Simon Property Group Inc. (SPG), the largest publicly traded retail real estate company in North America, recently announced the death of its pioneer and co-founder Melvin Simon after a short illness. With his demise, the company lost an able leader who had remarkable deal-making skills that fostered strong ties with lenders as well as owners of department store chains – a critical element during recession.     Melvin Simon along with his brother started the real estate company in 1960 under the name – Melvin Simon & Associates. Later this company became Simon Property Group Inc. having embraced the real estate investment trust (REIT) structure. The company’s initial offering in 1993 was the largest for a REIT.   Besides being the founder of Simon, Melvin Simon was also involved in the sports and movie businesses. He was the co-owner of Indiana Pacers professional basketball team in the National ...

Despite the global slowdown, strong results were reported today from two offshore drillers, Diamond Offshore (a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=do"DO/a) and Noble Corp. (a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=neamp;.yficrumb=XeUMJb0thgn"NE/a).br /br /First, lets take a a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idAFN2327011520090423?rpc=44"look at Diamond/a.br /br /ulliDiamond Offshore Drilling Incspan id="symbol_DO.N_0"/span, the world's second-largest contract oil and gas driller, reported a 20 percent jump in quarterly profit, boosted by gains from its floating rigs./li/ululliNet profit climbed to $348.6 million, or $2.51 per share, from $290.5 million, or $2.09 per share, a year earlier, the company reported on Thursday. Analysts' average earnings forecast was $2.21 per share, according to Reuters Estimates./li/ulDiamond has a great group of rigs, especially in the deep water sector. a href="http://online.barrons.com/article/SB123820180286962525.html?page=1"Barron's profiled these companies a couple of weeks ago/a, and had this to say about Diamond:br /br /blockquoteCash-rich Diamond, in any protracted downturn, has the wherewithal to snap up first-rate equipment on the cheap. The ...

Hyper-Inflation: Central Banks Gone Wild by Michael Checkan, Advisory Panelist

Editor’s Note: Many of our long-time readers will remember our old friend and colleague Michael Checkan at Asset Strategies International, Inc. A specialist in precious metals and foreign currencies, today he takes a look at a unique “hyper-inflationary” economy and the havoc it plays on foreign currencies.

With the U.S. Government printing money like never before, the whispers of inflation float over the currency and bond markets. In fact, inflation has dropped to almost nothing after hitting a high of 5.6% in July of last year.

Within the past two weeks the Fed created one trillion dollars out of thin air. Apart from left or right wing rhetoric, this is reality.

History has taught us that governments can take a perfectly good piece of paper, put some ink on it, and make it totally worthless.

It happened in Hungary in 1946, Argentina

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