Ken Fisher is a money manager, Forbes columnist, and is one of the Forbes 400 richest Americans. He is also author of several books, including his two latest, a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470285362?ie=UTF8tag=antiquestocka-20linkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=0470285362"The Ten Roads to Riches: The Ways the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!) (Fisher Investments Press)/aimg src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=antiquestocka-20l=as2o=1a=0470285362" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" / and a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047052653X?ie=UTF8tag=antiquestocka-20linkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=047052653X"How to Smell a Rat: The Five Signs of Financial Fraud (Fisher Investments Press)/aimg src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=antiquestocka-20l=as2o=1a=047052653X" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /br /br /Ken Fisher Interview Part 4br /br /span style="font-weight:bold;"Stockerblog/span: I wanted to talk just a bit about con men versus con women. Do you see more women becoming con artists in the future or do you think it will primarily be men?br /br /span style="font-weight:bold;"Fisher/span: The history, as I mentioned in the book a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047052653X?ie=UTF8tag=antiquestocka-20linkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=047052653X"How to Smell a Rat/aimg src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=antiquestocka-20l=as2o=1a=047052653X" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; ...

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts!

_________________________________________

FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com

_________________________________________

DrStockPick.com Watch List!

My Picks for Friday October 16, 2009, are:

**************************************************************

HSC, Harsco Corp.

HSC is a diversified industrial services company serving global industries that are fundamental to worldwide economic growth, including infrastructure, metals, railways and energy.

HSC is recognized as one of the Fortune 1000 leading companies in America and has been named five times to the Platinum 400 list of the best big companies by Forbes magazine.

HSC signed a new, multi-million dollar supply contract which expands its business with a major asphalt shingle manufacturer in the United States.

**************************************************************

ACAS, American Capital, Ltd.

ACAS, both directly and through its global asset management business,

...

Yesterday Russia went through another one of its time-honored traditions of organized elections under sovereign democracy, and as may well be expected, United Russia swept 76 of 83 regions - helped no doubt by the strictly controlled lack of competition (unless you count the sanitized communist party's 13%).  Accusations of fraud were rife and likely pretty well founded, and, although this certainly not anything new, I am continually surprised by how many candidates were banned and blocked from competing.  It's just that we are so often told that opposition politicians like Nemtsov, Milov, and others are "so unpopular with average Russian voters," yet are blocked from candidacy.  Why not just let Milov lose if he's so unpopular? At any rate, this discussion of Russia's barely passable imitation of an electoral process deserves its own space (not even ...

There’s no question that the big “winner” in the global financial crisis has been China. While for the past two years developed economies have been scrambling to keep afloat China has taken a nuanced approach to achieving its economic and political goals.

China has used depressed commodities prices to stock up on long-term supplies of raw materials such as oil, copper, and iron.  And it’s used structural weakness in the U.S. financial system as justification for replacing the dollar as the world’s main reserve currency.

Now, the Red Dragon is looking to make headway on the highway by winning global market share in the automotive market while U.S. heavyweights spin out.

“We aren’t afraid of the financial crisis,” Zhou Fuquan, vice president of Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. (PINK: GELYF), told Bloomberg News. “On the contrary, we hope it will penetrate even further as

...

International mining and natural resources company Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (CLF) is expecting increased production and sales volume in its North American Business Unit, which includes its North American Iron Ore and North American Coal business segments.

Cliffs expects the North American Iron Ore business segment to recognize sales volume of about 16 million tons in 2009, higher than the previous guidance of 13 million to 14 million tons. North American Iron Ore equity production volume in 2009 is expected to be 17 million tons, up from a prior projection of 15 million tons.

Cliffs also raised its 2009 expected sales volume for its North American Coal business segment to about 1.8 million short tons from a previous expectation of 1.5 million tons. North American Coal production volume is expected to be 1.8 million tons, up from a previous expectation of 1.3 million tons. Cliffs operates coal mines in West Virginia

...

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (CLF) stated that its subsidiary United Taconite in Minnesota plans to ramp up production of iron ore pellet for the rest of 2009 with a moderate increase in steel demand in the last couple of months.

In its recent release, Cliffs announced plans to produce 15 million tons of iron ore in North America for the full year. The company plans to increase production from this month through October.

Mining operations will increase at the Thunderbird Mine in Eveleth, Minnesota this month and production will increase at the concentrator portion of the facility, located at the Fairland plant in Forbes, Minnesota in October. Full start-up of the Line 1 furnace is expected in November, which was idled in October last year.

The anticipated increase in production will allow more than 400 hourly workers to progress toward a 40-hour work week. United Taconite has been operating under a 32-hour

...

As an investor I've always been interested in, Prince Alwaleed carries an interesting story. His Citigroup investment has been well documented, first as a wild success, and then, well we all know what happened to Citigroup in 2008. I read his biography and reviewed it awhile back (a href="http://briskycapital.blogspot.com/2007/11/book-review-alwaleed-by-riz-khan.html"Click here to read review and purchase book/a).br /br /Today, I found a a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087amp;sid=aGiKNISJrIkc"piece from Bloomberg /agiving us an update on how he has survived the recession. So far, it looks like he's done well:br /br /br /blockquotepAug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Citigroup Inc.’s largestbr /individual investor, was ranked the richest Saudi national by Arabian Business,br /even after losing 4.6 percent of his personal wealth in the past year.br /br /Alwaleed’s assets are valued at $16.3 billion, compared with $17.1 billionbr /last year, the Dubai-based magazine said today in its 2009 Saudi Rich List,br /citing the accounts of ...

This post is a guest contribution by Paul Kasriel* of The Northern Trust Company.

On November 7, 2008, Bloomberg LP sued the Federal Reserve Board under terms of the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the names of borrowers of funds from the Federal Reserve as well as lists of the collateral posted by the borrowers. On August 25, 2009, a U.S. District judge ruled in favor of Bloomberg, ordering the Federal Reserve Board to turn over to Bloomberg the requested information within five days. At this writing, the Fed has yet to comply and has yet made a decision to appeal the ruling. The Fed has been reluctant to reveal the names of its borrowers allegedly out of a concern that such a revelation could have an adverse competitive impact on the borrowers.

The reason I bring this up is that it is similar

...

This post is a guest contribution by Paul Kasriel* of The Northern Trust Company.

We hear a lot of concern that the Fed’s mushroomed balance sheet over the past two years is setting the stage for a 1970s style inflation here. So long as we have a fiat (a.k.a. Chrysler?) monetary standard, the threat of hyperinflation always lurks. But is the stage currently being set for such an eventuality? I do not think so.

Chart 1 shows the behavior of changes in the M2 money supply over the past 50 years on a year-over-year basis. After the Lehman crisis in the summer of 2008, M2 growth accelerated sharply. By January 2009, the year-over-year growth in M2 reached 10.1%. Although not quite matching the 13-1/2% M2 growth often reached in the 1970s, if sustained, 10% M2 growth certainly would have the potential to push inflation significantly higher.

...

They’re wrong. We’re right. Now the Wall Street Journal says “recovery likely in second half.” And Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) calls for a stock market rally similar to the rally in 1982. Who are we to say they are wrong?

Well… we’re the Daily Reckoning, that’s who. And we’ll say it: they’re wrong.

This ‘recession’ is already the second longest since the first leg down of the Great Depression. That downturn of the early ‘30s went on for 43 months. This one is now at 19 months – officially – which makes it longer than any other since the Great Depression.

Is it over? Is it going away? Is that all there is?

Nope. Nope. Nope.

Instead, we are merely proceeding as we should… into a “deepening structural depression,” as John Williams puts it.

Yes, he uses the D word too. Because a D is what we have. Not an R.

It’s a

...