Controlled Demolition

Walked by the old YMCA in downtown Houston this morning. It's coming down to make room for something big and modern certainly. The 10 story building was dwarfed by the old Enron buildings and the Continental Tower across the street.

As the backhoes and sledge hammers chipped away at the building I couldn't help wonder why they didn't utilize the newest in controlled demolition techniques. Just pour some diesel fuel or kerosene on a big steel I-beam in the middle of the building, light it up and after a day or so it will collapse into it's own footprint in the basement no mess no fuss.

Ridiculous right?

Silver Bull Revisited

The CME pulled the plug on the silver bull raising margin requirements five times in order to slow the great rise in prices. Silver having dropped 20-25% in 5 days looks to have stabilized for the short term though certainly we should expect increased volatility and potential downside in the near future.

Curiously nothing has changed in the fundamental picture. Bernanke will still be printing up money and purchasing treasury debt next year. Deficits and debt are on the rise, the "debt ceiling" will be lifted shortly and the value of everyone's dollar will continue to be diluted. Where to put the hard earned savings so that they can't be stolen and melted into the public till? Better spread it around because it's getting more volatile by the day. When oil drops $10 in a day? Stay safe.

OBL Changed Our Way of Life

Reading Martin Armstrong this Sunday morning in my easy chair. His latest article on how Osama Bin Laden changed America hits a sore spot. It's not so much that OBL changed America as American power changed and was looking for an excuse to enact that change in its totalitarian form on the people as a means of control and profit. OBL was most probably a CIA asset.

Armstrong relates that loss of privacy and freedom today to the events that set off the American Revolution drawing specific parallels and reminding us of our history. He has suffered first hand the loss of many of the personal liberties that he has described, been in the American Gulag and come out the other side.

Armstrong is an economist, a trader/money manager, historian, computer scientist. Read and learn.