Waiting ...

Some interesting items were in this morning's news.

1. The Red Chinese yuan ticked under 7 per $, the first time in many years.
2. The WSJ had an article about container shortages in much of the US as export growth requires large changes in how those big steel boxes are managed in the US.
3. Copper hit $4/oz.
4. Oil demand in the world markets is high, which makes the US pay more for its imports. US consumption is falling slowly as consumers adjust behavior.
5. Costco shows excellent store sales.

None of these facts are consistent with recessions - but they do imply some structural changes in the US to a more balanced economy, viz. balanced between domestic demand and exports. This is good for the US long term. Other nations in the world must adjust conversely, viz, rely less on US demand and more on internal and regional consumer demand.

I made my SEP-IRA contributions to clean up the 2007 amounts and the initial 1/2 for 2008. I really can't complete those until my taxes are almost done so I know reliably how much self-employment income my businesses generate. The majority of the money went to US stocks via the Vanguard Total Stock Market Fund. Some will go into a new brokerage account at Vanguard I'll open within the SEP-IRA plan. I'm doing this to be able to buy gold & silver on the stock market via the GLD and SLV ETFs without taxes. Doing that in my regular brokerage accounts would subject me to the higher 28% taxes on those asset classes even for long term gains. Another reason for doing this is I really don't want to buy so much physical gold & silver again. I want more flexibility. So I will limit my physical gold & silver holdings to core, "survival" amounts.

One can manage taxes quite well with parallel fund investments in IRA-type accounts and regular accounts, while keeping asset classes in balance. I'll write more about this later.

For now I am waiting and looking for a few good stocks to add to my Alpha Fund, which is about 150% long.

PS: DuPont (DD) guides Q1 EPS up. WMT raises Q1 guidance substamtially.
PPS: I gave Mrs. B some gold money to put into her Sky Fund ... she bought some US stocks with it near the close yesterday.

Words of the Day

"Abstentious" - adjective [$10] - this is an "aeiou" word with all five vowels in order.
Abstentious means a person or body who tends toward abstention in acts or habit.
Sentence: Congress seems now to have morphed into an abstentious institution for any decisions other than funding earmarks, aka bribes. The latest efforts by Speaker Pelosi to violate agreements to hold votes on free trade treaties evinces her inherent dishonesty.

"Abstemious" - adjective [$10] - this is also an "aeiou" word.
Abstemious means (of a person, habit, etc.) moderate, not self-indulgent, esp. in eating and drinking.
Sentence: Some persons are unable to lead abstemious lives as they simply must completely abstain and avoid any alcohol as they are unable to control their actions after even small amounts. Self-help organizations can help them be abstentious towards alcohol.