrats to suspend their pay-go rules, provided that they will give Republicans equal amounts of tax breaks. In other words, the democrats can patch the AMT for one year to the tune of about $65 Billion if $65 Billion of the Bush tax cuts are extended. Oh what a tangled web?

Democrats have vowed to try to pass the SCHIP $35 Billion increase one more time. The interesting thing is that if they are successful, they will need to find about $100 Billion of tax increases to offset the combination of the AMT and the SCHIP! Oh what a tangled web?

The pending bills include approximately 13,000 earmarks. The total value of these earmarks is around $9 Billion Dollars. This is enough money to double fund SCHIP this year. It really seems that the democratic congress is between a very hard rock and very hard place. As a person who believes that free trade is the foundation of prosperity, it pains me to know that the subsidies for wealth corn farmers is the reason that other nations refuse to purchase our agricultural products. I can't blame the other nations but the actions of republicans and democrats in congress to hurt the nation in exchange for political contributions from the special interest is shameful.

Believe it or not, the federal budget that should have been passed well before the start of the fiscal year on October 1, may be passed as an omnibus bill around November 16; not the way to run a railroad! The process for passing an omnibus bill is for a relatively small group of people to sit down and edit thousands of pages in the matter of a few days. The final vote will be made by 535 people who have not even read the final product. Shameful indeed.

Good News Good News Good News

I do not want to end on a negative note so here are a few pieces of good news.

1) The moderate leader Bhutto is still alive. We will all know that change is in the air if this woman is elected to lead Pakistan.

2) Real wages in the USA have increased at an average of 3.7% for the past two years. Let the good times roll! The prosperity phase of the business cycle is at hand!

3) While there will be lots of "bad economic news" surfacing over the next few weeks, this "bad news" is good news as it will confirm that "Big Ben" will cut US interest rates again. The average return of the average stock has been 19% in the year after the last 8 first interest rate cuts. That 19% figure hides the rotation effect. Many stocks will rise 50% or more over the next year.

4) CAL signed contracts today that will save the company another 100 million per year. UAUA soared on great earnings and on its progress toward outsourcing high cost service. UAUA is also one of the airlines that is considering selling its frequent flier program.

BUY, BUY, BUY!

FENCES, FENCES AND MORE FENCES

Today's news is that the earnings improvement in the airline business continues. Today's good report by AMR followed the prior good numbers delivered by DAL and NWA. AMR's profits are up from 6 cents per share last year to 74 cents this year. Projections are for continued improvement even though the company is projecting higher fuel costs.

AMR has decided not to prebook all the middle seats. The idea is to provide space for those who might be hit by canceled flights. In other words, AMR will voluntarily shrink its capacity. This action will lead to further price increases and an improvement in the travel experience of the passengers. In the meantime, purely domestic carriers, such as Southwest Airlines are getting hit especially hard by higher fuel prices. Thus, LUV will lead a series of fare increases. The average fare is still 11% below the 2000 peak. Adjusted for inflation, fares are 24% below the prior peak. With continued growth in demand, you can expect significant fare increases over the coming years. International carriers, such as CAL, have already raised ticket prices on long flights to offset higher fuel. International carriers have used contract carriers to go toe to toe with domestic carriers. They are able to match price while providing continuing service to other destinations and while offering better perks such as airport clubs and frequent flier programs. Last week, AMR lead a round of fare increases on non domestic flights and this week LUV is the leader on the next round of bumps.


Today, analysts have used the numbers reported by AMR, DAL and NWA to adjust their CAL estimates. The biggest adjustment came from the most positive analyst at Credit Suisse. The result is a penny lower consensus of $2.17 and a reduction for 2008 to just below $5. The reduction to next year is part of the "game" of letting this improving industry build on its track record of beating analyst estimates. In an earlier report I detailed the high average percentage "beat" by CAL.

Over at Legg Mason, Bill Miller continues to manage a few billion dollars well. One of his funds is better has an allocation of better than 7% in airline stocks. He owns all the majors with the exception of CAL. As you know, I believe getting the sector right is 90% of stock market performance. I am confident that Bill's fund will do well.

FENCES, FENCES AND MORE FENCES

The Great Wall of China was built to keep out the bad guys. The Berlin Wall was built to keep in the good guys. The proposed Mexican Wall will be to keep out the good guys. Only the Great Wall was constructed with common sense in mind but the world has changed just a little over the centuries. Thousands of daily airline flights "over the top of the wall" make today's fence the least wise of all.

TECHNOLOGY TO THE RESCUE

A mad rush is on to develop a new electronic fence. Boeing will report results in a few weeks. The push is to develop a new border security plan before the final compromise budget bills are passed by the congress. It is estimated that this electronic fence will cost about 8 billion bucks, double what has been budgeted for a standard fence that would not cover the entire border. I expect the final version to ultimately cost 6 or more times as much but what is a few billion to the federal government?

Mark my words, Congress knows that with public approval ratings hitting near or in the single digits, the pressure is on congress to pass all 12 of the appropriations bills. Because the must do something about the AMT, I expect that they will be willing to compromise with Bush to pass significant measures.

One of the potential "big wins" will be a last minute compromise on immigration reform. It seems like a long shot now but something big is coming down the pike. The fiscal year began on October 1 and even now Charlie Rangel, John Dingle and others are dragging their feet while the bureaucrats who report to Hank Paulson are engaged daily in negotiations with the staffs of congressional leaders.

FENCES MIGHT FALL! The Mexican Wall might be good news in the sense that we sometimes must swallow "silly pills" to get the good stuff done. As you know, the compromise I like is the joining the proposed 10/25% flat tax with a 50/50 cent carbon/gasoline tax.

Congress has the option of leaving town as a "do nothing congress" with their tails between their legs or as the congress that saved the world from global warming, the congress that save the middle class from the evil AMT and, perhaps even the congress that saved the nation from the horrors of Mexican workers and terrorist sneaking across the border.

No matter what the outcome in congress and no matter the current negative focus of the media, the world economy is on a roll that will pick up the pace in the coming year. IN CASE YOU HAVE NOT HEARD, WAGES HAVE GROWN AT BETTER THAN 8% OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS WHILE UNEMPLOYMENT IS RUNNING AT BELOW 5%.

When talk of Jimmy Carter days surfaced on Fox TV, Brit Hume dryly asked if Jimmy Carter was the President who left us with mortgage rates of 21%, inflation rates of 14% and unemployment rates of 9%? When the interviewer asked Mr. Carter what he would have done differently he said he would have sent another helicopter into Iran during the hostage crisis. Folks, by next summer, the majority of Americans will have begun to recognize that "times are good". The change in sentiment will give stock PE ratios a boost.

BUY, BUY, BUY!

BLOW OFF RALLIES -- HUGE PROFITS

The blow off rally in oil, gold and currencies has been blamed on every thing from hurricanes to a potential battle between the Turks and the Kurds. Blow off rallies come near the end of a major run. They can last a good while and exact tops are impossible to call; exact bottoms are easier but still impossible. :) In any event, huge projects are in the works; projects that will ultimately send the prices across the "spider web" curve. Over the past 5 years or so, the dollar has dropped to a clearing price level. Total US export growth in the past year was better than 12% and manufactured goods exports grew by better than 16%. Imports growth was in the 3% range! All the while, finished goods prices jumped by 4.5%! If you want to see a slew of earnings surprises, combine 16% export growth with price increases of 4.5%; a powerful combination for profits.



I read a few numbers late last night and did not write them down but the following are close approximations. In the last year, the dollar has dropped something like 12% against the Euro and 5.5% against the Chinese Yuan. It was not so long ago that Europeans had to spend 1.2 Euros to get on US dollar. Today, they spend a Euro and get back 42 pence in change! Those who worry over the trade imbalance are worried about a problem already solved.



CAL will hold its earnings web conference Thursday morning. Google and many others earnings reports will follow. The CAL estimates have been increased many times over the past couple of months. The low end of the range is now up to $1.87, the high end at $2.50 with the median at $2.17 (up from $2.14 a few days ago). I will not be surprised by $2.60.



Warning: should Congress reach a compromise carbon tax bill, one that would fund the FAA through an increase in the tax on jet fuel, the initial reaction of the market might be negative. Keep in mind that the higher the price of fuel the more sense to riding the bus or the air-bus. The average price of the average CAL ticket works out to less than 12 cents per mile as the crow flies. An increase in the fuel tax in combination with new anti congestion rules will clear a path for quicker landings. The higher price of fuel will make the "air-bus" savings per passenger larger.



By the way, I spent a great weekend at Table Rock, which is at the south end of Linville Gorge. It was a beautiful weekend. Our "Old Goats Patrol" made up of former scout masters enjoyed good times, great food, great views and a fun time at the "old liars campfire." I am behind on individual emails but following the market closely. The over bought enthusiasm is already at least halfway cured. This little correction should be over soon. BUY, BUY, BUY for the long term.

JOBS, JOBS, JOBS

At the turn of the twentieth century, about 70% of all Americans live on a farm. Today, 2% live on farms. In China, there are a billion people ready to leave the farm if work can be found. What will all those people do?

The poor are not concentrated in China. In Asia and Africa there are billions of people who live off the equivalent of $2 per day. Suddenly, the cell phone is changing their lives. Poor "peasant farmers" now scrap together $20 or so to purchase a used cell phone. They pay a high per minute usage charge, but they are extremely frugal with their minutes. Indeed, they prepay for a few minutes or even for just a few seconds of time. They make very short phone calls or they send abbreviated text messages.

When I was in the 7th to 10th grades, I stayed after school for extracurricular activities such as football practice. When practice was over, I would start walking toward home which was four miles from school. Before starting to walk, I would send a "flash" message to my home. In those days, the pay phone across from the school required a nickel to make a 3 minute local call. To save the nickel, my siblings or I would call our home (party line) number and let the phone ring less than one complete ring and then we would hang up. Since the call was not completed, our nickel would come back. In later years, a prearrange "flash definition" might mean that a family member was leaving the Atlanta airport which meant it was almost time to drive to the Greensboro airport to pick up the traveler. A "flash" would also be sent upon arrival back at college.

Going to such extremes to save a nickel on a local call or a dollar and a half on a long distance call seems silly today but the $1.50 long distance call was equal to three hot, dirty and hard hours in the tobacco fields for the older kids and 6 hours of handing up by the younger kids. My oh my how do things change!? When my Dad was a boy, he worked in the tobacco fields for 12 cents per day. It is hard to believe but true that millions of Americans were as poor in the 1930's as billions of Africans are today. I am thankful that the "flash" has come to Asia -- Africa.

Business Week magazine reports that the cell phone is literally saving lives. It is also having a huge impact on the economies of the poorest of nations. One very short message might save a peasant farmer a 20 mile walk to a market or it might encourage him to head to the market where his particular goods might be in short supply. Phone transfers are even being used to send money. Cell phone communication beats banging on a drum any day of the week. Usage is surging and profits are substantial! While each phone generates only a few dollars of revenue per year, the total revenues are substantial because there are billions of phones. The number of cell phones in under developed nations just went over the 3 billion mark and the 5 billion mark is expected to be reached in 7 or 8 years.

WE ARE LIVING THROUGH EXTRAORDINARY TIMES!

Those who believe a mile US economic slow down is going to turn into a world wide recession or depression are ignoring the most tremendous "boom" in world history. While this boom has resulted in a temporary strain on the worlds resources, it has also resulted in enormous benefits from free trade. The productivity gains in many cases are by factors that are almost beyond belief. Can you imagine a three letter text message saving you a 20 mile walk through a rain forest?

The citizens of the USA are benefiting greatly. The demand for our goods and services is soaring. The annualized rate of growth of US services is currently running at better than 13%! The rate of growth in exports of goods is running at better than 16%! Jobs in America are plentiful and unfortunately a large number of excellent but "illegal citizens" are in the process of being thrown out of work in America. I am still hopeful that Congress will pass an immigration reform bill before essentially closing down for the 2008 elections before Thanksgiving. So far, the only "progress" being made is to fund a $3 billion fence that will not do diddle squat.

Exports from America will continue to soar because the world economy is super strong but all the while the really big growth in jobs and incomes will occur over seas. It is hard to believe but America is no longer the land of the free. Today, the USA taxes American businesses at higher rates than do foreign governments. One problem is that in America, we tax business profits when they are made and then we tax them again when the owners of the business shift money from one pocket to the other through the payout of dividends.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE WORLD WIDE BOOM!

All of those billions of phones require computer chips, communications networks and knowledge to operate them. Powerful rifle shot ads will be "pushed" through billions of phones and Google will send a substantial number of these ads. Hardware, software, educational facilities and airlines are just a few areas that will see benefits from the massive build-out that is underway. Google has opted to partially fund a new under the Pacific fiber optic cable in exchange for wholesale priced usage. The name for the number of bytes of information that will be sent is some thing like Tera bytes. The total amount of information being sent and received will grow at exponential rates for many years to come.

BEARS, BEARS AND MORE BEARS!

Stock Market Bears are more than plentiful. One of today's problems is that market players, myself included, tend to look back at history to discover a "similar time to the current time"; there has never been a time like this. Even the industrial revolution does not compare. It took a few hundred years for the industrial revolution to creep all the way around the world and it never did make it all the way. The information revolution has spread like wild fire. The powerful thing is that it is a powerful dis-inflationary force. I think the bears would have an easier time understanding if they would focus on the huge productivity gains instead of on the inflation of food and energy. Food is now a very small part of GNP and the amount of energy used per dollar of GNP has fallen dramatically. As I have said before, the stone age did not end because man ran out of rocks but because he learned to use metals to his advantage. In the same way, we will never run out of oil. Indeed, the planet earth is a carbon sink that is experiencing net growth in resources daily.

ONE BULL AND ONE BEAR REACH THE SAME CONCLUSION!

Bill Gross is the most famous bond investor on the planet; bond investors are by nature pessimistic. Don Hayes is an optimistic and successful growth stock investor. Both men believe that short term and long term interest rates are going to fall over the next year or so. Bill says that the Fed Funds Rate will drop to 3.5 to 3.75% because the USA will experience an economic slowdown. Don Hayes offers the same interest rate forecast but his reasons are largely what I have detailed above; strong gains in productivity and low prices because of technological advances and free trade.

I am mostly in the Don Hayes camp because I believe the stock market will soar by 30% or so over the next year. However, I am not convinced that interest rates will fall so hard. I see low inflation but also very strong economic growth. Certainly, the current quarter will be a bit below trend as the "hit of the credit market freeze-up" and the housing building slump will have an effect. However, by the second and third quarters of next year, we just might see 5% real growth. Even if inflation is down to 1.25% or so, the long bond will likely be trading at 6.25% or better. Such "high rates" might even become a part of the Wall of Worry that the stock market will climb.

BUY BUY BUY GROWTH STOCKS, SELL SELL SELL BONDS!

It may be patriotic to BUY AMERICAN, but it is fair to buy from the low cost producer. By doing so, the poorest of the poor will get earn food for their families and Americans will spend their time more productively. It was psychologically hard for American families to leave the farm and today it is psychologically hard to believe that America does not need manufacturing jobs. The fact is that goods are plentiful for a fair price. Be happy that you do not have to "flash" a phone call to save a penny and be kind to those who must!

OUCH, OUCH, OUCH

Many people who live south of the Sahara desert are suffering. Many of the poorest of the African nations have no food and no education. Attempts to feed the poor have not lead to great success but in a number of countries education is starting to make a difference. I am told that some of the hardest workers in North Carolina are refugees from the poorest of African countries. I don't know much about the situation but I am thankful that the Methodist Church contributes to educational facilities in the area.

The people of Iran and Venezuela are also suffering but for totally different reasons. The leaders in each of these countries are willing to cause their people to suffer in exchange for "world influence." There are food shortages in Venezuela, gasoline shortages in Iran and the loss of freedoms in both countries. Each country is rich in natural resources but, they consistently fail to maximize their returns from their resources. Oil production has gone down in each country as they are unwilling to offer fair compensation to exploration and development companies.

The UN has passed two sets of sanctions against Iran and, as a result of pressure from China and Russia, has decided to wait until November before considering tougher measures. Rather than allow the citizens of Iran to have gasoline, Iran has spent billions to arm various waring factions. In the latest move, Iran has threatened to arm Iraqi insurgents with Surface to Air Missiles that would put US helicopters at great risk. On the other hand, it has been reported that the US is considering "surgical air strikes" against targets in Iran that support, train or supply Iraqi insurgents.

Saber rattling has pushed up the price of gold and oil. In May, when a barrel of oil sold in the mid to high 70's price range, the retail price of gasoline hit the $3.20 range. This price was a demand for gasoline driven price. Yesterday, a barrel of oil was selling for better than $80, the price of gas was being cut to the $2.60 range. Based on the price of gasoline, the price of oil should be around $57 per barrel. If Congress can time the passage of carbon taxes just right, they can get a lot of credit with the voters when the price falls before the elections.

Next year, daily refinery capacity will increase by 1.5 million barrels per day. Last year, there was less oil used in the USA than in the year before. Increases in crude supply will come from many parts of the world with three of the largest increases coming from Angola, Iraq and Canada.

Yes, Iraq will put significant resources back on line by next year. Yesterday, the Iraqi army arrested 75 insurgents, discovered a car bomb factory and blew up 18 bombs. The month of September saw a significant decline in both civilian and military deaths. Yesterday, the Senate of the USA passed additional war funding of $150 billion and the House is expected to pass a similar bill today, appropriations will be passed within the next 47 days. Most importantly, thousands of Iraqi citizens are joining the fight on the side of the central government. Having thousands of Sunni's join on the government side is huge. The fight is not over but the continuation of current trends should cause the insurgents to scurry back to Afghanistan. If you do not believe the fight is going well, review the answers by the Democratic Presidential contenders at the last debate. John Edwards was the first to state that he would not guarantee that the troops would be withdrawn soon after his election. The contenders do not want to be the anti war candidate in the face of potential victory.

A major point is that Iran is feeling growing pressure to "make a deal" as it becomes clear that the war in Iraq can be won without the assistance of Iran. An oil supply deal has already been struck between Iraq and Syria. Iran will become all the more isolated if a deal is not made soon. Once a deal is made, a large number of contracts will go forward to develop oil fields in Iran and Iraq.

The handwriting is once again on the Persian Wall. The Democrats in Congress can take partial credit for the "good news" by passing a number of bills that Bush will sign. Right wing conservatives have been marginalized. They are still against this and against that but the democrats have the votes to pass legislation without them. Bush and the Democrats will ultimately pass mostly centrist measures. "Good Times" will be the order of the day as the elections approach.

STOCKS, STOCKS, STOCKS

In 25 of the past 27 fourth quarters of the year, the Dow Jones Averages went up. Today, the market got of to a great fourth quarter start. A nice gain in CAL was reduced late in the day as the market waited for September results. They were reported after the market closed and they looked good to me but some bulls on the stock were looking for better numbers. Again, I liked the numbers.

CAL achieved:
1) the fifth best ever on time performance,
2) the best ever flight completion record,
3) record mainline and record consolidated load factors,
4) a consolidated traffic increase of 5.6% (more than 12% on the highly profitable transatlantic flights),
5) an increase in Revenue Per Available Seat Mile (RASM of 4.5 to 5.5%).

My back-of-the-envelope calculations tell me that total revenues grew by 11% which is a very large number relative to a trailing PE of 8 and a forward PE of 6.5. Even with high fuel prices, Cost Per Available Seat Mile has not climbed as fast as RASM. Margins are going in the right direction.

The action in AMR added excitement to the airline sector. AMR announced that it will prepay $545 million worth of long term debt and it projects its interest expense to have fallen by $130 million dollars this year. I don't recall that CAL has made similar announcements but, last year the company added more than $1 billion cash even after funding the pension plans and after paying down debt by a few hundred million. CASH FLOW, CASH FLOW AND MORE CASH FLOW, WE LIKE CASH FLOW!

GRMN took a hit because Nokia purchased a GSM company. Yes, maps are going to be an important feature on cell phones. GRMN has been a hot stock, one that I am not willing to turn loose of just because the competition is heating up. The growth in this area will be so large that money can be made by a number of players.

FROM OUCH, OUCH, OUCH TO A OK!

There are still more than 1 billion Chinese with annual incomes of $300 or less. For the most part, China and Wal-Mart bashing will continue to be empty rhetoric. Those who want the lowest price will continue to shop at Wal-Mart. More and more of the poor of the world will be blessed as more and more Wal-Marts are built. Times are good and getting better. In another 10 years or so, most of the billions of Chinese will be on their way to relative prosperity. The buyers of the goods will have done themselves a favor while helping the poor. THAT IS A OK BY ME! BUY, BUY, BUY!

RESPONSE TO RESPONSES

Many thanks to those who respond to my emails. It is humbling to know that you took the time to read my words.

INFLATION:

I have used the example of newspapers and magazines to show that some prices are falling from something to zero; I could have used long distance phone calls, transferring money or maps instead. I personally read many articles from many magazines online without buying a subscription to those magazines. I use a map that plots where I am, calculates the distance and time to my destination and talks me through the turns. Using today's technology, the distribution costs of these services is almost zero. Therefore, the publisher can offer the services in exchange for goodwill or for advertising space.

At least one reader believes inflation is a lot worse than I. This reader still subscribes to his local paper and he notes that his cost of food has soared. One issue this raises is that we each have our own personal inflation rate; the national numbers are the average for all consumers. The consumer who is an early adopter may have inflated his costs when he waited in line all day to buy one of the first iPhones. He paid a high price in time and money. Another consumer can buy today for a substantially lower price. In very short order, the first iPhones are going to be relatively obsolete. They access the internet at a very slow speed relative to what is already available on other networks and extremely slow relative to networks that will be built over the next several years. The price of the next great innovation may be sold at a much higher price but that will not be an inflated price. The fact is that the price of new inventions start high and typically fall and fall some more. The first Xerox machines were leased because few businesses had $100,000 to spend.



Food is important to all of us. Very poor people spend the great majority of their income on food. The sharp run up in the price of food in recent months has caused many very poor people to go hungry. In America, the percentage of incomes spent on food has fallen for as long as charts can be found. I recall a chart from a year or so ago that compared spending on recreation to spending on food. The chart made a big X. The average American spends less than 6% of his income on food. He spends many times as much on recreation. Broad measures of inflation capture the price of all ski lift tickets purchased and the price of all hamburgers purchased.

The typical reaction to the preceding statement is to say, "Oh, so those who can afford a ski lift ticket are the ones who are not seeing inflation." In fact, for the great majority of people, this is exactly wrong. It has been the cost of services, most often purchased by the wealthy, that have gone up the most in price. The inflation rate for a college education, for a heart operation or indeed for a ski lift ticket, have all climbed many times more than the price of a hamburger. One of the wags at GAVEKAL Research quips that "it has never been so expensive to be rich."

Biased people can "mine the numbers" to always show that inflation is better or worse than it really is. We all know that one can prove anything with statistics. The all time best and most consistently correct inflation forecast has been supplied by the bond market. The FOMC likes to look at the implied 5 year and 10 year inflation estimates derived from the spreads on 5 year and 10 year TIPS bonds versus standard 5 and 10 year bonds. Old timers like to rely more on the structure of the treasury market. In other words the willingness of investors to buy 5 year treasuries paying 4.6% says a lot about the markets inflation expectations. Don Hayes uses the 10 year treasury rate chart, to plot inflation a few months into the future. The stats are that this method gives off an r square close to 90! In case you have not noticed, the ten year bond has stayed in a tight range for several years and is currently closer to the bottom of that range than to the top. The inflation risk in today's market is very moderate.

SLOW DOWN OR ECONOMIC RECESSION?

Many a coincidental indicator shows that the world economy is slowing down. Weak economies are most often accompanied by declines in inflation rates. As I noted yesterday, even the decline in interest rates that occurs during slow downs or recessions is by definition a lowering of inflation rates. The USA holds the trump card! Many pundits have "talked-up" their international portfolios. The common theme has been that the world economies have been stronger than the US economy and the stock markets have out performed. The key words in the prior sentence are "have been". Smart investors do not invest in what has been but in what is likely to be. What is likely is that the economy that has the strongest currency is actually "set-up" to suffer the worst during the slow down.

2000 EXAMPLE

In the year 2000, the US dollar was very strong. In 2000 and 2001 the USA was the only major country to suffer through a recession. Yes, 9/11 influenced the US economy but the economic down turn was well before September of 2001. Right now, numbers are starting to flow showing a slow down in Europe. The weak US dollar is a wonderful blessing in these circumstances. US businesses can easily compete with others because the exchange rates with many other nations gives us a strong boost. The great news is that the slow down will lower short interest rates more. We might easily see another 50 basis point cut by the FOMC before year end and with new great prospects for strong growth in the USA we could see the dollar climb out the roof. The big money is made by buying near a currency bottom, just like buying a stock near the bottom.

WHICH STOCKS?

This morning I read a story about a German oil drilling company that has hit another oil gusher in Libya. The company, RWE, has moved from $19 to $88 over the past 5 years. Late last year, it briefly traded above $90 per share. The price had settled back down to about $80 before the gusher was hit. I hope you can how the fact that the price is lower now than it was last year is a signal. The time to buy this stock was 5 years ago. The exact best time to sell the stock was last year when it was trading above $90. The momentum is gone. Those who moved from energy to technology when this stock was at $90 have done well.

The total investment process required to "catch up to the new price of oil" still has many years to play-out. We know many things about the way this process will be completed. For example, we know that Shell and the Saudi will spend $7 billion to more than double the capacity of the Port Arthur, Texas refinery and we know that Kuwait has increased its budget on its new refinery to over $14 billion. We expect that the Port Arthur upgrade to be completed in 2010 and we expect the Kuwait refinery to start-up in 2012. Others refineries will start-up before and after each of the above. While it takes a lot of faith to spend $14 billion on a refinery that will not start until after scores of others have been completed, it does not require faith that the price of oil will stay above $50 per barrel.

The existing Port Arthur refinery has paid for itself many times over at much lower after inflation adjusted prices. It was started way back in the Spindle Top days. It has refined billions of gallons of oil and it is being expanded so that it can refine even billions more over the next many, many years. The investment is being made because the investors expect to make better than a 15% gross return on their investment. They can do that even including a forecast of oil falling back below $50 per barrel. Long term investors can certainly buy oil drilling stocks, hold for decades and make solid returns. However, with the crowd pushing oil stocks hard, you should expect to see these stocks under-perform the market for the next 5 to 10 years. Innovative companies, the ones that are generally finding ways to do things while using only small amounts of energy will do well. Transportation companies that consume large quantities of fuel will also do well.

BANKRUPTCY AT AMERICAN AIRLINES?

After I wrote that AMR faces tough union negotiations in the weeks and months ahead, one reader mentioned that a pilot friend believes AMR is about to be forced into bankruptcy. I strongly disagree. AMR made it though a very difficult time, after 9/11 without filing bankruptcy. Since that time, the company has dramatically reduced its costs and dramatically improved its balance sheet. It has even survived the spike in fuel prices and it will earn at least 65 cents per share this quarter after paying an average of $2.11 per gallon of jet fuel. A few pennies decline in the price of fuel, not due to a recession but due to growing supplies and demand destruction, would boost earnings by perhaps dollars per share.

The big argument being made by the pilots union is that they gave up 30 percent of their pay when it was necessary to save the company from bankruptcy and they now expect to get this pay back. There are at least a couple of big ugly flies in the soup! After AMR pilots "volunteered" to cut their pay, other pilots at other carriers gave up an even higher percentage of pay. In several cases, such as DAL and NWA, the negotiations to reduce costs were held while the companies were in bankruptcy. In the case of CAL, the total give-backs of all union employees were more than a billion dollars per year. The other big fly is that even after the give backs, the AMR pilots are very well paid. So, what you have is a situation where the pilots want 30% raises that cannot be supported by the current market.

It so happens that just this morning the GM -- UAW deal was completed. Thirty years ago, it would have been incredulous to suggest that one day GM workers would give up their company paid health benefits or to accept a contract with no annual cost of living increases. American consumers can rejoice. We have been paying an average of $1,500 in healthcare benefits each time we have bought and American car. Many who can not afford health insurance have paid for it for others.

It is a totally new, global, world in which we live. AMR pilots face the same problem as the GM workers. The fastest growing airlines, which are not based in the USA, expect to dramatically increase their flights to and from the USA. Without doing the searching to prove the point, I am confident in saying that the senior pilots in China do not earn $170,000 per year for 30 hours of work per week. $5,500 per hour plus benefits is not a bad gig but only a very small percentage of the worlds pilots get that rate. Ironically, if the public were willing to trust highly reliable electronic systems, which are much more dependable than the average pilot, the pilots would be not needed at all. Ouch! Believe it or not, in the not too distant future, the competition for travel will include 100% auto pilot crafts. Of course, the politicians would have to stand aside for this to happen and when it does happen it will start with small planes at remote locations.

THE NEAR FUTURE

The new satellite based air traffic control system will be a blessing. It will cost a lot of money but the investment will cut the operating cost of the carriers while, most importantly, reducing the time in the air for tens of thousands of flights daily. Millions of people will save hours daily after the plan is fully implemented. As usual, when the government is the provider of a service, politics get involved and one result is a huge amount of waste. It is only common sense for a 10 passenger jet to have a financial incentive to give up a prime landing spot at a major airport for the benefit of a 300 passenger jet. Giving up this slot should be based on the micro-economics of the situation. In other words, the price of the landing spot should be determined by the market, so that some operators would voluntarily choose smaller airports. Only the individuals involved can determine how important it is to land at the major airport. The government imposed system is the equivalent of Soviet Union system of deciding how many pairs of blue jeans the country should make.

THE IMPORTANT POINT FOR INVESTORS

Investors need to avoid taking one small data point and drawing harmful general conclusions. The core facts are that airlines are operating at record capacity and making money at the start of the prosperity phase of the business cycle. The solid growth in the revenues of these highly levered companies is leading to spectacular growth in earnings. Here in the middle of the mid cycle correction, it was "big news", a couple of days ago, when AMR announced that revenues for the quarter would grow at only 3 to 4%! When a business with very high operating leverage grows revenues by 3%, profits might rise 20%!

What will be the story a year from now? Will the unions still be fighting for a 30% raise that is not going to happen? Are these employees frustrated? Certainly! Do they really expect to make 30% more than their friends at other carriers? Most do not.

BAD NEWS IS GOOD NEWS

The "news" this morning was "bad." Orders of durable goods declined. Duh! Housing starts are way down so there are not as many furnaces or hot water heaters being purchased. The down tick is the "bad news" needed to push interest rates lower and inflation down more. Yes, this is circular logic but that is why they call it a business cycle.

Just remember that interest rates and commodity prices tend to move together. Right on cue, oil supplies recovered a bit this morning and oil prices slipped. The process is slow but sure.

HANG IN, HOLD ON, BUY ALL YOU CAN!

Thanks again for the feedback.

ANOTHER STRONG BUY

Jaywalk reports that another analyst has moved from a hold on CAL to a strong buy recommendation. The Jaywalk numbers are now, 1 strong sell, 0 sell, 9 hold, 10 buy and 4 strong buy. The Thompson numbers are 0 sell, 1 under-perform, 4 hold, 5 buy and 3 strong buy. The consensus estimate for 2007 is now at $4.27 and the estimate for 2008 is now $5.19. The $4.67 has been increased about 10% over the past several weeks.

The house has passed a bill to pay for the new air traffic control system by raising taxes on jet fuel. The bill will also allow airports to increase the ticket tax from $4.25 to $7. President Bush has pledged to veto the bill. Last night after the bill was passed, the President said in a press conference that he got a B in economics but an A in holding down taxes.


All the strong buy ratings in the world will not push the price of CAL up. However, the stock has become an obvious value. What analyst is willing to put a sell on a company that is growing earnings dramatically even while enduring very high input prices?

DON'T FORGET ABOUT GOOGLE!

I have struggled to keep a few accounts on board in regard to the airlines. I get few complaints about my other stock selections. Google is still the most fun stock to watch. Google makes dramatic moves week after week. The Google presentation package is similar to prior products designed to take market share from Microsoft. The package is a good basic package that is free to use. It does not have all the bells and whistles as PowerPoint but it is more useful to those who enjoy the free and easy collaboration across the Internet. Google has the money to move in any direction that it wants but it has clearly chosen to allocate a lot of resources to mobile communications. The world is changing as we speak. Millions of people are taking their home phones mobile. One day, the internet is going to be everywhere! Google is on the way to $100,000 per share!

BUY, BUY, BUY!

HOLD YOUR NOSE, I SMELL A STINKING COMPROMISE AND A VERY BIG BULL

Congress has failed to pass 12 of the 13 budget bills. The deadline of October 1st is also the date the debt ceiling runs out. Is there going to be a replay of the 1995 government shutdown? I don't think so. A very smelly compromise or two may be in the works.

One bill likely to pass will be the "Airline Passenger Bill of Rights and FAA Satellite Air Traffic Control and Airline Flight Path Correction Bill." No, Congress will come up with a shorter name but to "get the votes" the bill will include provisions to soothe the wounds of the unhappy. This bill will regulate payments and benefits granted to those who are stuck on the tarmac for hours on end. Of course, once the airlines get a bill passed to fund a new high tech satellite navigation system, the problem of being stuck on the tarmac will miraculously be solved. CAL has already spent at least $50,000,000 building a new hub in Cleveland to relieve the congestion at Newark. There is no question that the big carriers have been paying more than a fair share of the cost of FAA services. After the bill has passed, smaller planes will save a lot of money by avoiding taking a prime landing spot from one of the big carriers. Smaller airports will be utilized more by these smaller planes.


The airline industry and the traveling public will all be big winners when a compromise is reached. Among the losers will be the owners of homes that are in the direct flight path to the major airports. Part of the huge cost savings will be more direct flight paths near these airports. The savings will be in terms of money and time. Many a flight will cut 20 minutes off its landing time. Connecting flights will see improved scheduling. The cost of the system will be upwards of $50 billion but it will be well worth it. A compromise should be reached very soon.

ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX

Senator Grassley of Iowa is trying to steer Congress toward the elimination of the AMT along with making the 15% rate on capital gains taxes permanent. Grassley argues that Congress does not need to offset or score the loss of revenue from the AMT tax because the government has never expected or budgeted this income. Of course, Charlie Rangle and the rest of the Democrats are pushing other ideas. The idea that the democrats will fight the hardest for is the closing of the "loop holes" in regard to "carried interest." They know they have a "winner" in regard to attacking the taxes paid by hedge fund managers. The fact that a change in the law will not cause even a twitch in the tax revenue collected gauge does not matter. Many a business will have to be restructured to avoid the extra tax but, again, the amount of new taxes collected will be minuscule. Indeed, the normal, reasonable and rational decision of many an investor will be to avoid realizing the gain on investments once the tax rates go up. The free flow of capital is one of the things that makes the US economy dynamic and prosperous. The passage of extra taxes also includes a hidden "tax surcharge."

Senator Grassley needs 60 votes to get a bill through the Senate. The Democrats need the 60 votes to get a bill to the President but it needs 67 to over ride a veto. Congress currently "enjoys" a favorable rating of 27% of the citizens and the disapproval of 64%! I don't recall lower numbers. Do the Democrats really have the stomach for closing down the government? When the Republicans tried in 1995, they caught too much heat to handle.

BIG BULL MARKET!

Twenty five long years ago, when I was an investment broker with Merrill Lynch, an event happened two times that has not happened again until the day before yesterday. The up to down volume on the New York Stock Exchange was greater than 25 to 1. Such an event, according to The Sentiment Trader, has happened only seven times. In addition to the two times in August of 1982, it happened in 1950, 1951, 1957, and 1978. In most cases, the market jumped, then stumbled around for a week or two and then jumped again. In all seven cases the market was up strongly within three months and the average increase of the average big stock was 9.4%. If you appreciate how "heavy" is the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Averages, they you appreciate that serious money was made during these historic moves.

The up to down volume this past Tuesday was better than 30 to 1!

One possible scenario is that the market will struggle for the next couple of weeks and then have another huge up day when Congress passes a reasonable compromise. Of course, when Congress lumps 12 massive appropriation bills into one grand package, all sorts of extra billion dollar earmarks get funded. Yes, I can already smell the stink of the compromises coming but the process of "muddling though" is as good as government gets. Government is a necessary evil, generally the less the better.

GOOGLE ADVERTISING REVENUES TO SOAR!

Google continues to charge ahead with innovative "solutions." The coming advertisement revenues from "rich media sources" is going to make the revenues from the current text ads look very small. Google is ready to patch together its innovative "gadget" ads with its current operations and with the DoubleClick system as soon as the closing of the purchase is complete.

Mobile ads are also ready to explode. INTC, TXN and others are making dramatic strides in reducing the battery power needed to operate sophisticated hand held, wireless computers. Those children born this year are going to live in a very different world than the one that you and I know.

STRONG DOLLAR AHEAD!

After falling hard for 4 years, the value of the US Dollar is about to turn. As a general rule, the turn will mean that the performance of international investments will weaken and the performance of US investments will improve. Part of the reason that China has been growing at unprecedented rates has to do with the value of the US dollar. As the dollar and the yuan (which is pegged to the dollar) have fallen, the price of Chinese goods sold in Europe has fallen. The ECB is still in need of an increase in Euroland short term rates to slow the European economies. Job losses are going to be very large in Euroland unless they can reverse the growing advantage of the Chinese manufacturers. ECB rates are at 4% and the US Fed Funds rate was just reduced to 4.75%. Under the circumstances, one cannot expect the dollar to climb until the market is confident that either the spread is going to switch from a -.75% to a plus something.

Yes, I am saying the opposite of what the TV pundits repeat at least a few dozen times each day but history and common sense are on my side. The price of oil and gold is being pushed by fear of an "Iranian Event", by the falling dollar and by the belief that lower short term rates will stimulate the economy and thus the consumption of oil. Since 1978, Iran has been isolated from the rest of the world. Over the past couple of years, hundreds of deals have been made that will bring Iran out of isolation. The current situation is much like the negotiations to buy a business. Outsiders can often discover that negotiations for a takeover are in progress but only the insiders can make an highly accurate, educated guess as to weather the final deal can be closed. It would be a silly move for insiders to openly state their educated guess. If one suggests that a deal is close only to see it fall through, then the party has embarrassed himself with no potential gain. If sabers are rattled putting the prospects of a deal into great doubt, then a successful conclusion provides relief to all parties.

Iran has fastidiously maintained its right to develop the peaceful use of nuclear power. I believe Iran will develop said nuclear power after a deal is made that will reduce the threat to the rest of the world. Obviously, almost everyone would prefer that all nuclear weapons were destroyed. It has never been a comfort to know that Russia or India or Pakistan or others have the capacity to start a nuclear war. The deterrence of self destruction just does not seem very powerful when dealing with people who are willing to commit suicide to insure a trip to heaven. Still, I suspect that the final deal will give Iran the "supervised" right to develop nuclear energy.

Our French Friends have added a bit of pressure. I smell a compromise in the works but it has been more than a year since I first caught a slight scent in the air. Only time will tell but the combination of a few deals in Congress and a couple of deals in Iraq and Iran could make for a huge stock market rally before the November elections.

DO NOT TAKE THE RISK OF BEING OUT OF THIS MARKET! A SMALL SPARK COULD CAUSE A MARKET EXPLOSION!

LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT

The rest of the world followed the USA lead over night; markets around the world soared! The part I love the most is that at least half the talk is about the boom in oil and gold. A lot of money is pouring into the "tired end" of the market while the "jump" in the "other end" is just getting under way. Part of the reason is that many investors falsely believe that inflation is about to soar.

Yesterday a reader sent an article that suggested investors should hide out in bonds until the "worst" is over. My SELL, SELL, SELL on bonds is looking pretty good right now; bonds have fallen while stocks have soared. Economics professor, James Hamilton, issued a follow up study yesterday that suggests that the whole curve shifts down when the Fed Funds Rate is cut. Oops! Not this time! My belief is that even the good professor tends to get the cart before the horse. In the past, central bankers waited too long to cut short rates; the economy has often reached "free fall" before the start of the rate cuts. The first move in rates is never enough to float a falling lead hot air balloon, it is only enough to slow the fall. After the second cut or two, it is only common sense for long rates to go up, stimulating an economy is positive for future real growth and for future inflation.


The great news is that inflation continues to be very well behaved. The massive purchases of raw materials in Asia continues to be converted into lower priced goods around the world. The dramatic fall in the US dollar continues to "put the wood" to the seat of the pants of all the other industrialized nations. Exports from the USA and from China (which pegs its currency to the US Dollar) are soaring. You won't read this hardly any where else but, Bush has made some great chess moves in recent months. He has sacrificed a pawn or two in order to set up the democrats. If you were a democrat senator right now, what bill would you propose and expect to get signed into law?

The big push by democrats to "bring the troops home now" has failed in its purpose while pushing the democratic presidential candidates to take left wing positions that will not help them in the general election. The American people want to be safe from terror. Bringing the troops home in the middle of the war is not the winning position. The latest attempt to disrupt the war, forcing the troops to spend a lot of "down time" is unraveling.

On the energy front, the "big oil" man, Bush, has forced the environmentalist to admit that ethanol is not the answer. Bush caved into the democratic game of "paying off corn farmers." By doing so, he helped start the back lash to wasteful subsidies for bio-fuels. Many folk on both sides of the isle have started to understand that it would consume far too many food resources to replace even a small portion of our energy needs. Even the carbon sequestering schemes are starting to be seen as just more government boondoggle. The fact of the matter is that the most effective scheme for sequestering carbon is managed forest growth. New growth sequesters carbon much faster than old growth. China is now moving hard in the direction the USA headed over 100 years ago. The USA has reforested millions of hectares. The fear of environmental activist, those who want to leave the forest alone even if it means the occasional fire burns a few billion acres, has impeded the process but common sense prevails over the long haul.

The wealthy are always attacked by the left but, of course, wealth allows the "right thing" to be done. The poorest of the poor continue to use up the forest. Countries like Bangladesh are down to 7% forest coverage. A country like China, which moved rapidly from the poorest of the poor to a developing nation, can now afford to join the USA in its reforestation program. Of course, much more could have been done in the USA. The USA continues to pay farmers not to grow crops on land that could be growing trees. Like I have said before, an acre of forest sequesters more carbon annually than what can be saved through the growth of ethanol in 50 years. As usual, people (particularly democrat people) tend to try to do for nature what nature will do for itself. It is hard to do better than God!

With the price of oil at all time highs, as a democrat senator, would you fight for carbon taxes when the science continues to show that many of the schemes to cut carbon dioxide are proving to be inefficient boondoggles? Would you push for tax increases in the middle of a housing recession and credit crunch?

The tide is turning. Senator Obama just proposed a tax cut for the middle class. No doubt, he would pay for it by eliminating slapping shackles on the rest of the economy but at least it is a mention by a democrat that taxes need to be kept low. One of the economic things least understood by the democrats is corporate taxation. The bulk of the taxes paid by corporations are passed directly through to consumers. The big company is easy for democrats to attack but the attacks hurt the "little people" the most. Today, corporate taxes in the USA are high relative to the rest of the world. The same politicians who complain about jobs being lost to competitors overseas are willing to make the situation worse. Countries in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and South America have lowered corporate taxes. The manufacturing boom in Eastern Europe, for example, is not an accident. Tax policies do matter and the general principal holds that individuals make better decisions than the government in regard to how to spend the peoples money. There is waste all around; waste committed by individuals, governments and businesses. Schumpter won the "battle" with Galbraith long ago. Even totalitarian regimes do well when they allow the people economic freedom; the Chinese do not have a bill of rights but they are buying homes and buying and selling goods.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Ben Bernanke has demonstrated his understanding that the price of oil will ultimately take care of itself. The economic train does not need to be slowed to a crawl in order to halt inflation. Inflation is always a problem in the balance of goods and money, but given the opportunity the market will find substitution goods if the money is available. The big oil energy projects are still under construction but price does cure price. Much of the current run up is a continuation of speculation. It has always been true that market tops are much harder to see than market bottoms. The topping process is one where momentum is lost and where relative declines occur long before there are actual nominal declines. From 2005 to 2006, the price of oil clearly went up. From the peak in 2006 to the peak in 2007 there has been no real increase. The momentum is gone even though the dollar has fallen to record lows. The dollar is about to turn and go up for the next 5 years or so. All the while, new energy supplies will come on line. Let me put it this way, who would have ever guessed that Russia would sign contracts to supply China and Korea with electricity?

The invisible hand of Adam Smith has been at work and it will continue to work its magic. Is it not just wonderful how the slack in the housing market comes just as construction of refineries, power plants and industrial facilities is gathering steam? Is it not neat that the build out of WiMax net works will occur just as Intel and many others are ready to supply the world with incredibly cheap chips that will dramatically change the way we communicate?

Once again, the price of a computer chip, this time made incredibly small by nano-technology, will drop by thousands of percent. Those who focus on oil to say that inflation is terrible have simply not considered the growth in computer chip sales relative to oil sales. Over the past 30 years, the people of the USA have used less and less oil per person. Sure the nominal price has gone up but the total increase in dollars spent on oil lost its momentum long ago. At the same time, the number of silicon chips purchased has gone up many thousands if not millions of times. The price of these chips has fallen and fallen and fallen some more and are ready to fall once again.

Huge quantities of chips will be sold in coming years. All the ways these chips will be used to boost productivity are not known and not knowable. One known and easy example is the huge savings from avoiding the wrong turn. When GPS is everywhere, a few trillion wrong turns will be avoided each year. Yes, GPS will serve as a substitute for trillions of gallons of fuel.

BUY CONSUMER CYCLICALS, BUY TECHNOLOGY, BUY TRADITIONAL BANKS, BUY INDUSTRIALS, BUY TRANSPORTATION!

MAKE MONEY ALONG WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD!

SELL LONG BONDS, AVOID GOLD, SELL COMMODITIES, AVOID OIL STOCKS, AVOID MATERIALS, AVOID UTILITIES.