We have just received a copy of an open letter from Amnesty International Canada to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in advance of his upcoming trip to the forthcoming APEC meeting in Singapore, followed by a visit to India. The letter urges Prime Minister Harper to uphold Canada's well-known reputation as a staunch human rights supporter by raising concerns with and presenting recommendations to Singapore authorities regarding the case of Dr. Chee Soon Juan and other civil society representatives and to address ongoing human rights challenges in India. Below is an excerpt from the letter, followed by a link that will allow you access to the letter in full.

Singapore has two realities: its appearance as a progressive country with regular elections and economic success; and its record of human rights violations designed

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Details are in the works for the launch of the first aluminum-backed exchange-traded fund, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Though Glencore International, the world's biggest commodity trader, and Credit Suisse Group are still looking for both an ETF provider and regulatory approval, the new ETF is said to reflect growing interest in physically backed commodity products in the face of looming stricter U.S. regulation in the futures markets.

Abundant supplies of aluminum following a drop in demand associated with the economic downturn is also encouraging the creation of the ETF as a way to help soak up some of that supply and keep prices firm.

Recently, the price of aluminum on the London Metal Exchange has soared, trading some 50 percent higher than the seven-year lows it hit earlier this year, and though some analysts see further growth ahead, the massive inventory overhang could pose a threat to those gains. In fact, LME

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Source: Anthony Jenkins, The Globe and Mail, September 16, 2009.

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This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Brett Arends (The Wall Street Journal): What price suits gold?, September 16, 2009. Gold bullion just crossed $1,000 an ounce. But what’s it really worth? Leading gold bugs see prices tripling someday, but others say its current level is about right.

• Willem Buiter (Financial Times): Expect little and you may yet be disappointed, September 15, 2009. Until yesterday’s defeat of Roger Federer in the final of the US Open at Flushing Meadows, the most disappointing development this year was the performance of president Barack Obama and his administration - and my expectations were modest to begin with.

• Joseph Stiglitz (The Guardian): For all Obama’s talk of overhaul, the US has failed to wind in

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This post is a guest contribution by Rebecca Wilder*, author of the of the News N Economics blog.

This week, a compilation of indicators shows that the recovery is tentative at best - more likely, a global bottom has not yet been found. The leading indicators are stronger in some countries; exports are still declining at an annual pace of 20+ percent but stabilizing; and volatile retail sales growth rates are, well, quirky. Must wait for a trend - the US stock market(s) certainly see one coming!

In June, offset by the housing component, the Canadian leading indicator index slides for the second month. In contrast, the US leading indicator took its third consecutive bump. The leading indicator index is more like a coincident index, as many of the components are already known. According to the Conference Board (US), the

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Alex’s Notes:  Good read if you want a cursory overview of how Kondratieff Wave Theory works. Interesting stuff.

A bear’s bear There is a time for stocks and a time for gold. Now is the time for gold, Ian Gordon says

BRIAN MILNER

April 2, 2009 at 7:14 AM EDT

Anyone wondering what a bear’s bear sounds like need only spend some time with Ian Gordon, a Vancouver-based investment adviser and market historian whose genial nature seems at odds with his decidedly grim outlook. Basing his views on an interpretation of market cycles going back more than 200 years, the president of Long Wave Analytics has been consistently accurate in his forecasts in recent years. And if he is right now, much worse is yet to come.

Can you explain how your thesis works?

I sort of extended Kondratieff’s economic cycle into something far bigger than he had ever intended. [Nikolai Kondratieff was a Soviet economist

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2009 recession and banking crisis has set off a rush to invest in gold and other precious metals at unprecedented levels

DAVID PARKINSON

From Friday’s Globe and Mail

March 20, 2009 at 1:00 AM EDT

In 1897, at the height of a major U.S. recession and banking crisis, a gold discovery on the Klondike River in Yukon Territory triggered one of the biggest gold rushes ever seen. Now, more than a century later, history is – sort of – repeating itself.

No, the world’s downtrodden aren’t beating a frenzied path to a harsh, remote swath of the Canadian north this time around. But the 2009 recession and banking crisis has set off a rush to invest in gold and other precious metals at unprecedented levels – a move that has tightened the global supply/demand picture and helped push prices to record highs. And increasingly, they are opting for

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Well, the bottom for gold on Wednesday was about 2:00 p.m. in Hong Kong…1:00 a.m. in New York. From there it rose in fits and starts until the Comex open…where it got sold off for about an hour or so. Then, at precisely 9:00 a.m., away it went to the upside…until it ran into some opposition at the London p.m. fix [3:00 p.m. London...10:00 a.m. New York.] The London close occurred an hour later…and that was obviously it for the day. Volume was extremely heavy…170,000 contracts were traded…and that’s net of what few switches there were.

The silver chart was almost a mirror image of its golden cousin…with the top silver price coming at the close of London trading.

The open interest number for gold on Tuesday was a big surprise. Even though gold rose about $18 on that day, there was actually a decline of 99 contract in open interest to

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Gold started off early morning Far East trading on Wednesday as it usually does lately…going into a slow decline. And, as usual, at 3:00 a.m…shortly before the London open…the price began to rise, this time sharply. But it was all for naught once again, as someone was there to sell gold hard the moment that the London a.m. fix was in. The decline lasted for the rest of the London session…through the Comex open…and only reversed at the close of London trading at 4:00 p.m….11:00 a.m. New York time. However, this attempted rally was not allowed to amount to much, but gold did close the Globex session about eight dollars above its lows.

click to enlarge

Silver was far more volatile. The price rise at the London open was impressive until it, too, ran into the same seller at …

From "Trade-Finance Pinch Hurts the Healthy," WSJ, 12/22/08:

The global financial crisis is drying up the financing that firms depend on for trade. That's making the global recession nastier and deeper than it otherwise would be.

As with all kinds of credit these days, financial institutions are making less trade finance available and charging more for it. But the squeeze in trade stands out because it pinches otherwise healthy companies that should be driving a recovery in global commerce. Already, the World Bank predicts trade will contract next year for the first time since 1982.

The Deteriorating Trade Outlook

Here's the IMF's recent forecasts for exports -- from October and then November -- for world trade, disaggregated into advanced and developing country groupings.

Figure 1: Real goods and services exports by country group. Source: IMF, World Economic Outlook Oct. 2008; Nov. 6 WEO update.

These developments in trade financing suggest that

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