TODAY: Medvedev meets Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and LAS in Cairo; supports idea of Middle East peace talks before year's end; Lavrov says Russian security idea is not anti-NATO; European report launches stinging attack on Russian justice systemMedvedev has announced that Moscow plans to hold a Middle East peace conference before the end of 2009, an idea supported by Egypt.  In a meeting with the League of Arab States, Medvedev commented that the peace process might result in an independent Palestine with the capital in East Jerusalem.  The BBC comments on the motivation for the trip: 'in terms of influence, Russia lags far behind China and the US - not just in Egypt but right ...

Suddenly, and with little warning, geopolitical risk is back. With all the thundering force of an underground nuclear explosion, our heads are turned to the globe’s unstable flashpoints once again… Suddenly, and with little warning, geopolitical risk is back.

Not that it ever really left, of course. Preoccupied with a sea of financial troubles, the world had simply put it out of sight and out of mind for a while.

Now, with all the thundering force of an underground nuclear explosion, our heads are turned to the globe’s unstable flashpoints once again…

North Korea: “Look at Me”

In North Korea, the Kim Jong Il Regime has just conducted a fresh nuclear test (and fired three short-range missiles). “World leaders reacted with outrage,” according to CNN, in response to the unlawful test. The U.N. Security Council held a special emergency session to “condemn”

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Well, with the US$ down a half a cent, and decent gains in both platinum and palladium, you have to be pretty much brain dead not to have seen the footprints of the Gold Cartel in the gold and silver markets yesterday.

It all started the moment that Sydney closed on Monday afternoon…1:00 a.m. Monday in New York. From that point on, only Hong Kong [and the New York Bullion Banks] is a player. As I’ve said before, the New York banks [or their agents] can, and do, enter the markets whenever they want.

Gold sold off about five bucks with a smallish rally starting shortly after 12:00 noon in London. That lasted until the equity markets opened at 9:30 in New York…and then it was lights out…as gold got hit for $11 bucks. Once London closed for the day, the pressure was on again [both in Globex trading and electronic trading

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Pope Benedict XVI is visiting the Holy Land for a week long tour, the first since Pope John Paul II came in 2000 and only the third visit in recent papal history.

Bringing and escorting the Pope around Israel is not a simple matter.  In fact, much of Jerusalem is coming close to shutting down this week to make way for an enormous security detail.  Dubbed “Operation White Cloak”, His Holiness will have over 80,000 security personnel in his retinue, including over 60,000 policemen.

Hashmira Security Technologies LTD. has set up a command and control center to supervise secuirty during the Pope’s visit to Israel.

According to an article in Globes:

Hashmira’s command and control center will provide remote monitoring solutions of the sites being visited by the Pope to Israel’s police and security forces.

The system

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TEVA, the “Generic Giant,” as I once referred to it back in November when I recapped its quarterly earnings, continues to outshine and outclass its peers on pretty much every level. Since I have followed healthcare equities for quite some time now and kept my focus solely on this sector, it is easy for me to say that Teva [TEVA: 43.96, 0.00 (0.00%)] is one of the best managed companies out there, and I think you would agree based on its recent performance and strategic moves. Earnings for the fourth quarter were highly scrutinized by all investors and Street analysts as our financial crisis continues onward, perhaps even getting worse. Many companies unloaded their books for fourth quarter earnings, marking down what is left. Others squeaked out positive gains but still were hesitant on guidance. Well, I obviously

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In the face of global chaos, Israeli real estate prices still found a way to go up over 10% for 2008.  While most of the gains came in the first 3/4 of the year, prices have gone up even more in places like Petach Tikva and Modiin, both with yearly price gains of over 20%.

From Globes:

Tel Aviv suburb Petach Tikva led the price rise in 2008 with the average apartment climbing 22% in price to NIS 856,000 last year. In second place was Modi’in where the price of the average apartment rose 21% to NIS 1,031,00. The average apartment in Rishon Lezion and Yavne rose by 17% to NIS 926,000 and NIS 587,000 respectively. The average apartment in Givat Ze’ev recorded a 16% rise to NIS 852,000. Prices rose 15% in Ramat Gan

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Most popular investment books are published for the already rich and famous, by an industry that has become just too good at the business of selling books. Rarely will a publisher take a chance with the work of an unknown author. Certainly, it’s a no brainer to sell a Jim Cramer, Peter Lynch, Robert Kiyosaki, or Maria Bartiromo effort while a uniquely new approach to solving the puzzles of Wall Street, presented by an unknown writer or commentator, requires some major financial risk.

Big publishers want to sell already big names; discovering new ones is not in their wheelhouse. Are they responsible for the problems in the financial markets? Of course not, but they do have a perverse, if indirect, impact. By constantly publishing the same Wall Street friendly message, they contribute to the brainwashing.
Without a wider distribution of new …