Source: David and Eric Coffin, Hard Rock Advisory Journal  05/29/2009
The greatest economic realignment since Genghis Kahn took over Eurasia’s trade routes is continuing apace. The west remains mired in an assets contraction of its own making, and the east is refocused on channeling its growth engines into domestic consumption. The resource sector, which is our focus and which has been governed by those growth engines for a decade and half, is indicating at least the expectation of continuing gains in the east. That does not mean we ignore what is going on the developed west, plus Japan.

Most of the planned bad news on the US banking system is now on the table or at least anticipated, in some form. The stress test requirements for US banks at $75 billion of new capital required are workable, though heavily dilutive. There are legitimate doubts that this will actually be sufficient given …

February 18, 2009

Not very impressed? That seems to be the way investors felt today. An early rally fizzled while volume was on the light side while breadth was negative.

There may be a sense and fear developing from rumors and chatter of bank nationalizations that would wipe-out shareholder equity and hurt bondholders. That seemed the message from financials today.

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A lot of well respected economists have gone on record over the last few weeks and discussed the likelihood that our country’s financial institutions are all insolvent. Two particularly heavy hitters - Paul Krugman and Nouriel Roubini - have gone as far as to advocate nationalizations  on a wide scale. It seems that just about everyone and their moms has jumped on this idea as the perfect way to “punish irresponsible shareholders” and “hold management teams accountable.” Interestingly enough, very few of these people ever acknowledge two very important questions that must be answered before we as a nation embark on a campaign to nationalize our financial institutions and radically alter change the course of American economic policy. Is our financial system truly insolvent? How will nationalizing solve our financial woes? After all, are

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I can't confirm all of these rumors as fact at this point, but well informed friends from Moscow have been calling me all morning with news that major announcements by Russia's financial authorities will be made early this week in attempt to staunch what has been up until now an under-reported level of capital flight moving out of Russia. These announcements, my sources tell me, may involve restrictions on money movements and possible ruble intervention. The changes are said to mirror the fairly draconian measures which have already been implemented by Ukrainian financial authorities over the past week such as bans on withdrawals, controls over lending, and talk of bank nationalizations. We have known for some time that the use of the word "crisis" has become completely taboo in the state media. Despite reports we have published from Grigory ...