Economist and investment adviser Thomas Tan recently posted an interesting piece in his blog: Gold as an Alternative Investment.
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Bill P. sent us an interesting article over at TCS Daily about the mainstreaming of preparedness: We're All Soldiers of Fortune Now. Bill's comment: "I guess after Katrina and the fires in southern California, at least businesses see the value of being prepared even if it's only too make a buck from a bug-out bag. I prefer my own rather than a mass-produced bag of dubious value. However, it's a step in the right direction. The more others are prepared the less I'll have to deal with when the SHTF."
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Keith in Texas mentioned that anyone interested in the BareFoot Motors link (recently mentioned in SurvivalBlog) might also be interested in www.GorillaVehicles.com. he said the information on solar charging for their vehicles was of particular interest.
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Posted on the CometGold forums at ContraryInvestorsCafe.com today: Analyst: Banks face big write-downs. The article begins: "U.S. banks and brokers face as much as $100 billion of write-downs because of Level 3 accounting rules, in addition to the losses caused by the subprime credit slump, according to Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC. The Financial Accounting Standards Board's Rule 157 will make it harder for companies to avoid putting market prices on securities considered hardest to value, known as Level 3 assets, Royal Bank's chief credit strategist, Bob Janjuah, wrote in a note Wednesday. The new rule is effective Nov. 15. "This credit crisis, when all is out, will see $250 billion to $500 billion of losses," Janjuah wrote. Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest U.S. securities firm, has 251 percent of its equity in Level 3 assets, making it the most vulnerable to write-downs, followed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. at 185 percent, according to Janjuah." One posted comment: It looks like we now have to go overseas to get facts about our own banking industry. It could make a lot of things very interesting.
