David Ricardo

Read It and Weep for the USA

The plan should be to take over and dispose failed financial INSTITUTIONS, not to buy JUNK MORTGAGES from these institutions so they can go their merry way. This is a crucial difference between the RTC rescue and this proposal. This plan will save the jobs of the people who caused the mess, and leave the taxpayer stuck with bad mortgages. This plan will be exacerbated by Democrats' amendments to "keep people in their homes" so that it will be difficult to get much value out of the houses that underly the mortgages.
The ultimate result of this plan could be to drag the US treasury credit rating down to junk bond status, so we will be a Subprime Nation.

Jim Rogers on the Bear Stearns Bailout

Jim Rogers has a big mouth, but he puts his money where his mouth is. And so far he's done brilliantly.

However, I think I'm beginning to detect too much overconfidence and too little caution in this man. Has he been brilliant -- or lucky?

$200 Oil - Who's Going to Pay For It?

You're right Scadaman, not all Americans drive SUVs...
As I was walking through the commuter parking lot I noticed all the Crew-cab pickup trucks, full-size vans, minivans, muscle cars, even a Humvee. Fortunately there more econocars than last year. Lately I've been leaving my Landrover in the garage and drove the Cavalier instead.

$200 Oil - Who's Going to Pay For It?

My cousins in Ireland are already paying more than $8 a gallon, and they are doing fine. They drive much smaller cars and don't drive as much. One of them was visiting last year and was astonished to see gasoline at $2 a gallon. "If petrol was this cheap back home, I'd be wasting it too."
At $200 per barrel oil we'll finally adopt conservation, solar power, biomass, wind energy, and hopefully nuclear power, so that we can end our deadly dependence on imported oil.

As the Metal Price Surges, Why No Platinum ETF?

Platinum ETFs should be outlawed before someone starts one. Platinum is so rare and so critical to environmental protection that it should not be wasted in ETF stockpiles. There are ample stockpiles of gold and silver to satisfy the ETF business.
Although a small amount of Platinum is used for jewelry and coins, the major use of Platinum is in industrial applications, and especially in catalytic converters to reduce auto pollution. Furthermore, most plans to convert autos from gasoline/diesel to hydrogen will entail use of platinum catalysts. It would be a tragedy if most of the world's Platinum winds up in bullion bars instead of catalytic converters.