Fading ...

The Dubai panic is fading everywhere but in Dubai and the Gulf markets. Of course, the bulk of losses are going to be concentrated there. Who else would own an Islamic bond, but people who believe the Islamic faith. And of those, who has lots of money to invest ? Rich Arabs.

The world moves on .... the panic mongers failed to start another conflagration. A metaphor: It's tough to start a new fire when the building is soaking wet from the prior fire-fighting effort. And the world is awash in liquidity in the aftermath of the Panic of 2008.

Good economic news came out yesterday morning. On that and the containment of the Dubai defaults, during the morning dip I doubled up on the S&P Dec. call options and the HBC call options. I plan to hold these until the Friday jobs number comes out, which I expect to be good. But IF the markets ramp into that report, I'll take the sugar before the number. I am not a pig. Je ne suis pas un goinfre.

Book of the Week

Black Sea, by Neal Ascherson (1995, about 300 pages). This book is a very readable and interesting work about the cultures surrounding the Black Sea and that sea's ecology. Ascherson covers many facets of the history from the Scythians and Sarmations to the Crimea to the Don Cossacks to events in the war between Abkhazia and Georgia in 1992-3. In scope, Ascherson includes historical and cultural events from Odessa to Trebizond (NE Turkey today) around the northeastern half of the sea's shore. I think he just ran out of pages, so Turkey and its Ottoman past, the Byzantine empire and the Danube area are left out, as is Ukraine.

Ascherson is a professional writer and can tell a story well. If you have interest in this cultural crossroads of the ancient and modern world, you will enjoy this book.

Word of the Day

"Eutrophication" - noun [$10] from "Eutrophic" - adjective [$10]
Eutrophic means (of a lake, etc.) rich in nutrients and so supporting a dense plant population, the decompostion of which kills animal life by depriving it of oxygen.
Sentence: Without some controls, so much nutrient material can flow into the Black Sea from its five major rivers that eutrification can devastate fisheries in coastal waters.