Chris Mayer (Penny Sleuth): “If you can tell me something else where the fundamentals are so attractive…I’d be happy to put my money there,” said Jim Rogers, the famed investor and self-made billionaire in a recent interview. “But I don’t know of any other place.”

What’s he talking about? Today, we take a look and invest right alongside his idea. And it should start to pay off with the arrival of the first swallows of spring in 2010. It’s also timely now — in this weak-kneed economy — because it has traditionally held up well even in when the economy is on the ropes. Even the Great Depression couldn’t put this thing down.

We start with simple truths. The world’s population has more than doubled since 1950 — from about 2.5 billion to 6.7 billion. By 2050, there will be more than 9 billion people on the

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Some of Wall Street’s most prominent bears are turning bullish right now. But that doesn’t mean that your small-cap portfolio is safe. Here’s why these brilliant minds think that we’re back on the path to recovery — and why they’re wrong.

I was in Manhattan last week attending Grant’s Fall Investment Conference. The U.N. General Assembly is meeting there, and the streets were blocked off in places. The NYPD was out in full force. I heard one passerby complain about the inconvenience of it all to one police officer. He responded, “Don’t blame the NYPD, blame the General Assembly.”

With the General Assembly in Manhattan and the G-20 in Pittsburgh, government has taken over the headlines this week. It seems half the world is mostly preoccupied with telling the other half what to do. No doubt, bossiness is in a bull market.

At Grant’s conference, I heard presentations on gold, the dollar, oil,

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The U.S.’ potential conflict with Iran might pale in comparison to a fight brewing between China and India, says Chris Mayer. “This one doesn’t seem to get much attention in the Western media, but I’ve read some dire stuff from the Eastern media. By their lights, the Sino-Indian border hasn’t been this tense since 1986-87, when the skirmishes broke out between Indian and Chinese troops.

“The issue is a disputed border between the two. They fought a 32-day war over it in 1962. China emerged victorious, but the whole thing settled nothing. The border between the two remains hotly contested. It is nearly 2,500 miles long and winds its way across difficult mountainous terrain. There is a northeastern state in India called Arunachal Pradesh, which China calls “Southern Tibet” and claims as Chinese territory.

“India claims last year there were nearly 300 border violations by Chinese troops and over

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China walks the walk… red nation agrees to major shift away from dollar reserves… Gold soars… Frank Holmes with a historic reason gold should keep rising… You know Peak Oil, but Peak Stimulus? Chris Mayer offers a compelling chart on government intervention… Dark data: Service sector, retail, jobs all disappoint, plus a shocking stat on student debt…

Walking the long, windy road toward the demise of the dollar, we spy another mile marker today: China is officially putting their money where their mouth is.

After clamoring for a reserve alternative all year, the Chinese government agreed to a $50 billion currency-diverse deal with the IMF today. Back in June, the deal seemed imminent. This morning, it finally came to fruition.

In their deal with the IMF — the first of its kind for any nation, ever — China buys $50 billion worth of bonds denominated in Special Drawing Rights, which

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U.S. banks are going bad as quickly as a bunch of over-ripe peaches in the summer heat. On the heels of the Colonial Bank failure comes another sizable bank failure.

Guaranty Bank in Texas became the 81st U.S. bank to fail this year. It was the 11th largest bank failure in U.S. history. This kind of thing is becoming so regular it is hardly news when it happens.

But what’s interesting to point out about this one is that the FDIC sold Guaranty to Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria of Spain. This is the first time regulators have sold a failed bank to a foreign lender. Such a turn of events would have been unthinkable only a decade ago.

So the world turns. When it comes to the question of who has the money, it’s often a non-U.S. buyer these days.

Speaking of foreign buyers, there is probably no group of buyers more watched and

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Here’s another story fanning the economic recovery’s flames: The much-delayed Boeing 787 Dreamliner might finally take flight this year.

Late last week, Boeing (NYSE:BA) said that its long saga of delays and frustrations with the much-hyped jet are coming to an end. The first Dreamliner is now on track to leave terra firma by the end of the year, and the jet will actually be delivered to various international airways by the end of 2010.

Just how late is the Dreamliner? Japanese airliner All Nippon will get the first in 2010… since they were originally promised delivery by the start of the Beijing Olympics.

“My next buy recommendation is based on some of the historic changes happening in air transportation,” notes Chris Mayer, who chronicled the Dreamliner saga in the latest Capital & Crisis alert. “One of the key drivers of this change is what I call the

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Is the recession technically over? The strongest argument for recovery we’ve seen yet… Rob Parenteau shares his new macro economic forecast… “Told you so!” writes Byron King — “breaking news” he and The 5 scooped in March 2008… Plus, Chris Mayer’s latest contrarian play…

Our forecast today: The government and mainstream media will soon be calling the end of the recession. Leading this feeble cause is the latest ISM manufacturing index, probably the most powerful argument for recovery we’ve seen yet:

This morning, the ISM said its gauge of manufacturing activity had risen to 52.9 in August – out of contraction for the first time since the recession began and the highest score since June 2007. Of course, things are a bit different now, but over the last 60 years, when the manufacturing sector returns to growth, the recession has already ended. That prospect

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It’s become widely accepted when talking about emerging economies to focus on the so-called BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China. But there is a very important region that gets lost in that discussion.

And it’s a region that holds the key to growth opportunities that could eclipse the growth in the BRIC countries.

In fact, this region collectively has a bigger economy than Brazil, Russia or India already. And in terms of growth, it is growing faster than any of these countries. In terms of population, it’s bigger than the U.S. and nearly as populous the EU. It holds 60% of the world’s proven oil reserves and nearly half of its natural gas.

That last clue probably gives it away. I’m talking about the Middle East and North Africa, or MENA.

Among its largest economies are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

In one of my presentations at Agora Financial’s 10th Annual

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Check out this “megatrend”: 97% of global population growth over the next 40 years will occur in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, says the shiny new 2009 World Population Data Sheet. The headline data point was the total growth projection for the world population: 7 billion by 2011. That’s a 200 million extra people on this Earth in just two years.

But it’s the fine print that’s really getting our attention. Here are the highlights… some serious investment trends, to say the least:

90% of the world’s youth, about 1.2 billion people, live in developing nations Africa’s population just passed 1 billion and is set to double by 2050. Half of the population growth in the U.S. and Canada over the next two years will come from immigration By 2050, India’s population will reach 1.7 billion, passing China as the world’s most populous nation.

That last one was a particular surprise

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Sellers back in control… China, FDIC, U.S. consumers trigger global sell-off… Chris Mayer examines a disturbing trend among American investors… Signs of the times: Bernanke frets over commercial real estate, Treasury to sell U.S. mortgages to China… Greg Guenthner with a Far East opportunity growing “at an astronomical rate”…

“Investing in this market is like trying to take cheese out of a set mousetrap,” Chris Mayer begins today. “It’s very tempting to make a grab, but you are also fairly certain about what will happen if you do. The market’s 50% rise from its March lows is stunning. It’s like the cheese in the trap. But we also know that no market moves up like that for long. The kill bar is never far from such rallies.”

Check out Asia early this morning… you can almost hear that bar whipping through the air:

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