Barron's Mini Review. Terrific issue this time. 1. Abelson correlates the Chinese Space Ship with Stephen Roach's concept that US growth will be slowing. A tortured attempt at humor, but good analysis, mostly by Roach. Abelson also picks on specialists, the most hated people on Wall Street, and that's going some.
2. A small blurb saying indicators are no longer full speed bullish but have turned neutral. Yawn!
3. Slamming small caps vs. large caps. I totally disagree. ALL the growth is in smaller caps even though they are at all time highs.
4. SI earned 4 1/2 stars on Barron's Online winner's list.
5. My favorite cub scout reporter, Jon Jon Laing, is in full brown nose mode to Rupert Murdoch as he praise's the growth prospects of NewsCorp, America's version of Pravda.
6. An absolutely great interview with Rudolph-Riad Younes, manager of Julius Baer Intl. Fund. He is bearish but still finding some good intl. longs. He loves The Flipinines, Indonesia, India, Thighland and Mo-Mo's Malaysia. And a favorite outside the Orient is Turkey. The guy even wears silver and tourquoise turtle cufflinks, as I do. Gotta love him.
7. Excellent piece on brokerage arbitration. More cases, fewer winners. My favorite defense was the one senile Pollack used to dismiss suits against Merrill: "Everyone knows Wall Street research is tainted." I just wonder why The Raging Bull got away with that but poor old Mike Tyson got nailed when he used "no woman in her right mind would be dumb enough to come up to the hotel room of a criminal like me." <G>
8. Research Reports publishes a bearish and funny report on AU. Believe it or not, one of the risks in this stock is "the price of gold." Every time I try to buy an intl. bond from my firm's desk, the poor trader has to tell me, "are you aware of the risks in intl. investing?" I always answer snottily, "Yes, but I'm also aware of the opportunities, which is why I want to buy." <G>
9. The Mogambu Guru does a nice hatchet job on economists in Market Watch. He uses Godzilla, which I love because brokers used to refer to the mutual fund I managed as The Godzilla Fund.
In the same feature, Predent Wealth gives a nice look at debt growth.
10. Another great letter in the Mailbag section about the bullish aspects of silver. It's the last one, so keep on trucking through the crap.
11. Hallelujah. In the mutual fund section, they interview the manager of the Japan Smaller Companies Fund (JOF). I own it despite its large premium. There simply is no "across the street" fund for this one. Fidelity has one, but it sucks eggs.
12. A great article about cattle futures and why they're soaring.
So, this might not be the best issue for everyone, but it hits on my themes and even my dislikes (Jon Jon Laing and Rupert Murdoch make me barf) very strongly. |
