It is not a question anymore if there is outsourcing need in Europe - the more important question to ask is how to monetize this growing demand. There are several ways of doing it. Outsourcing companies can hire multilingual locals or they can set up operations in Eastern Europe where there are more European-languages speakers who charge at reasonable rates or they can do both.

With the amount of money being printed today, I think we'll see rapid inflation within 18 months. The Fed has stated they'll fight inflation by raising interest rates once they believe inflation is a threat. But how healthy will the economy be when inflation becomes a threat, and will it be safe to hike interest rates? A sure way to hedge against inflation is gold. But who wants to commit too much money to gold, with fears of deflation looming as well?

I think the best way to hedge against inflation is to play an option call spread. This gives me little downside risk, with a potential big upside. There are many ETFs to look at, the most common is the GLD which seeks to track gold’s performance. Another is the UGL which seeks to track gold 2X, (double leveraged ETFs are dangerous as it is a double leveraged ETF; read more about Double leveraged ETFs here).

My Options Radar was buzzing late in the day following a massive trade in the Gold Miners (GDX) ETF.

Trade Breakdown:

Q4 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

February 18, 2009 8:00 am ET

Ben Bernanke Finally Gets It: Fortune Brands (FO), Goldman Sachs (GS), Wells Fargo (WFC), JP Morgan Chase (JPM)

I often state that no one plays a better game of 3 Card Monte than Wall Street’s pirates in neckties. These guys have truly mastered the art of distraction (with the exception of the Great Houdini). To emphasize my point, consider the following video as a metaphor for what occurs in the stock market.

Q3 2008 Earnings Call

November 7, 2008 8:00 am ET

Q2 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

August 6, 2008 8:00 am ET

Q1 2008 Earnings Call

May 2, 2008 8:00 am ET

Market Overview: Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF), Citigroup (C), Bear Stearns (BSC)

There was a selloff in the financials late in the day, observed Pete Najarian, and he said XLF has pulled back after hitting $27 for the seventh time. He blames Citigroup for keeping XLF back. Jeff Macke said there was a potential rally on Citi’s raising capital, but it didn’t pan out. He didn’t think the Fed meeting had much of an impact on the market and didn’t think the selloff was so severe. Guy Adami predicted a slow start for Thursday and Karen Finerman said April was good considering Bear Stearn’s creation of a bottom at the beginning of the month. Najarian disagreed, saying the market was performing poorly before the BSC sale, and April didn’t seem so great.

“Exxon (XOM) has taken the most skeptical line of any major oil company towards alternative fuels,” said Exxon's senior vice-president Stephen Simon, testifying before the Select Committee of Energy Independence and Global Warming in Washington, D.C. on April 2, 2008. “The company did not believe that existing technologies in this area were viable - and the company was hoping to ‘leapfrog’ to a new generation of techniques.”

Some scientists say that man is responsible for global warming, causing the atmospheric temperature to rise and glaciers and polar ice caps to melt. It has been estimated that the earth’s average atmospheric temperature has risen about 0.8 degree C over the last 200 years. The Arctic region’s temperature over the same period of time has risen about 1.5 degree C. Some scientists say this is attributed to the absorption of solar radiation caused by particulate in the snow. Instead of reflecting solar radiation, dirty snow is absorbing it. It has been estimated that this effect has contributed to about 19% of global warming or about 0.15 degree C. As more layers of snow melt, more particulate is exposed causing the rate of ice and snow to melt exponentially. Scientists say that if global warming is not reversed, all the world’s polar ice caps may melt over the next 500 years and the sea levels may rise about 90 meters. Many countries in the Caribbean along with USA eastern seaboard states, as well as Florida and Louisiana, Canada’s east coast, South Viet Nam and Bangladesh may be under water along with the majority of world cities currently located along ocean coast lines.

Q4 2007 Earnings Call

March 20, 2008 8:00 am ET

Just like the overall market, Indian ADR’s have struggled since 2008 rolled in.

click to enlarge

The chart below tells us more than the performance of the U.S. listed Indian stocks in 2007. What it tells us is just how strong the Indian economy is and the rise of the Indian consumer.

The companies that targeted the local Indian consumers and the local Indian market emerged as the clear winners in 2007.

With NYSE short interest for October released recently, below we highlight the stocks in the Russell 1,000 with the highest and lowest short interest as a percentage of float.

As shown below, Indymac (IMB) has the highest at 54%, followed by G, NTRI, KBH, BIG and VMW (probably due to the short VMW/buy EMC trade). Stocks that are hardly short at all include KMB, GD, UNH and WYE.

It's been a while since my last posting – but I’m not gone. The Inspector is in this for the long run.

After a six-week run-up, gold has pulled back a bit. However, long-term the future looks good. As the US dollar climbed for a second day against the euro, gold prices dropped. The six-week rise of gold really was on the back of a weakened US dollar in the first place.

Citigroup CEO Charles Prince reportedly wants to review the bank's estimate on Monday of $3.3 billion in losses and writedowns for Q3, before making any decisions on firings, according to senior Citi executives as reported in the Financial Times. Citi expects a 60% decline in Q3 earnings as a result of "dislocations" in credit markets. (See full story). Citi insiders say CEO Prince's review could affect future leadership at both the investment bank division and the chief executive position he currently holds. One Citi senior executive noted the fixed-income division reported record Q2 earnings and commented, "We need to go back and see what happened but people don't turn from peacocks to feather dusters in the space of six weeks." Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Citi's largest shareholder, said, "I'm backing the management of Citi." He called Q3 a "hiccup" and said, "... our journey with Citi will continue because we remain loyal." Separately, MarketWatch reports NYSE-listed Genpact Ltd. has bought Citigroup's India-based business process outsourcing unit for $700M, according to unnamed sources. Shares of Citigroup rose 0.3% to $47.86 on Tuesday, but gave up most of the gains in extended trading.

"Absent a recession, we expect metal prices to remain very strong," analysts Fraser Phillips and Adam Schatzker wrote in a note to clients.

Prior to December 30, 2004, the business of the Company was conducted through various entities and divisions of the General Electric Company (‘‘GE’’). In ‘‘2004 Reorganization’’ when company's all operations brought under single entity, the valuation of company was determined at $779,859,000 which include $485,234,000 as Goodwill. And if this offering got through the valuation of company will comes out at nearly $3,508,894,979.

Company earns most of its revenue from offshore BPO solutions, with operations in India contribute nearly 80% of total revenue.