With the Rally Nearly Over the Germans are Buying Gold.

The Dow fell another 107 points yesterday. Oil held steady at $70. The dollar fell to $1.38. And gold rose $4 to 932.

What if the rally is over? Could be… It began on 9 March. That makes it more than 3 months old. Most likely, it will continue through the summer. But who knows?

The important thing to remember is this: there can be no major, sustained bull market without one of two things happening.

Either… the mistakes of the Bubble Epoque must be cleared away… allowing for a new era of genuine growth and real prosperity. At best, this would take a few years to achieve. Just imagine how long it will take to restructure GM into a profit-making business again. Just imagine how long it will take consumers to pay down their debts so they can begin to spend again. Just

You know that stock markets and the economy are in trouble when the otherwise dour passport officials at Heathrow airport sympathize with your “investment manager” occupation. “We feel so sorry for you,” said the uniformed lady who usually asks trick questions. “But don’t worry, we’re al suffering.” I guess we are.

The US Congress on Friday passed the government’s $700 billion bank rescue plan, giving the Treasury secretary extraordinary powers to buy toxic mortgage securities from financial institutions.

Somebody remarked that the problem with financial institution balance sheets was that “on the left-hand side nothing is right and on the right-hand side nothing is left”.

And, after all, what will $700 billion buy? As shown by