Welcome to the Fantasyland issue of The 5…“Shouldn’t worry about the deficit,” assures Barack Obama… “yes we can” keep spending. Can’t balance the budget of your dreams? Call the Treasury… Atlanta’s doing it. Gold still suffering… Ed Bugos’ future fantasies for precious metals stocks. Plus, no one immune to the great housing illusion… the infamous Neverland Ranch shuts its doors.

“We shouldn’t worry about the deficit next year or even the year after,” the U.S. president-elect Barack Obama said on 60 Minutes over the weekend.

We were afraid that Barack’s message of “change you can believe in” was going to make it harder to take issue with politics as usual in Washington. But now we see he already drank the Kool-Aid and we had nothing to fear but fear itself.

“The consensus is this, that we have to do

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Why We Should Take a Solutions Approach to the Crisis and Look at Some Things DifferentlyBy Peter Schiff, President of Euro Pacific Capital, Inc. Author of The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear MarketsI don't think we're going to see any light at the end of the tunnel until we have a clear, objective understanding of how we got into this mess in the first place. There is a tendency whenever major problems occur in the economy to place blame on external factors and to assume that the external factors can be prevented from causing similar problems in the future by expanding the government's regulatory powers. The problem I have with this kind of thinking is that it makes government bigger and more intrusive without ever getting at the root of the problem, which is usually the government ...

Obama Link FestBarack Obama Hedge Fund Link Fest(http://HedgeFundBlogger.com) I have received many congratulatory emails over the past day from hedge fund/investment professionals in India, Switzerland, London and Singapore all thankful that Obama was elected. I found that interesting in itself and also saw a flood of articles come out discussing Barack Obama and the hedge fund industry, or Obama and the finance/investment industry in general.Yesterday I published this piece: Barack Obama & Hedge Funds... Here are excerpts and links to many of these discussions:(I never discuss my own political views through this site throwing my opinion around regarding hedge funds is enough. I don't support any of these articles one way or another but simply provide them as an aggregation of what has been put out ...

The stock markets opened sharply lower again today. Steve McDonald says bonds are a much safer and more profitable alternative right now. Investors should stick to short-term bonds to maintain a flexible portfolio and limit market risk.

This from Investor’s Daily Edge:

It’s 1974 all over again!

Many of you are old enough to remember the market in the 70’s. What a nightmare! The Dow went below 1000, then settled between 700 and 900, and stayed there until almost the mid eighties.

That’s what you call a sideways market. It was years before anyone made any money.

The similarities to our market today are amazing. In the 70’s we had high inflation and a recession, high oil prices, a market in complete turmoil and a government that really didn’t get it

Does anyone remember Jimmy Carter’s request for voluntary price and wage

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VANCOUVER, B.C. - The U.S. financial crisis has cut so deep - and the government has taken on so much debt in misguided attempts to bail out such companies as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - that even larger financial shocks are still to come, global investing guru Jim Rogers said in an exclusive interview with Money Morning. Indeed, the U.S. financial debacle is now so ingrained - and a so-called "Super Crash" so likely - that most Americans alive today won’t be around by the time the last of this credit-market mess is finally cleared away - if it ever is, Rogers said. The end of this crisis "is a long way away," Rogers said. "In fact, it may not be in our lifetimes." During a 40-minute interview during a wealth-management conference in this West Coast Canadian city last month, Rogers also said:...

Alex’s Notes: Dont know about you, but I consider Jim Rogers to be a very smart man. You dont become a Billionaire in commodities by being stupid. He has some very interesting things to say about the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in a recent interview.

In my opinion, this guy gets inflation and the big picture better than just about anyone.

8.19.2008 Latest Jim Rogers Interview,

During a 40-minute interview during a wealth-management conference in this West Coast Canadian city last month, Rogers said that:

• U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke should “resign” for the bailout deals he’s handed out as he’s tried to battle this credit crisis. • That the U.S. national debt – the roughly $5 trillion held by the public– essentially doubled in the course of a single weekend because of the Fed-led credit crisis bailout deals. • That U.S. consumers and investors can expect much-higher interest rates

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The First of Two Parts.] Keith Fitz-Gerald Investment Director Money Morning/The Money Map Report VANCOUVER, B.C. – The U.S. financial crisis has cut so deep – and the government has taken on so much debt in misguided attempts to bail out such companies as Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) – that even larger financial shocks are still to come, global investing guru Jim Rogers said in an exclusive interview with Money Morning. Indeed, the U.S. financial debacle is now so ingrained – and a so-called “Super Crash” so likely – that most Americans alive today won’t be around by the time the last of this credit-market mess is finally cleared away – if it ever is, Rogers said. The end of this crisis “is a long way away,” Rogers said. “In fact, it may not be in our lifetimes.” During a ...

Nearly all the pieces are now in place for inflation to strike with increasing speed and fury, catching Wall Street by surprise, throwing government policy into turmoil and, at the same time, opening up broad opportunities for investors.

I know. I’ve seen this movie once before. And the script will forever be ingrained in my mind.

It was 1978. Jimmy Carter was president. Oil prices had been surging for nearly seven years.

Other commodities — including silver, gold and food — were following closely behind.

Wholesale prices, import prices and the price of critical resources were climbing swiftly.

Most important, the Fed’s pipe-smoking Chairman Arthur Burns, fearing a chain reaction of financial failures, pumped up the money supply with wild abandon, slashed interest rates — and set the stage for the worst U.S. inflation since the Civil War. …