Amerlafrance

Down on the Farm: Do Farm Stocks Have a Place in a Balanced Portfolio?

A catalyst for CRESY could be the election coming next year; maybe more rational economics are around the corner for Argentina. In addition to Paraguay, CRESY also has interests in Brazil.

Another farm type investment to look at is MP Evans Group in London.

Top 8 Investment Themes for the Next Year, from JP Morgan

2 talks of depressing commodities; 4 talks about bullish for commodities. I guess that late next year they will remember one of these and publicize their prescience. LOL

Allscripts: Notes from NYC Investor Conference

Also, patients will be demanding that their physicians come into the 21st century. I just had to choose a new physician and picked one that could communicate by email and had electronic health records. I let it be known that was a critical part of my choice of doctor and told the ones I rejected they needed to have that to get my business.

I advise physicians in ym business. I find that where most businesses now treat IT as an necessary expense to be competetive, most physicians still think of it as a drain on their profits. THe Medicare change is important; up until now physicians had every incentive to cut costs to the bone; their reimbursement was the same and few patients are proactive. Now there will be an impact to their profit margin; I would expect insurers to start the same process at some point. How about professional liability insurers rating the polices for physicians on having ERH in place?

Paulson/Bernanke: $700 Billion at 'Hold to Maturity' Pricing

Agreed, the hold to maturity price is artificial and they intend to create an artifical market that will allow banks to avoid writing down loans based on the "fire sale" prices. The assumption is that the market is not properly valuing the debts and likely recovery upon them and that the government experts will know better what they are worth. Of course, if the experts are wrong the taxpayer pays and the banks benefited by the purchase (including foreign banks!) do not repay a penny. This is a charade at best.

AIG: Hardly a 'Bailout', Absolutely Necessary

I agree with eternitus; this is a taking by the government; Chapter 11 could have deferred the short term capital needs and allowed a restructuring that allowed the shareholders to receive the value of the equity. The printing presses are being used to steal the shareholders' equity; whay a warrant with an oversecured loan (accoring to the fed guy) that is paying north of 11%. Why should the government be allowed to bypass the normal resolution for cash flow issues and extort value from the shareholders? I guess we can all now get discounted health insurance once Congress starts dictating the business that AIG will write in the future.

All About Investing in Agricultural Land

Some older established comapnies to look at (all overseas) includ Cresud (CRESY) for Argentina farmsland, and MP Evans Group and Camellia Group (both traded in London). Still hard for small US invesotrs to find a good way to get into farmland as an investment.

Troubling Aspects to the GSE Bailout Bill

I think I will need a bailout to pay my future taxes. Do you think Treasury will provide low interest loans to provide me with the funds I need to pay the taxes? I think this whole system has tipped over now that a majority of Americans no longer pay income taxes; voting cannot work to restrain a free lunch when half the people do not pay for the lunches being handed out.

Pfizer: Ride or Let Slide?

Yes, where else? But you have to look at more than yield; lots of financials have even better yields. I think I can see the future of PFE much better than the future of financials. However, to me the known unknown is the political arena, which is not mentioned above and can turn the future for PFE as cloudy as a black box fund or the most obtuse financial statement of a large bank. Even with the yield, I am inclined to play this with calls to limit risk.

Nuclear Power Is in Demand

For Moly look at GMO (seems pricey to me here and is being pumped by newsletters) and if you get canadian stocks that are not listed here, Sprott has a Moly fund in Canado

Nuclear Power Is in Demand

Yes, forgot DNN. THat processor is a key player as the ability to process the ore once it is mined appears to be a bottleneck, at least here in Colorado and Utah.

Nuclear Power Is in Demand

For Uranium itself, take a look at URPTF.PK. For reactor construction, look at Toshiba (TOSBF.PK). For services to the industry as whole, take a look at ES. All interesting palys in addition to the ones mentioned. There are also smaller plays on uranium miners, three I like because they are not just uranium are ROY, QMM, and PNPFF.PK. Do your own due diligence.

The Black Swan in Food

With this type of move, reversion to the mean is a risk that really precludes me from going long directly in the grains at this time. However, the high cost of grain has farmers liquidating herds and that is depressing cattle prices temporarily as those herds move to market. With the world's increasing demand for protein in the diet, I am looking at livestock as the trading play over the summer. I do not like the ETFs (COW, LSO, UBC) because of the credit risk of the banks, so am looking how else to trade this idea. From investing standpoint for longterm funds, I wonder if there will be a full reversion to the mean in grains or whether there is a new paradigm (mean reset) for grain crops caused by the spread of wealth to larger segements of the population (in essence a flattening of wealth disparities with the US losing wealth to other countires). That would have hugh implications but direct investment in grains would not necessarily be the best approach. The farm support sector may work best (seed, fertilizer and equipment) for agricultural investments, but the actual impacts of such a shift in relative wealth could be more dramatic as basic food needs are met and the welath effect translates to other forms of consumption. Sustainability is the big issue here, and I would bet that there will need to be a change of lifestyle to allow needs to be met long term. Crystal ball cloudy, but the discussion should be enlightening.