International Investing

Bloomberg:
Commodities headed for the biggest monthly gain in 32 years, led by wheat, crude oil and gold, as the dollar’s slump enhanced the appeal of energy, grains and precious metals as a hedge against inflation.
The 19-commodity Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index was up 8.7 percent this month, the most since July 1975. Wheat climbed to a record [...]

Linked from dealbreaker.com this piece from The American Thinker discusses the ultimate Sox irony: that the NY Times, the ultimate Sox cheerleaders, supported harsh criminal penalties for laws that they subsequently violated. Careful what you wish for:
Not disclosing a “material weakness” can be construed as corporate fraud under the law’s broad reach. Maybe not wise [...]

Mark Gilbert is the best columnist at Bloomberg. Read the entire hilarious column here. Some of his better lines:
-When the yield on a Chuck Norris bond goes up, the price also rises.
-Chuck Norris doesn’t borrow at the Fed’s discount window. Chuck Norris LENDS at the Fed’s discount window.
-Chuck Norris charges the Bank of England a [...]

From Bloomberg:
The House Ways and Means Committee, seeking revenue to help homeowners in foreclosure, unanimously approved higher taxes on the sale of vacation homes.
Why would they raise real estate taxes when the whole market is in the middle of a slump?
The Realtor group applauded the broader legislation, which would spare homeowners who have their mortgages [...]

“There is the government and there is the market. There is no third option.” - Mises
Sounds like they are taking lessons from the pension managers here. They should have let Northern Rock collapse:
Analysts said reports that the UK’s deposit protection scheme might not be enough to pay for the government’s plan to guarantee consumers’ deposits [...]

More commentary will follow shortly, but the objective is to outperform the S&P 500 by over- or under-weighting sectors based on macroeconomic views. I intend to add emerging markets, and more direct exposure to non-dollars and energies as those markets pull back, but going into the morning of September 25th, this is my long/short portfolio. [...]

From the FT:
The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific ex-Japan index struck a record high as both Hong Kong and Sydney climbed to new peaks and Singapore closed at its best level for two months.
The MSCI emerging market equity index also broke into uncharted territory as it recouped all the losses incurred during the credit squeeze [...]

Crude-oil futures rallied past $83 a barrel Thursday, sending the expiring benchmark contract further into uncharted territory as the market continued to draw support from a decline a bigger-than-expected decline in U.S. crude inventories.

Dennis Gartman sent a special update today urging his readers to SELL everything Canadian He informed readers of his newsletter that proposed tax increases will be highly detrimental to the Canadian economy. Until it is certain that these tax increases are nothing more than talk, investors should stay away.
High taxes and greater government involvement in [...]

Temporarily delaying the inevitable. USD down and Dow soars:
The Federal Open Market Committee cut its benchmark federal funds rate by a half percentage point to 4.75%. In an effort to ease the credit crunch, the Federal Reserve also reduced its discount rate in lockstep to 5.25%. This is the first cut in the federal funds [...]