Jim Rogers is a very capable investment manager. He is extremely lucky to have gotten all the way to the top and to have stayed there for a long time if he is without skills. Obviously, he has made a lot of right calls.

It doesn't necessarily follow that he is always right though. Insisting that he is always right is like saying, "Well, Annie was correct when she said that it will rain today. Therefore, she can never make a mistake when predicting weather."

It sure felt like we were nearing the end of the world while I watched the US market opening segments of Bloomberg last night from my home in Manila. Most charts were pointing down – US Housing Starts, stock indices, commodities, etc. The TV screen was red all over and it wasn’t the happy Christmassy kind.

I was pretty sure that I was going to have bad dreams. In my imagination, I saw the world in an unstoppable downward spiral. The job losses in the US finance, housing, and automotive sectors leads to more mortgage loan defaults. These defaults cause more job losses and another pronounced credit crunch. Anticipating Armageddon, firms in other parts of the world slashes jobs which causes even more devastation. By 2011, we would all probably be hunting, gathering, or farming for food. Rural will be the new urban. Brock Lesnar, the new heavy-weight champion of the UFC, will be king.