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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lucretius who wrote (281497)	3/27/2004 6:17:31 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Barron's mini review: Good issue for a change. 1. Randall Forsyth scribbles the Abelson column this week. He talks about our monetary steroids (da juice, in sports talk) that pushed the market up. A commentator from Market Semiotics (I think one of my biotech firms has a cure for that <G>) says the decline is over for now and he sees a lot of flopping around until the bear resumes in 2005. The second section in the lead column talks about the carry trade and the dangers. Goldman Sucks increased its risk by 25% in the first quarter, 87% of General Motors eps were from financing crap, not from selling crap, and China and Japan are paying for our low short rates. But the Fed is afraid to raise rates, so join "big daddy pump" Mish and enjoy the free "Juice." 2. A fluff story on Harley Davidson. Yawn! 3. A hymn of praise for Carly and Hewlett. Gag me with a spoon. 4. Lots of IPOs. If you can get into one, don't buy it. If you can't, load up. <G> 5. A terrific article about one of our local energy analysts and his picks. He thinks oil and gas are dirt cheap. He likes Canuck oil sands, Latin American oils, my buddy Norsk Hydro (though he doesn't say anything about Statoil). He also hates the Chinese energy cos. based upon valuation. He may be right; he may be wrong, but at least his reasoning makes sense. 6. In Market Watch, Street Smart is talking about shorting stocks while Milton Ezrati is talking about great demographic trends in the US after 2008. Uh, where he lives I guess they haven't heard of free trade and globalization. People who make conclusions based just upon US projections of whatever seem to be in the realm of the clueless. Yes, we are the most important country in the world. No, we are not the only country in the world. And the other guys are not all a bunch of mugs. 7. Reebok and rappers. Clean off the spoon and stick it down my throat again. 8. Mailbag has some common sense about 12-b1 fees from Irving Straus. He asks how a fund can call itself "no-load" and charge a 12-b1 fee. Great question. I still hear folks refer to back-loaded funds as no-load. On what planet? Michael Green writes a great letter about a co. I can't discuss. 9. The Commodities Corner noticed that gasoliine prices went up. Uh, crude was down about a buck and a half from Tuesday til Friday. 10. The Asia column repeats the story most of us read about gold prices breaking away from the dollar. It was good the first time and not a bad rerun, either. Worth the moolah this time.