Pax Americana's  Instablog

Since 1917 the USA, has been rated AAA for its Bond issuance, so when [MCO] mooted the possibility of an American downgrade, this Indeed was a sea change in the perception of America as a safe Investment for Foreigners. I believe that China, and other major holders of our Debt are seeking ways to mitigate the risks involved. one way is to reweight from long term bonds into short term bonds, of which there is evidence that China is carrying out this policy "in the shadows" so to speak. Another such Symbolic moment, was the political pressure exerted by the PRC on the American Administration over the Fannie/Freddie fiasco. Whereby, the Administration caved in to pressure. These signs of growing PRC confidence in their ability to Influence Political and as we have seen recently with [RTP] commercial decisions in thier favor. Money is the Foundation, of all Power, be it political,Commercial, or Military and America may have tough choices to make soon, concerning matters Geopolitical , in the South China Sea, and Indian Ocean, at the present time Chinas Defense spending is growing exponentially year over year, and American Generals have intimated privately their concerns. As the Chinese have signaled their desire for a "blue navy" with Global reach, already pakistan has been assisted to construct a deep facility port, with the aid of PRC money, with the priviso of Chinese access for their Military.

So as can observe, America cannot be in all theatres,cuts have to made but where, this is the question for the next decade vis-vis spending?

ASGR provide constitutionally mandated healthcare to inmates in State, county, municpal and correctional establishments throughout the Continental USA.The buisness operates with its affiliates, namely PHS/CHS which bid for contracts using the RFP method against other competitors and the State In-house-operation for contracts that normally range 3 years.The cash situation is healthy as he company stated it had 24.9 million in cash in the Q4 and 28m in the Q1/09. The company won the RFP biding process for the Michigan DOC for the State, and has estimates of ramping up costs of $600k initial costs.The company has no debt and is cash generative Qtr over Qtr, as in any sphere of the medical Profession "Litigation" is far away, and the company allocates $600k-$1m dollars for this potential claim each qtr. reading the transcripts the company appears very Bullish, given the attraction of a 25% cost savings in the first year to the State, and the budgetary constraints in virtually every state in the Union? The company have stated thier is approximately $300m of prospective RFP in the next few years.Including  Indiana, Delaware, Idaho. Tennessee,.....all being well a stock worth having an eye on?

Since DOW transformational call back in december, and the subsequent failure of the K-DOW project . 2008 was indeed a year to remember for many reasons,huge ramp up in feedstock costs at the start of the year followed at the "end "by the largest drop in Operating-capacity ..44% in DOW corporate history. Even with all this Corporate carnage, one can percieve "slivers of light" and traction going forward. Numero Uno, the expected overall Synergys and Economies of Scale, are projected to be 1.5 billion dollars before 2010 ,and given DOW record in delvering synergs and costsaving from previous Aquisitions, they do have "creditbility". Therefore, making certain assumations, concerning DOW less cyclical eps numbers from thier high Performance chemical and Dow agrosciences and not forgetting Dow Water, we start to see a more high growth and Increased earning capacity gong forward.[DOW Agroscience revenues have grown for 11 consecutive qtrs]....by the way.As we look out 15 monthes we will see a Lean mean chemical machine that wll be well placed for 10% year over year growth and a stock price that will be reflective of the new Entity.

No Position in DOW