Roland Oliphant at Russia Profile has tracked down Chris Anderson to talk about the controversial GQ censorship.  I am here in Brussels with Karinna Moskalenko, whom will probably have some commentary for me to publish tomorrow.

Anderson described that as a cop-out. "This seems to be the party line that is being adopted by those defending the Russia government," he said. "Certainly, these accusations or suspicions about the '99 bombings have been floating around out there for a long time, but what is new is that, for the first time, a major international news magazine has decided to look at this issue in depth." He also rejected Uskov's assumption that the stories were already in the public domain. "I also strongly doubt that most of the issues I raise in the article are common knowledge to the average Russian person, since very few Russian media outlets have ever

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Advisor says corporate bonds still have legs, but currency ETFs are not one of his favorites for the new year.

 

"Big Joe" Clark has his wish list for 2009. And it includes some exchange-traded funds that even Santa Claus might find useful as stocking stuffers.

At the top are corporate bonds. In the coming year, the Anderson, Ind.-based advisor is expecting investment-grade corporates and high yield debt markets to perform like stocks do in more-normal times.

As a result, Clark is buying more of the iShares iBoxx Investment Grade Corporate Bond Index (NYSE: LQD) in client portfolios. It's a fund he held during the latter half of 2008.

At the same time, Clark is initiating new positions in the iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond Index (NYSE: HYG).

"Both are moving up in terms of prices," he said. "That means their yields are dropping some. But they're still yielding much better than Treasuries

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As Hurricane Ike took over the Gulf of Mexico, I watched with unusual interest, since I had been scheduled to fly through Houston to give a lecture in Baton Rouge on Friday. We had to cancel that visit to LSU, which left me to contemplate the consequences of Hurricane Ike for oil and gas markets from the comfort of my warm, snug home in San Diego.

Hurricane Ike on Sept. 12. Source: Drudge.

Essentially all of the 1.3 million barrels per day of U.S. crude oil production from the Gulf of Mexico (which accounts for about a quarter of total U.S. production) has been shut in as a result of the storm. When the same thing happened 3 years ago with Hurricane Katrina, the effects turned out to be surprisingly long-lived. Damage to offshore rigs proved costly to repair,

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