How much damage is Wikileak towards Bank of America

Check this article out:

Bank of America cuts off WikiLeaks payments

By Tim Bradshaw in London
Published: December 19 2010 12:48 | Last updated: December 19 2010 12:48

Bank of America is blocking all payments intended for WikiLeaks, amid growing speculation that the whistle-blowing site will embarrass the finance industry next year as it has the US government by leaking thousands of private diplomatic cables.
“Bank of America joins in the actions previously announced by MasterCard, PayPal, Visa Europe and others and will not process transactions of any type that we have reason to believe are intended for WikiLeaks,” BOFA said.
“This decision is based upon our reasonable belief that WikiLeaks may be engaged in activities that are, among other things, inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments.”
In response, WikiLeaks called on its supporters to boycott Bank of America, whose shares have suffered from speculation that it could be a target for the site.
“We ask that all people who love freedom close out their accounts at Bank of America,” WikiLeaks said on its Twitter profile. “Does your business do business with Bank of America? Our advise is to place your funds somewhere safer.”
The site’s founder, Julian Assange, said on Friday that WikiLeaks would continue to release information about the financial services sector in spite of facing “attacks” by banks.
“Over the last four years we have published information from over 120 countries,” Mr Assange told reporters outside Ellingham Hall, the English country house where he must remain while released on bail over allegations of sexual offences in Sweden.
“It is our normal business to publish information about banks. We have been attacked primarily not by government … but in fact by banks: banks from Dubai, banks from Switzerland, banks from the United States, banks from the UK. So yes of course we are continuing to release material about banks.”
In an interview last year, Mr Assange reportedly said that WikiLeaks had many files about Bank of America that have not yet been released.
At the same time as facing constraints on its funding sources, WikiLeaks’ budget has been tripled this year, amid ongoing cyber attacks and a greater volume of publications. The US Department of Justice is considering several avenues for potential prosecution of Mr Assange, in the hopes of deterring future leaks.
“Over 85 per cent of our economic resources are spent dealing with attacks – dealing with technical attacks, dealing with political attacks, dealing with legal attacks, not doing journalism,” Mr Assange said.
Bank of America’s move could prompt reprisals from Anonymous, the loose group of pro-WikiLeaks online activists. Anonymous disrupted websites belonging to MasterCard and PostFinance, the Swiss bank which has frozen Mr Assange’s account, in revenge attacks earlier this month.
Lawyers for Mr Assange last week created a new defence fund for supporters to contribute to his legal expenses. Over the weekend, Mr Assange himself suffered the leak of a Swedish police file relating to allegations of rape and other sexual offences from two women, which the WikiLeaks founder has repeatedly denied.
The Guardian and the New York Times, newspapers with which WikiLeaks has partnered to examine thousands of US diplomatic cables over recent weeks, both published details of the alleged events in Stockholm last August, based on police interviews.

Funny

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of you!!!!!!

Hope you will like this, Mic.

Link: http://politicalgraffiti.wordpress.com/

Interesting Web

Thanks

Paul

Will there be a year end rally this year?

Dear all

I personally think there will be a year end rally this year, just like the previous years. In the previous months, Dow Jones have been pulling back by the European Debt worries. I think the stock market is still undervalue at this moment. However, I think investors will push the market down a little bit first this week before the year end rally. Also, i still believe Silver and Gold will continue to rise. Investors should have some silver and gold in their portfolios.

Thanks

MC

Loser?

Who will become the biggest loser under this abnormal economic situation while inflation is not far ahead from us?

VIX: The Fear Index

VIX is the ticker symbol for the Chicago Board Options Exchange Market Volatility Index, a popular measure of the implied volatility of S&P 500 index options. Often referred to as the fear index or the fear gauge, it represents one measure of the market's expectation of stock market volatility over the next 30 day period. The VIX Index was introduced by Prof. Robert Whaley in 1993 while he was at Duke University. Whaley currently teaches at Vanderbilt University.

VIX S&P500 5 days graph:





What I want to bring up in this post is the downward trend in the VIX index in the past 3 months, 1 months and 5 days that we should be alert. As you can see, the VIX index has gotten into a downward trend in the past few months and days. It means that the volatility (Implied volatility) have declined among the options. As volatility decline, price of the options also decline. So for those who trade warrants and options in US or HK, December is a month that we should be more cautious.

For more information about the VIX, here are some links to it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIX
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=^VIX
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1296743

Thanks
Paul Ng

Natural gas

Still interest in buying UNG?

Thanks
Paul

Trader?

Thanks
Paul

The Social Network

Such a great movie, Thanks for the recommendation, Jason
But it seems like cinemas in HK are neglecting this film a bit. Whatever~

Groupon attracts Google

Dear All

As i mentioned a few months ago, Groupon is expanding rapidly worldwide. Now it has caught Google's attention. Google might acquire the company. Take a look at this article:

Google Inc.'s (GOOG) reported interest in closely held Groupon Inc. could lead to the most expensive acquisition yet for the Internet giant, which has been in the midst of a buying spree.

While most of Google's recent acquisitions have been relatively small, online coupon provider Groupon could spur Google to pay as much or more than the $3.1 billion it paid for online display-advertising firm DoubleClick in 2007, in what was the biggest purchase ever for the Mountain View, Calif.-based company.

The AllThingsD blog reported early Friday that Google is considering paying "well above" $3 billion for Chicago-based Groupon, which has garnered a wide following for its daily online offers of heavily-discounted local deals on everything from cheese steaks to theater tickets.

According to SharesPost, which provides an exchange for equity in private firms, investors have been seeking shares of Groupon for roughly $38 apiece, implying a valuation of about $1.6 billion.

An acquisition of Groupon would represent a significant foray for Google further into the market for locally focused online services and information.

A Google spokesman declined to comment. A Groupon spokeswoman also declined to comment, referring to the reported merger talks with Google as "just speculation."

Google, which emerged from the recession relatively unscathed, began the year by announcing it intended to buy at least one company per month.

The company disclosed last month that it spent roughly $1.6 billion on acquisitions during the first three quarters of 2010--which included $681 million paid for mobile phone advertising firm AdMob, $179 million for social-networking software developer Slide, and $626 million spread across 37 smaller purchases.

In addition to DoubleClick, other significant Google acquisitions have included YouTube, the popular video service bought for $1.65 billion in 2006.

Google recently disclosed that it is now pulling in revenue from over 2 billion video views on YouTube per week.

Google's M&A activity has drawn increasing scrutiny from antitrust regulators. Google's purchase of AdMob, for example, was delayed several months before receiving approval from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Google currently intends to purchase travel software developer ITA Software for $700 million. The company said in August that the U.S. Justice Department would be conducting an extended antitrust review of the deal.

Groupon, which was launched in late 2008, says it now offers daily deals in over 300 different markets around the world. The company announced earlier this week that it signed a distribution agreement to make its offers available on Yahoo Inc.'s (YHOO) websites.



-By John Letzing, 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com

Thank you

MC

License

You can find me in SFC website now
Thanks
Paul

Shift

More the HK government do on the real estate,
More the hot money float into the market of stocks

Thanks
Paul

US Sino Currency Rap

Thanks Jason

Warrants

Points to know before we trade warrants:

1. Leverage

a. Definition:

i. Leverage expresses the relationship of the warrant price to the price of the underlying instrument.

ii. Leverage= So / warrant price x conversion ratio

iii. For “deep in the money” warrants, leverage can be used as an indicator for the expected (stronger) price change in the underlying (share) price, given a 1% change in the underlying (share) price

iv. Unfortunately, many investors still use leverage as their exclusive indicator when choosing warrants. Although this makes sense for deep-in-the-money warrants, delta and effective gearing are more suitable valuation indicators for out-of-the-money or at-the-money warrants.

2. Delta

a. Definition:

i. From a mathematical perspective, delta factor is the first derivative of the warrant price by the price of the underlying instrument.

ii. It indicates the change in a warrant’s theoretical value, in absolute terms, given a one-unit change in the price of the underlying.

iii. Multiplying delta by the change in the price of the underlying – taking account the conversion ratio – indicates the theoretical change in the warrant price.

3. Effective gearing

a. Definition:

i. Contrary to the leverage indicator, which is based on the assumption of a parallel (absolute) change in the prices of the warrant and the price of the underlying, effective gearing takes the delta into consideration. It therefore provides a measure of the actual leverage effect provided by the warrant.

ii. This helps to avoid mispricing which might occur due to purely focusing on leverage, especially for warrants that are deep-out-of-the-money

iii. Effective gearing = delta x leverage

4. Theta/ Time to maturity

a. Definition:

i. Theta describe the effect of a change in the remaining lifetime on the warrant price

ii. It expresses the change by one day or one week

iii. The theta – which always has a negative sign – is a daily or weekly indicator

iv. Warrants that are deep-in-the-money have a low theta because they have high intrinsic value and a relatively low time value component. Similar to warrants which are out-of-the-money, their time value tends to fall on rapidly to the end of maturity

v. Theta is highest for at-the-money warrants, where the time decay can be enormous, especially as such warrants approach expiration.

vi. “ The life time of the warrant should be at least 3 months longer than the timeframe during which the investor expects the price of the underlying to change “

5. Rho/ Interest rate

a. Definition:

i. Rho describe the effect of a change in interest rates on the warrant price

ii. The term of a call warrant usually specify that the issuer bank is obliged to make a cash settlement of the intrinsic value of the warrant at expiration. The bank typically purchases the underlying instrument when the warrant is issued so as to manage its obligations under the warrant. It therefore holds a position, which it normally finances on the money market over the entire lifetime of the warrant.

iii. Since the interest costs incurred would be factored into the price of the warrant, a call warrant becomes cheaper of the interest rate fall and more expensive of they rise

iv. As an issuer of a put warrant, the issuer bank typically sells the underlying to hedge its warrant position, since it is obligated to give the investor a cash payment reflecting the intrinsic value of the warrant at expiration.

v. As the bank would include in the price of the put warrant the proceeds resulting from the sale of the underlying a put warrant becomes cheaper if money market rates rise and more expensive if they fall

vi. Rho expresses the change in the warrant price, given a one percent change in interest rates. The indicator is always between 0-1 for a call warrant, and between 1-0 for a put warrant. The impact of financing costs on the warrant price decreases with a shorter remaining lifetime. Consequently, Rho declines towards expiration.

6. Vega/ Volatility

a. Definition:

i. It only measure the magnitude of the fluctuation

ii. The higher the volatility, the higher the price of the warrant

iii. Historical, implied and future volatility

iv. Historical volatility is based on the price data of the past

v. Implied volatility reflected in current option prices. A bank’s warrant trader uses current warrant prices to compute and assess implied volatility. Implied volatility is critical for the pricing of warrants. Even the best warrant traders cannot predict a warrant’s future volatility, since future data is an unknown quantity. Besides the price of the underlying, volatility is the most important factor influencing the value of warrant

vi. Vega is the indicator reflecting the effect of fluctuation in the implied volatility on the warrant price. Vega indicates by how much the option price will change given a 1% point change in implied volatility.

vii. A Vega of 0.3 means that if the volatility of the underlying price changes by 1% point, the value of the warrant rises/ falls by 0.30 currency units, adjusted for the conversion ratio. Looking at a warrant that is trading at a price of S$0.5 and has a conversion ratio of 10:1, a one percentage point rise in the implied volatility means the warrant will rise to $0.53

viii. Vega is always positive and is calculated in the same way of call and put warrants. Investors beware: the implied volatilities of warrants are high when the market underlying prices have fallen sharply.

ix. This is because downward trends are often faster and more pronounced than upward trends. Hence, it can happen that the positive rise in the price of the underlying for call warrant sometimes is offset by the loss in implied volatility of the warrant and the price of the call will not increase. Investor should therefore always check for a sound relationship between historical and implied volatility. Warrants on the same underlying, with comparable lifetime and exercise price have different implied volatilities, the warrant with the lowest implied volatility should be chosen, taking into account the bid/ask spread and the issuers’ credit quality

7. The spread

a. Definition:

i. In contrast to equities or bonds, where the market liquidity (supply and demand) has immediate impact on the exchange price of the respective instrument, the pricing of structured warrant is not dependent on traded volumes.

ii. Issuers adapt their pricing to the price development and volatility of the underlying instrument, and the warrant’s lifetime.

iii. The size of the bid/ask spread can, of course, be affected by the market liquidity of the underlying: in the case of a wider spread in the underlying instrument, issuers are faced with higher hedging costs which they will factor into the pricing of related warrants.

iv. Having said that, issuers define a maximum bid/ask spread when listing structured warrants.

v. In conclusion, whether or not a particular warrant is actively traded does not have a significant impact on the pricing of structured warrants

vi. The wider the bid/ask spread set by the issuer, the bigger the underlying price change required to get into the profit zone

Steve Jobs on Marketing

Steve Jobs on Marketing from Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD on Vimeo.

Bicameral Legislature

General map and information:

• All ideas and thoughts have to be passed by both Senate and House of Representative in order to become a new policy
• Only the House of Representative has the right to imply policies that involve Government Revenue Bills
• The House of Representative is more powerful in altering economical policies relative to the Senate
• After the vote on 4^th November, 2010, Obama’s Democratic got 183 seats in the House of Representative while the Republican got 239 seats in the House of Representative

Thanks

Paul

Think deeper about the QE2

QE2 is finally out on Thursday, November 4th. Here are some quick points for it:

1. The total QE2 amount is 600Billion, separated into 8 proportions, with each equal to 75Billion
2. Starting from November in 2010, FED will purchase 2-5 years bill, notes and bonds from the US Government
3. The aim for the QE2 is to increase the " Expectation Inflation " in US by keeping the 2-5 years interest rate in a certain range
4. Separating the QE2 into 8 different proportions shall increase the " Expectation Inflation " in the market of US
5. Yet, this is not the end of the story
6. Obama should have known that his party will lose seats in the House of Representative
7. In the coming days, it will be harsh for Obama and his party to make up policies that involve spending money or printing money
8. Personally, I predict that the US Government will cut off some spending in the coming months
9. It may not involve the money that printed in the QE2 plan, but there must be some plans that will be adopted by the US government to reduce spending
10. While " Expected Inflation " keep on increasing, US Government will keep on reducing spending
11. Government will not increase interest rate in the coming 8 months, otherwise, the QE2 plan is a failure

For general investors, I suggest:

1. Buy real estate stocks in US, hold it until May of 2012
2. Buy real estate stocks in HK, hold it until May of 2012
3. Buy commodity stocks, especially oil and natural gas, hold it until March of 2012
4. Include gold stocks in your portfolio, hold it until May of 2012

Thanks

Paul

Photo: http://www.wretch.cc/blog/makoto771/22365264

Paul Krugman

November 5, 2010, 1:30 PM

QE Madness

It has been really interesting to watch some of the commentary over quantitative easing by the Fed: while people like me see the Fed’s actions as way too timid, there’s a substantial faction out there that sees them as the end of Western civilization. Right now the most popular story on Bloomberg is Jim Rogers saying that Bernanke doesn’t understand economics, that he’s “debasing the currency.”

I’ve seen Rogers in action; he seemed to me to be confused about issues like the difference between assets and liabilities. And please note that inflationistas like Rogers have been wrong about absolutely everything this cycle (and the last cycle, and the cycle before that).

But they have their devotees. And this means that monetary policy, our only real hope at this point, must climb a wall of stupidity.

Link: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/05/qe-madness/

I am a little worried

Hi

QE 1 was introduced when Dow Jones is near 6600 points. Right now, QE2 was introduced while Dow Jones is at 11200. This is already in the two year high. Do people still believe that the stock market will continue to soar while the unemployment rate remains at this high level? I am a little worried. I personally think QE2 is a good move but the market is just too optimistic. I think the stock market will rise to 11500, then it will start to drop at that point. There's good news in the industries but the rally has started since August, 2010 when Dow is below 10000. Thus, I suggest investors should be careful in this rally. The market might shift position anytime.

Thanks

MC

Paul Krugman

November 3, 2010, 3:59 PM

QE2: Meh

Seconding Brad DeLong here.

Conventional monetary policy involves buying short-term government debt; it has no traction now because interest rates on short-term debt are near zero.

So now the Fed is buying longer-term debt — but still only 5-year debt, with a current interest rate of slightly over 1 percent. How much more effective is that likely to be?

And $600 billion really isn’t a lot when you’re trying to move a $15 trillion economy.

One more thing: the Fed statement basically reaffirms the existing inflation target, it doesn’t raise it. So not much traction on the expectations side either.

In short: meh.

Quote from: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/qe2-meh/

QE2

Thanks

Paul

What can the Hong Kong government do to help the poor?

Dear all:

House price is soaring. The currency is depreciating and inflation is going to happen soon. Even university graduates cannot afford to owe a house. There is no minimum wage yet. What can the government do to help this unstable society? I personally thing widening the income gap will not be a problem. I encourage the top 1% of the richest to compete with the richest people in the world. This means that Hong Kong needs to innovate. It needs to design and invent high technology products and sell to the rest of the world. Doing this requires a lot of research and development.

What I really want to suggest is that Hong Kong needs a better University. It needs a private institute to do a research. Hong Kong is a rich city and I think that it can pay and hire the top professors around the world and work in the private university. For example, Steve Jobs' Apple products benefited lots of jobs for the Americans. Hong Kong needs this kind of genius and innovation. Thus, I encourage the government to fund and build a new University. We need to focus on LONG TERM.

Thanks

MC

More information about 李錄 from wikipedia

Li Lu (simplified Chinese: 李录; traditional Chinese: 李錄 or 李祿; pinyin: Lǐ Lù; born 1966^[1]) is a Chinese-American fund manager and investor, founder and Chairman of Himalaya Capital Management.

Li Lu was born and grew up in Tangshan, China. He was a survivor of 1976 Tangshan earthquake. In 1985, he went to Nanjing University, majored in Physics and later transferred to Economics. In 1989, he participated in the Tiananmen Square student protests and became one of the student leaders. He helped organize the students and participated in a hunger strike

After the crackdown of the movement, he left China and went to study at Columbia University. In 1990, he published a book about his experience in China titled “Moving the Mountain: My Life in China” (ISBN 0-399-13545-6). In 1996, he graduated from Columbia and became one of the first students in the history of the university to receive three degrees simultaneously: a B.A. in Economics from Columbia College, a J.D. from Columbia Law School, and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.^[2] Li was inspired to get into banking after hearing Warren Buffett, a Columbia alumnus, give a lecture at Columbia in 1993.

Upon graduation, Li Lu worked in an investment bank until late 1997, when he founded Himalaya Capital Management. From 1998 to 2004, he managed both a hedge fund and a venture capital fund. His fund suffered a 19% percent loss in 1998 from the Asian Financial Crisis. In late 2004, he transformed the hedge fund into a long only investment vehicle, LL Investment Partners, LP, which is currently focused on global investment opportunities. Charlie Munger, Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and a long-time partner of legendary investor Warren Buffett, is an investor of his fund, and a “mentor and good friend” (in Li Lu’s own words).^[3]

Li Lu has been known as the man who introduced the Chinese battery and auto maker BYD Company to Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett. He is an informal advisor to BYD. His LL Investment Partners owns about 2.5% of BYD.^[4]

In May 2010, Li Lu helped to translate and publish the Chinese version of “Poor Charlie’s Almanack, The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger” (ISBN 978-7-208-08994-5) in China and wrote a foreword for the book.^[5]

Li was named a global leader for tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in 2001, and a Henry Crown fellow by the Aspen Institute in 1998. He is a member of Council on Foreign Relations and Young Presidents' Organization.

Li is rumored to be the front runner to manage a large portion of Berkshire Hathaway's investment portfolio once Warren Buffett steps down. According to The Wall Street Journal, Charlie Munger once said "it is a foregone decision" that Li Lu is going to be a member of Berkshire's top investors team after Warren Buffett retires. This was also hinted several times in some conversations with Buffett.^[6]

^{Link in English: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Lu}

^{Link in Chinese: http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/李錄}

^Thanks

^Paul

Will it be a Chinese to take over Berkshire?

Dear All

I guess everyone is in the debate of who 李錄 Li Lu is and how important this person is to Warren Buffet. Firstly, he is the person who introduced the car company "Build Your Dream" to Charlie Munger and then Charlie to Warren Buffet. This is the only company that broke Buffet's investment strategy which he invested in a company that he does not fully understand. Secondly, Li Lu traveled along with Buffet for his 4 days China tour. This can tell this person is pretty important in Buffet's mind. Will he be the next CEO of Berkshire Hathaway? I personally think there's a high chance. Stay focus to this guy. He might be very influential to the economy in the next 10 years.

Thanks

MC

The Risng of Groupon

Hi

Today I would like to talk about the company "Groupon". Even though this company is still not on the public stock exchange yet, I really appreciate the concept and idea of the company. This company does not manufacture goods, it manufactures coupons. We can call them the coupon giant. In less than two years since the start of Groupon, they have expanded from United States to over 25 countries around the world. Hundreds of coupons are sold every minute. How does this work? This company just goes around city and deals with companies that are interested to give out coupons. Not only this could help companies to boost up their revenue, this could also promote their companies. On the other hand, Groupon will create coupons for those companies and make profit by receiving some commissions off those sold coupons. This is a win win situation for both companies by Groupon gaining profits from selling coupons and promoting companies receiving free advertisements. Consumers love to use coupons especially the owner of "IKEA" Ingvar Kamprad. Will Ingvar Kamprad be a big fan of Groupon?

Check out their webiste: www.groupon.com

Thanks

MC

Shocking Facts About the U.S. Debt Problem, And 5 Ways to Prepare Your Portfolio

I share the same point of view with this writer, so just read it.

by Nathan Slaughter

The United States isn't yet teetering on the brink of insolvency like Greece -- but it's not for a lack of trying. In fact, we're on an eerily similar path.

According to the U.S. Treasury, our national debt is currently more than $13 trillion (that's a 13 with twelve zeroes). And that's not even counting unfunded Medicare and social security liabilities. That works out to roughly $118,477 for each and every taxpayer. But this is a clock that never stops ticking.

At the current pace, we are slipping $3.9 billion deeper in the hole every day -- $163 million per hour. That means that by the time you finish reading the next paragraph, we'll have saddled our kids and grandkids with another million or two that must be repaid.

The federal government has now run a deficit for 21 consecutive months (the longest stretch of red ink on record). In April, tax receipts totaled $245 billion, but outlays hit $328 billion. That means for every $1 taken in, we spent $1.34. No household could survive long on that reckless budget -- but then again, you and I can't print money.

For all of 2010, the deficit is projected to reach $1.5 trillion. That's an insane +780% increase in just three years. As a percentage of GDP, the gap is currently in the double-digits for the first time since World War II. And the combined shortfalls could total $9 trillion in the next decade -- ballooning the debt past $20 trillion.

At that point, assuming an average interest rate of 5% (far below what we'd have to pay in a real crisis), interest payments alone would hit $1 trillion per year -- leaving very little for anything else.

And forget about the principal. Even if we could pay down the balance at a rate of $10 million per day, it would still take 5,753 years to become debt free. Yet our leaders aren't interested in paying the tab -- they're still spending like drunken sailors.

Sowing the seeds of inflation
Without a dramatic economic surge to boost revenues, U.S. debt could exceed GDP within the next two or three years. And there's only so much the International Monetary Fund could do (20 cents of every IMF dollar comes from American taxpayers, and we can't bail ourselves out).

As we saw when Greece reached its tipping point, the international community could soon demand much greater incentive to lend us money. This could ravage both the debt and equity markets. And the U.S. dollar (a safe-haven currency under other circumstances) will come under direct fire.

So where does all this lead?

Influential ond investor Bill Gross believes the United States is locked on a collision course with a "debt super cycle." And former Fed chief Alan Greenspan is warning of painful double-digit inflation on the horizon.

Just as France deliberately stoked inflation to ease the burden of debts amassed during World War I, the only way the U.S. can make a dent is by diluting the value of a dollar. Leaving interest rates at zero is a good start, and running the printing presses overtime will finish the job.

Make no mistake: this is an indirect form of taxation. Whether the government takes a 25% upfront cut from each dollar of your paycheck, or simply devalues that dollar to the point where it can only buy $0.75 worth of products it could have before, the end result is the same.

Fortunately, there are ways to turn the tables. In fact, certain asset classes don't just protect against inflation, but profit handsomely from it. Here are a few ideas:

1.) Precious metals like gold, silver, and platinum would be a natural beneficiary and a reliable inflation hedge.

2.) Commodities (particularly dollar-denominated ones like crude oil) would likely flourish as the greenback crumbles.

3.) Foreign money markets would generate relatively safe monthly income, and currency appreciation will sweeten returns. I've personally been accumulating a position in the Franklin Hard Currency Fund (Nasdaq: ICPHX).

4.) If the U.S. is foundering, then you'll want a portion of your money as far away as possible, like Chile, for example. The expanding South American market would remain buoyant with copper exports and relies on the U.S. for just 15% of its trade.

5.) Further depreciation of the dollar could be a boon for multinationals like Heinz (NYSE: HNZ) that generate more than half of their sales overseas.

One solution I recommend is to buy the Jefferies Global Commodity Equity (NYSE: CRBQ) ETF.

If you think inflation is imminent, start accumulating small positions utilizing the strategies mentioned above.

Thanks

Paul