There are only a few global-minded investors I really listen to when it comes to gaining insight on the markets. Most of today’s money managers are too mainstream and remain obsessed with beating their benchmarks. What a waste of time. My favorite market seers in Europe include Marc Faber and Felix Zulauf.

I’ve been following Felix Zulauf’s career for about 15 years. In 1990, he founded Zulauf Asset Management AG in Zug, Switzerland. He currently manages money for global investors in the Zulauf Europe Fund, which is actually profiting during this disastrous year. Zulauf was bearish starting in 2006 and positioned his funds accordingly.

The ‘Soft’ Depression

Zulauf believes we’re entering a soft economic depression. If not for the government’s backstops on October 13 to prevent further stock and credit market seizures, a depression would have followed. Zualauf is convinced the markets would have crashed.

His prediction of a severe recession will take the

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The base metals were mixed on Thursday. Copper went on a wild ride, rising and falling sharply through a 10-cent range before settling little changed at $1.8571/lb., down just a penny.

Nickel fell until mid-morning, before rallying back a little bit to close at $4.2018/lb., down better than 26 1/3 cents. Zinc had a pleasantly good day, rising fairly steadily to finish at $0.5101/lb., up more than 3½ cents. Aluminum also pushed higher, adding more than a penny and three-quarters, to $0.8918/lb., while lead moved up modestly, tacking on less than a penny, to $0.558/lb.

Once again copper failed to gain much traction, although it came well off its lows for the day (and a fresh 3-year low), as fear continues to dominate. The metal is now down 58% since July.

Even producers are getting pessimistic. Copper’s swift and savage fall has ushered in “the end of the supercycle” for the metal, says

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Dow futures are way, way down this morning as the US financial sector careens toward a ditch. On the other hand, gold started the morning up $14, but it's only up $5 as I write this as the US dollar rallies. We'll sit the morning out -- I may have trading recommendations for my services later.

Source: Chart of the Day/Bloomberg

“Despite all the rhetoric, with the rally in the dollar index, OPEC is still saying `thank you very much,''' Olivier Jakob, managing director of Petromatrix Gmbh in Zug, Switzerland, said. “For OPEC, $80 now is the same as $100 two months ago.''

Loss of Merrill, Lehman Signals `Tectonic' Shift in Wall Street Landscape In the biggest reshaping of the financial industry since the Great Depression, two of Wall Street's most storied firms, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., headed toward extinction.

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