Archives

July 2007 Archives

Israel Biotech Comes to Baltimore - 2007-07-31
I've traveled far and wide to get the scoop on international investing opportunities. Sometimes, though, the story comes to me. Last week I gathered with a cadre of Israeli biotech heavyweights just a few minutes from my Baltimore office.

Chaos Theory and The End of Life Style - 2007-07-31
Black clouds swirl in the high stratosphere over the financial continents. The canaries of mines economic are dropping like lifeless flies into the bottomless pits into which they have been lowered. A profound financial catastrophe of global and biblical proportion looms.

What a Difference a Week Makes! - 2007-07-27
Last week, as the Dow breached the 14,000 mark for the first time, bullish swagger on Wall Street went into overdrive. Some of the bulls that I'm often pitted against on television used the occasion to specifically heap scorn on my assessment of the U.S. economy and my investment advice.

NFC Turns Cell Phones into Money - 2007-07-26
At the ripe old age of 43, the fact that I'm a living and breathing anachronism is something that is kind of hard for me to admit. But every time that I check out of any store these days I am reminded of how out of step with the rest of the world I really am.

Medical Robots Continue to Revolutionize Healthcare - 2007-07-24
Baltimore, Md.--When it comes to what people actually do when they are at work over the course of a long day, there is one profession whose daily grind absolutely astounds me. When it comes to a combination of long hours, skills, and smarts, these people are practically from another planet. That’s how different their work day is from what the rest of us do.

Fear, Desire, Death . . . and the Internet - 2007-07-23
If I were to suggest that the mining industry owes its current robust condition to the Internet, the image of a horse's posterior might pop into your head. But bear with me, and see if you can’t be convinced.

TSX Venture Raises Another $1 Billion in June - 2007-07-20
TSX Venture listed companies were the beneficiaries of over CA$1 Billion in the month of June, bringing the total amount raised for 2007 to almost $6 Billion. That's a billion dollars every month.

Sorry Ben, the Buck Stops with You - 2007-07-20
During his testimony before Congress this week, Ben Bernanke didn't hesitate to opine on a number of topics that had very little to do with his mandate as Fed Chairman. The wealth gap, racial factors in income inequality, and the impact of capital gains tax policy were all fair game.

Fannie and Freddie Drop the Bomb - 2007-07-19
As we have said so many times before in these pages, watching the government do practically anything is akin to watching molasses run down he hill in January. But as slow as that bureaucratic morass is, when it finally does manage to make a decision with some real weight, it comes crashing down like a massive hammer.

China Bull Market Pauses as Pork Prices Soar - 2007-07-17
In China's big cities, maids are going back to work and casting their day-trading dreams to the wind. The number of new accounts for trading Chinese A-shares (the most basic stock available to retail traders in the Middle Kingdom) is dropping far from recent record highs.

Bulls Lead Midsummer Rally - 2007-07-17
To almost any sane person, a 1,300 pound bull is nothing to be fooling around with. An image of power, the massive animal is really nothing more than muscle, hooves, and horns. And then there is the attitude--it’s pretty nasty.

A Worthless Dollar? - 2007-07-13
This week, bond rating agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's finally announced downgrades on billions of dollars of bonds backed by sub-prime mortgages.

Bioplastics: Taking Huge Profits, One Polymer at a Time - 2007-07-12
Today, Nick takes a look at the history of plastics in order to gain insight about the future of the bioplastic industry.

Solar Tower of Power - 2007-07-12
Like most entrepreneurs, Roger Davey is a man who sees something that very few other people do. Because of it he takes risks, he works hard, and he pushes his dream down a road with no sure answers. And as with most monomaniacs, his dream will either end in the Promised Land or at the bottom of a cliff.

Is Arab OPEC Going Green? - 2007-07-10
Recently I told you about a 100 MW solar power project in Abu Dhabi, one of the United Arab Emirates. As one of the top oil and gas producers in the world, the UAE won the geological jackpot. Otherwise, it would be a loose confederation of feudal desert monarchies.

The Really BIG Next Big Thing - 2007-07-10
It's alternative energy. Meaning non-hydrocarbon energy. And for this discussion, we will temporarily ignore uranium, for its use has grown sufficiently that it really can't at this point be considered "alternative."

Will Japan Destroy the Yen to Save the Dollar? - 2007-07-09
As the Japanese government continues holding short-term interest rates near zero while printing yen like it is going out of style, getting out of the yen has now replaced pachinko as the national pastime for rank-and-file Japanese.

The Contagion is Spreading - 2007-07-05
After bubbling beneath the surface since last February, the absolute rot that is sub-prime lending reared its ugly head again last week. But this time it wasn’t just the stories of failing lenders like New Century and others that roiled the markets, it was much further up the ladder. The contagion is spreading after all.

Cracks in the Great Wall - 2007-07-03
When it comes to the incredible economic growth story being written in China these days, the numbers--like the country’s population--are simply off the charts. According to the data, the economy of the land of the dragon continues to grow at the massive rate of over ten percent per year, with no end in sight. In terms of GDP, that’s the amazing and unfathomable equivalent of adding a city the size of Philadelphia every month.