Hey, the economy is not only recovering…it’s becoming better than ever before!

“Banks recover to their levels before the fall of Lehman,” is a headline in this Monday’s El Pais from Madrid.

“Public assistance enables the world’s largest 15 financial firms to return to the capitalization they had in September 2008,” the article continues. The largest of the largest, HSBC, is now judged to be worth $186 billion, according to the stock market. China’s ICBC is on its heels, with a market cap of $178 billion. BNP Paribas is 7th at $87 billion.

We will overlook the compromising detail that banks actually lost money in the last quarter – more than $3 billion. And let’s forget that China’s major banks are sitting on mega-losses from more than eight years ago (to say nothing of the more recent losses). Western banks, too, still have billions in assets whose real worth is an open question…and

Now that the stock market has soared 40% from its March lows, almost no one can seem to remember what they were so worried about. By contrast, now that the price of natural has collapsed 40% in the last seven months, almost no one can remember why they ever worried about an energy shortage.

Mr. Market is about to heal America’s collective amnesia.

Investors will once again remember why they were selling stocks last March, and they will also remember why they used to invest in natural gas.

Share prices have gained a lot of ground during the last few months, even though the economy has not. The major averages have rallied about 40%, but many stocks are up a whole lot more than that. Seventeen of the thirty-three stocks I have recommended to the subscribers have gained more than 50% since those March lows. Eight are up

by Claus Vistesen Copenhagen

A good relationship need not, at each and every moment in time, be characterised by passion and desire. In fact the relationships which best endure the relentless erosion of time are often those where mutual respect and acceptance of difference form the cornerstones. Although I am, I have to admit, by no means an expert on this topic I would imagine that some such rule of thumb is embedded at the heart of many a marriage councilors' cookbook of fundamentals. Every chain has its breaking point however, and it seems that the central bankers' hitherto passionate love affair with inflation targeting is beginning to suffer the unforgiving attrition of time as the chill winds of the global credit crunch and rising inflation start to make the going rougher. At least it is hard to avoid the impression that certain that as some of the key components