(Poem in memory of Martha Murray, June 12, 1918-October 17, 2009)

Flow, tears of sadness, flow.

Go, tears of sadness, go.

Tears of distress,

tears of the stress,

do not be shy; do not get scared by mankind.

Borrow the voice of  Bartimaeus the blind.

Run, jump, fly.

Go, and fly high.

Go and wake up the Mandara Mountains.

Go and stand near all the Mokolo fountains.

Tell my people that one dear wing has gone above our zone.

Tell them that the other wing is left alone.

Tell them that California is shaking.

Tell them that my heart is aching.

Run, jump, fly.

Go, and fly high.

Put my pain and anguish in a bag tied with a strong rope.

Throw them in the ocean of hope,

and everything will be fine.

For our mother Martha Murray is gone to shine

among the brightest and most faithful stars in the sky.

Tell everybody that she will never die.

Flow, tears of joy, flow.

Grow, tears of joy, grow.

Fly, tears of holiness, fly.

Go and glorify the Eternal and Most High.

Composed by Moussa Bongoyok

Pasadena, 10/28/2009 at 6:30 pm

while thinking strongly about Martha Leota Murray.

© Copyright 2009, by Moussa Bongoyok.

India bought 200 tons (32,000 ounces) of gold today from the IMF at a price of $6.7 billion. This should be an ominous sign for the deflationistas.  The price of gold spiked to US $1083 per ounce, a new high.

It has become clear to me too that one reason that the US has avoided inflation in the past is that so many governments and individuals hold their wealth in dollars.  John Mauldin wrote in his newsletter (October 30, 2009), “Catching Argentinian Disease” regarding real estate transactions in Argentina:

Interestingly, the dollar is still the real medium of exchange. I was told by several people that if you want to buy a house for half a million dollars, you bring the physical cash to the closing. One person counts the money and the other checks the paperwork and title. Argentina has the second largest hoard of physical dollars in the world, only exceeded by Russia. Is it any wonder they are concerned with the value of the dollar?

What if the international community suddenly lost confidence in the dollar and began to sell its reserves in favor of other currencies (Euros, Canadian loonie), gold and other commodities?  So far we’ve seen a trickle effect: the US dollar is slowly losing value.  But imagine the little Dutch boy with his finger in the hole of the dam, and if he suddenly removes the finger and the dam could burst; once confidence is lost the world markets could be flooded with US dollars in a day.  This seems to me to be a real risk to America and it is why the current Democrat controlled Congress and Office of the President are so immoral and irresponsible in their deficit spending.  What happens when no one wants to buy US debt?  They will have to raise interest rates.  But the US government can’t raise interest rates because already 40 cents on every tax dollar services the national debt.  If the interest rate was raised by a few cents, the US would be like the sub-prime borrowers who could no longer pay their mortgages when interest rates go up, because imagine if for every tax dollar 60 cents when to paying for debt.  That is untenable.  The problem will spiral out of control.  So the US will, as Mark Faber and others have predicted , monetize the debt (this occurs when the Federal Reserve buys US treasury notes) and hyperinflation will set in.  I expressed my fears about this on January 19, 2009, and in terms not too different the Financial Post’s Jonathan Chevreau (on May 27, 2009):

Over the past year, I’ve occasionally mused mostly in jest that the way the United States has been printing money to combat the financial crisis seems to rival Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. All this by way of wondering how it is that the result of running the presses has been rampant hyperinflation in Zimbabwe, yet the U.S. so far seems to have dodged the inflation bullet.

The only thing that can save us is for conservatives to take back Congress in 2010 and the White house in 2012.  The security of the USA and of the world depends on it.

Today at Powerline blog, Paul Mirengoff says that to consider Obama a fool is the charitable explanation of some of his foreign policy.  The same is true of current economic policy.  Rush Limbaugh and others believe that he is intentionally trying to destroy the economy so that he can implement a radical agenda, as Rahm Emmanuel has famously said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”  Such a sinister intent is consistent with some things that we know about Obama’s background.  But for the moment, I will reserve judgment.

Interestingly, the dollar is still the real medium of exchange. I was told by several people
that if you want to buy a house for half a million dollars, you bring the physical cash to the
closing. One person counts the money and the other checks the paperwork and title. Argentina
Catching
Argentinian
Disease
3
10/30/09
has the second largest hoard of physical dollars in the world, only exceeded by Russia. Is it any
wonder they are concerned with the value of the dollar?

My son, I see you’ve finished in part
Your studies of the divine art.
It is called theological,
But don’t see it as magical.

My son, I heard it’s not easy.
Your faith will be queasy.
But it’s the Lord who will lead you,
When it’s Him, you’ll make it through.

My son, disregard the liberals,
Don’t consider them heros.
They will destroy the subject of dogmatics
And deform the science of hermeneutics.

My son, make sure to guard your heart.
Search the Bible from the start,
So that theology of a human bent,
Does not mask the divine scent.

My son, a servant of mighty degree
Doesn’t really have need of a PhD.
You should have a holy walk.
About which all the others talk.

My son, work off your ass,
And pay attention in class.
Your parish will be more demanding,
Its growth won’t be subsiding.

My son, once you’ve graduated,
And your brains have been sated,
Sort out what is now in your head,
And the church will be in good stead.

By Moussa Bongoyok, Translation by P. W. Dunn (November 3, 2009) from CONSEIL D’UN PÈRE À UN FUTUR THEOLOGIEN

Mon fils, te voilà en chemin

Pour apprendre un art divin

Appelé la théologie ;

Mais ce n’est pas de la magie.

Mon fils, j’ai appris que c’est dur.

Ta foi sera au pied du mur.

Mais c’est le Seigneur qui t’y mène

Or, quand il mène, il ramène.

Mon fils, laisse les libéraux.

Ne les prend pas pour des héros.

Ils écrasent la dogmatique

Et déforment l’herméneutique.

Mon fils, garde ton cœur surtout.

Sonde bien ta Bible partout

Que la théologie des hommes

Ne tue pas le divin arôme .

Mon fils, un puissant serviteur

N’est pas forcément un docteur.

Mène une vie respectable,

Une vie sainte et louable.

Mon fils, suis bien ta formation

Suis tous tes cours avec attention.

L’assemblée est plus exigeante

Et sa croissance n’est plus lente.

Mon fils, après avoir appris

Et après avoir tout compris

Trie ce que tu as en tête

Pour que l’Eglise soit en fête.

Tiré de Moussa Bongoyok  Joyeux malgré la crise (Pasadena,CA: Trinity Press, 2002) p.32.

C’est bien beau de se proclamer chrétien,

De vanter la grâce que l’on détient,

Mais qui se veut d’un céleste lignage

Doit aussi veiller sur son témoignage.

Le monde en a assez de bruits

Il veut maintenant voir de bons fruits

A quoi sert une confession verbale

Dans l’injustice et dans la guerre tribale ?

Le monde souffre et il a soif de voir

Non pas ceux qui ne font que décevoir

Mais des chrétiens, nouvelles créatures

Qui ont tourné la page des ratures.

Des chrétiens pratiquant l’honnêteté,

Des chrétiens vivant dans la sainteté,

Sont vraiment recherchés par notre monde.

Qu’on le diffuse par la voix des ondes !

Extrait de Moussa Bongoyok Joyeux malgré la crise (Pasadena, CA : Trinity Press, 2002) p. 21.

© Copyright by Moussa Bongoyok, 2009.

P.S: Vous aimez les proverbes? Veuillez consulter http://contributionsafricaines.tk

Vous y trouverez un nouveau proverbe africain chaque semaine ainsi que leur importance pour la vie spirituelle. A bientot! Moussa.

A debate is waging between the deflationists and inflationists.  It will come as no surprise to those who’ve read my previous posts on the subject that I fall into the latter camp.  I have indicated numerous times that I’ve put my money where my mouth is.  In January, I was so convinced that there would be inflation, that I eventually decided to implement a strategy of holding little cash but rather oil and gas and gold mining stocks.  I’ve also shorted the US dollar.  This strategy is paying off handsomely so far.   Besides the inflationists have many decades of contemporary monetary history to back their point of view, and the knowledge that government deficits generally feed inflation.  The current Obama deficit is profligate and never seen in the US before Obama. In Bloomberg, David Reilly asks whose face should go on the $1,000,000 bill, but never suggests Obama, apparently because he is afraid to put on the President’s enemy list.

It is true that the credit bubble was popped last Autumn, and this caused deflation.  But this has been reversed.  Consumers don’t see it yet because consumer goods haven’t increased in price yet.  But rising prices is not the definition of inflation.  One mustn’t confuse the symptom with the cause.  Inflation is caused by an expansion of the money supply without a corresponding growth in real wealth (i.e., goods and services).  When the supply of money is inflated, prices will rise to accommodate it.  This is what is already happening to gold, oil, and the stock market.  In Canada, there is an increase in real estate prices.  Next, consumer prices will catch up and everyone will feel the pain when their pay cheque won’t go as far.  Witness that oil is already back above $80 per barrel, gold is above 1050, and the Canadian dollar is almost en par with the dollar.  These are all symptomatic of the re-inflation of the US money supply.  Meanwhile, the Koreans are buying Harvest Energy Trust, a sign that the Asian, creditor nations are abandoning the dollar for hard assets in commodity interests around the world, including Africa.

Irwin Seltzer writes in a his column, “The Dethroning of King Dollar?“:

Which puts the ball right back in the Fed’s court. Unless Bernanke drains liquidity from the financial system, and shrinks the Fed’s balance sheet by winding down $2 trillion in support programs — and does so precisely when the recovery takes hold so as not to cause a relapse by moving too early — the dollar’s decline will accelerate, shattering confidence in its long-term value. One well-respected expert tells me that in two-to-five years the dollar will no longer be considered safe enough to be the currency in which the world does business. Its replacement: separate deals in local currencies — the Chinese paying for Brazil’s oil in renminbi, which the Brazilians use to purchase stuff made in China — and the International Monetary Fund’s drawing rights, bits of paper backed by a basket of currencies, including but not limited to the dollar. That would mark the end of an era that has seen world trade flourish and millions emerge from poverty. Sad.

A-t-on le droit de chanter

quand l’intelligence humaine est esclave de la méchanceté ?

A-t-on le droit de danser

quand le pied du prochain cherche en vain un appui ?

A-t-on le droit de jubiler

quand les chaînes de l’esclavage avalent du sang frais ?

A-t-on le droit de rire

quand la mort est célébrée comme un précieux ami ?

A-t-on le droit de festoyer

quand Gorée se tortille au sommet des langues de feu ?

Ne me parle pas, dragon de l’Ouest,

car mes oreilles sont en divagation au marché de j’aurais été.

Ne me console pas, serpent de l’Est,

car mon cœur est parti à la rivière de si j’avais su.

Ne me fais pas visualiser ton film, foudre du Nord,

car mes yeux sont enfouis dans le champ de j’aurais voulu.

Ne me chatouille pas, diamant du sud,

car mon rire s’est évanoui sur la montagne de si j’avais pu.

Gorée, ô Gorée ! que puis-je dire?

Aucune parole n’est assez forte

pour traduire les sentiments d’un cœur devenu caillou

dans le désert de l’absurdité de la condition humaine.

Mais crois-moi, Gorée,

Un jour les chaînes danseront de joie sur les ailes des étoiles.

Un jour Dieu jettera son regard favorable

et ressuscitera les ossements desséchés des cris silencieux.

 

Composé à Mbour au Sénégal le 16/10/2009, après avoir visité l’île de Gorée la veille, et en route vers le village de mon ami Adama Diouf.

© Copyright by Dr. Moussa Bongoyok, 2009.

Je suis une faucille
Mais j’aurais souhaité
Etre une brindille
Qui parce que délaissée
Ne travaille pas tant.
Ah ! si j’étais brindille
Je vaudrais l ‘or qui brille !

Je suis une faucille
Mais ma forme bizarre
Est celle de chenille.
S’il n’était pas trop tard,
J’aurais choisi moi-même
Une forme que j’aime.

Pourquoi suis-je ainsi ?
Pourquoi suis-je ici ?
Pourquoi suis-je rassis ?
Pourquoi ? Pourquoi ? Pourquoi ?
Oh ! Je suis dépassé !
J’en suis vraiment lassé.

Ecoute donc, faucille :
Vois, ta plainte vacille.
Crois-tu être plus sage
Que le Dieu de l’ouvrage ?
Il est le Créateur,
Admire sa grandeur.

O homme, tu n’es rien.
Ecoute-moi très bien :
Qui est plus grand que Dieu
Le Créateur des cieux ?
Ta connaissance est vaine,
Epargne donc ta peine.

Viens plutôt à Jésus ;
Ton cœur sera pourvu
Du seul et vrai bonheur,
De la gloire et des honneurs.
Et toutes tes questions
Auront leurs solutions.
Tiré de Moussa Bongoyok Joyeux malgré la crise (Pasadena, CA: Trinity Press, 2002)
(c) Copyright by Moussa Bongoyok

I wrote back in January that Obama budget deficit would lead to inflation.  Now finally financial writers are calling it the Obama dollar.

In personal finances, debt is not a good thing unless properly managed.  Advisers distinguish between good and bad debt.  Bad debt is spent on consumer goods and services (Christmas gifts, food, vacations, etc.).  Good debt is used to buy appreciating assets like a house or investments which will produce positive cash flow (e.g., Crescent Point Energy Corporation, which pays 23 cents per share Canadian per month).

I lamented that Obama called his profligate budget an “investment”.  But there is no question that government debt is bad debt.  It is used neither to purchase appreciating assets nor cash-producing investments; rather government debt is spent on programs and make-work projects that will never have a profitable rate of return.  1.4 trillion dollars was borrowed in the 2009 budget year and it has led to inflation of the US currency as I predicted in January.  Let’s consider the difference in Canadian dollar:  On Jan 23, the Canadian dollar traded at 1.234 to the US Dollar; now today it is at 1.03 per US.  This is a drop of nearly 17%.  But it is not as though Canadian currency is not also being inflated by low interest rates.  In Canada, most investments, including stocks and real estate, have nearly completely recovered from the downturn.  Housing is now completely recovered in much of Canada, and this has financial writers worried about a bubble in housing prices.

I am still shorting the US dollar (it means that I gave borrowed US to purchase Canadian-based Barrick Gold (ABX: NY), Enerplus (ERF: NY), and Daylight Resources Trust (DAY.UN: Toronto).

Writers and analysts often refer to the Federal Reserve Bank “printing” money.  Actually they don’t have to literally print money, because the central bank has the ability to create money without printing it.  This is done especially well when the Federal Reserve buys US treasury notes.  The dollar is called a “fiat” currency, because money can be made from nothing and out of paper and ink.  Eventually, however, printed money flow will have to increase in order to keep up prices.  But until then, inflation remains an invisible monster which devours people’s savings and cuts into how much they can earn.

The Carter years (1979-1981) were formative for me, as I graduated from high school in 1981.  I remember them like yesterday, and I remember its high inflation and how Reagan implemented so-called Reagonomics, reining in profligate Federal Spending.  Reagan halted an out of control Congress and put America back on track.  Being a beneficiary after my mother’s death in 1977, I remember my own Social Security check being cut.  Unfortunately, Obama was apparently too busy taking drugs during those years (marijuana and cocaine when he could afford it) and so has returned us to the pre-Reagan economic policies and ideas; but he has, in collusion with the Democrat Congress, implemented economic policies which are even worse than what we had during the Carter malaise.

I met a man from Singapore whose father lived in want much of his childhood and therefore as an old man hoarded enough rice for many years.  In like manner, I am afraid of inflation, because that’s what I saw as a child, and I have been preparing for this moment since I first heard about the Obama budget.  I fear inflation as much as any other investment risk, perhaps more.  The so-called safe haven of the dollar is a complete myth, all the more so when it is the Obama dollar.

Anne Leary of Backyard Conservative ran into Bill Ayers at Washington D.C.’s Reagan National Airport.

Leary, a Chicago resident, who has tracked Barack’s Bomber Buddy for years, started a conversation with the domestic terrorist whom Obama claimed was just a guy in the neighborhood. The conversation turned quickly to Dreams of my Father, which is allegedly Barack Obama’s first autobiographical memoir:

Then, unprompted he said–I wrote Dreams From My Father. I said, oh, so you admit it. He said–Michelle asked me to. I looked at him. He seemed eager. He’s about my height, short. He went on to say–and if you can prove it, we can split the royalties. So I said, stop pulling my leg. Horrible thought. But he came again–I really wrote it, the wording was similar. I said I believe you probably heavily edited it. He said–I wrote it. I said–why would I believe you, you’re a liar.

He had no answer to that. Just looked at me. Then he turned and walked off, and said again his bit about my proving it and splitting the proceeds.

James Simpson, who alerted the readers of the American Thinker of Leary’s blog, comments:

Was he, as she had asked, pulling our collective legs? Other sources report rumors that Ayers is very upset both about not getting any credit for helping Obama on ‘Dreams,’ and may also be put off by being summarily thrown under the bus along with Rev. Wright and everyone else who becomes an inconvenience to this President.
My understanding of communists is that most would know better and keep their mouths shut. But Ayers is a bit different. He is, as he says, a ”small ‘c’ communist,” but he is also, in a certain, slimy way, an entrepreneur, as we explained in Monday’s post. (Apologies in advance to entrepreneurs everywhere.) He grew up a very rich kid, used to getting everything he wanted. Even as an adult his career has relied on a hand up from his wealthy father. His past statements and radical activities also mark him as a megalomaniac. In youth he drew attention to himself by blowing things up. As an adult “educator” he merely attempts to subvert children. But that doesn’t seem to be going so well.

The trouble with evil people is that they often want the credit for what they have done.  It is therefore not surprising that Ayers has begun to admit that he wrote Obama’s book.  It has already been proven by Jack Cashill and confirmed by Obama biographer, Christopher Anderson.

Obama is a security risk.  His closest associates are a threat to America.  Bill Ayers is a terrorist.  Obama should resign or be impeached.

Was he, as she had asked, pulling our collective legs? Other sources report rumors that Ayers is very upset both about not getting any credit for helping Obama on ‘Dreams,’ and may also be put off by being summarily thrown under the bus along with Rev. Wright and everyone else who becomes an inconvenience to this President.
My understanding of communists is that most would know better and keep their mouths shut. But Ayers is a bit different. He is, as he says, a ”small ‘c’ communist,” but he is also, in a certain, slimy way, an entrepreneur, as we explained in Monday’s post. (Apologies in advance to entrepreneurs everywhere.) He grew up a very rich kid, used to getting everything he wanted. Even as an adult his career has relied on a hand up from his wealthy father. His past statements and radical activities also mark him as a megalomaniac. In youth he drew attention to himself by blowing things up. As an adult “educator” he merely attempts to subvert children. But that doesn’t seem to be going so well.

Le Dieu créateur dans sa sainteté

De son ciel regarde l’humanité

Et se demande : Y a-t-il un seul juste

Dont le péché n’a pas courbé le buste ?

Malheureux de nous car il n’y a personne

Et déjà la trompette de Dieu sonne.

Tous sont privés de la gloire de Dieu

Tous ont péché même les religieux.

Nous avons tous cédé à nos passions

Et méprisé sa grande compassion

Nous choisîmes la désobéissance,

Nous négligeâmes Dieu et sa Puissance.

O hommes ! Nous sommes donc condamnables,

Et bien plus nous sommes tous inexcusables.

Qui enlèvera cette condamnation

En nous délivrant de la corruption ?

Nos bonnes œuvres ne servent à rien.

Nos propres efforts ne servent à rien.

Il faut plus qu’une conduite morale

Il faut plus qu’une âme libérale.

Il faut qu’un vrai homme sans péché meure

Sinon la colère de Dieu demeure.

C’est alors que le Christ vint se donner

En rançon pour nous et nous pardonner.

On l’a crucifié, il a souffert

Adieu condamnation et enfer !

La vie est à la portée de quiconque

Sans aucune condition quelconque.

Seulement il faudra tourner le dos

A Satan et à tous ses lourds fardeaux.

Et croire en Jésus de toute son âme

Peu importe qu’on soit homme ou femme.

Tiré de Moussa Bongoyok Joyeux malgré la crise (Pasadena, CA :Trinity Press, 2002) p. 26.

© Copyright by Moussa Bongoyok, 2002.

Early in 2005, I asked my investment adviser for suggestions regarding stocks I could buy in US dollars, and he didn’t come up with one.  When my wife asked to buy Catepillar, he said it wasn’t a good idea.  For these reasons, and because he also received 2% commission for every transaction, I decided to try a self-directed trading account (DIY, do-it-yourself). On November 1, 2005, I bought my first DIY stock, CAT, at $50 per share and sold it at $70 the following February.  That marked my beginning as a investor.  So I have an answer now to that thorny question, “What do you do?”  That question has been embarrassing since 1996 when I finished my doctoral studies.  As a biblical scholar, I’ve never had a full-time job in the field.  Rather, I’ve taught as an adjunct in Canada and as a visiting professor in Africa, I’ve continued my research in the Acts of Paul, I’ve been the director of a charitable project called the Barnabas Venture since May 2004, and very active in my local church.  But imagine trying to explain all that to people.  Now I just say, “I’m an investor.”

Being involved in philanthropy, I’ve desired to increase our ability to be charitable.  This has been one of the driving factors in leading me into DIY; but also, in the last half of his life, my grandfather and role model, Wallace Wilkinson Dunn, Sr., was an investor.  An inheritance from grandfather paid for the first year of my studies at Cambridge.  My father, who received the bulk of grandfather’s estate, paid for the next two years.  Thus, I enter begin investing with full confidence that it can be done profitably.

This morning I sat down and made short list of my investment strategies which included the following points:

(1) Pay attention to the macro trends in the economy.  Information is key, but one must realize that much of the information out there is provided by incompetent writers or supporters of disastrous policies such as Keynesian economics (keyword, “stimulus”) and Obama’s presidency, which have led to huge budget deficits and inflation.  The conservative world view serves me well as an investor.

(2) Always maintain a sufficient cash or credit instruments to take advantage of market downturns.  But I try always to maintain an extremely low debt to equity ratio (far below 1:1–the goal of a business is to be in business the next day–while failed banks like Bear-Stearns had ratios of 30:1).

(3) Keep the watch list down.  It is very difficult for me to watch more than about 20 stocks.

(4) Specialize:  Most investors have their specialty, a nook where they have a better feel for the market.  Some are commodity traders; others trade gold or foreign currencies.  I trade in bank, oil and gold mining stocks.  I am not a competent in options or short selling.  I stay away from investments that I don’t understand.  That’s why I don’t do options trading, because I don’t understand them.

(5) Spread the risk:  When we still had an investment adviser, he told us the story of how certain Nortel employees who lost their jobs also had retirement portfolios which were predominantly made up of shares and options in Nortel.  As a consequence, they were severely hurt by the demise of Nortel.  Once while in my bank, a representative mentioned that one would do well to buy, as she had done, bank stocks (which were at an all time low).  She had invested in TD Bank; I told her that she shouldn’t do that since she was employed by the bank.  Well she would have made money, without a doubt, because TD Bank is back up to $68 per share.  But it is necessary to maintain the principle of spreading risk which means that one should never have everything in a single sector or a single company (Don’t put all your eggs in one basket). My wife’s company is in aviation maintenance, so I have chosen never to purchase a stock related to that sector.  So Air Canada, Boeing, Bombardier are all on my never-buy list.

Obviously there is some tension between specializing/keeping the watch list down and spreading the risk.  Buying 100 stocks in several sectors effectively spreads the risk even more.  But I can’t know enough about every sector to manage that; so I am trying to learn more about the gold mining and oil and gas sectors to be able to trade and invest effectively.

In late 2008 and most of 2009, when people asked me what I do, I said I was an unsuccessful investor.  But today, thanks to the recent upswing in the market, I’m still investing, while many professional financial advisers are delivering pizzas, waiting on tables, driving taxi, or just sitting at home unemployed.  For that I am thankful.

A Canadian friend told me that he was thinking about taking a long position in GE.  It was at an all time low and evidently oversold at the time (under $7).  I warned him that stocks held in US currency were risky for Canadians because they would have to buy US currency at a high price but that, with the Obama government overspending and all, the US dollar was going to lose its value quickly.

GE hit its low in early March, and let’s say that my friend bought at $6.66, its closing price on March 6.  On that day, he would have paid about CDN $1.27 for every US $1.  So 100 shares would have cost him $6679.99 (which is inclusive of the $19.99 commission), or CDN $8483.59.  GE today is selling at $16.52 today.  If you add the three quarterly dividends (ex dividend date 17 Sept, 17 June, 17 March), he would be looking at a total of $16.82 per share or a phenomenal 152% rate of return.  But what is that today in Canadian funds?  $16820 = $17755 (1.056)  That is today in Canada, his investment has 109% rate of return, which is still wonderful, but as a result of the diminished power of the US dollar, much less than 152%.  But in the likely event that the US dollar continues to plummet, his return on investment will continue suffer in Canadian value.

I’ve taken short positions against the dollar by keeping borrowing funds to buy Canadian oil and gold companies (erf, abx: NY) in US funds.  Also, I will convert every penny of US funds that come in into Canadian until the currencies reach par.

Yesterday I learned that many investors are beginning to use the US as the new “carry trade currency”.  I didn’t know what that meant so I looked it up.  It is a reference to borrowing currency that has a low interest rate, changing into a foreign currency and making investments in that currency (such as GICs or buying stocks).  Well, I guess my investment strategy is a trend rather than idiosyncratic.  I was basing this strategy on the fundamental conviction that US dollar, despite the current deflationary tendency, would suffer because of the Obama budget deficit.

Links:

Dollar is the ‘New Peso’

Is the Dollar Set to Become the new yen?

Rush Limbaugh tells a joke:  What do God and Obama have in common?  God doesn’t have a birth certificate either.

I was at the Society of Biblical Literature last year in Boston and I met a childhood friend of one of my professors, who was being honored with a Festshrift.  The elderly gentleman, a longtime resident of Boston, found out I was from Alaska.  He then suddenly turned red-faced and angry.  “What’s wrong with you people?” He asked, “How can you have such a stupid woman as governor.  Are your brains frozen from the cold?”  I told him that I like very much Governor Palin and that our problem in Alaska is that when we are hungry, we have to go out and shoot something.  Then he went on to say how proud he was of Barack Obama because he was so intelligent, and he was just going to be such a good president.   Lee Carey, however, points out that Obama has a questionable work ethic, while others wonder aloud if he is just playing at being president.

Dreams of my Father Just some guy in my Neighborhood

Prof. Jack Cashill has followed up on his previous post at American Thinker with “Andersen Claims ‘Two Sources’ for Ayers’ Role in Dreams“.  He has interviewed the author and journalist Chris Anderson:

Andersen claims that the “hopelessly blocked” Obama turned to the unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers to help him write his much acclaimed 1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father.

When I asked about Andersen’s sources, Andersen said that he had two separate sources “within Hyde Park” but, understandably, would not elaborate.

Andersen, who was gracious throughout, insisted that he had made no claim that Ayers wrote Dreams but he did not deny Ayers’ deep involvement, conceding that Dreams is much the better book than Obama’s 2006 Audacity of Hope. This, of course, has to trouble the Obama acolytes who insist that Obama is a uniquely gifted writer.

Thomas Lifson concludes, as I have, that Obama has been unmasked as a fraud:

Now, thanks to Jack Cashill, the literary mask has been removed. Obama is a literary pretender. Case closed. The evidence is overwhelming that Bill Ayers ghost-wrote Dreams from my Father, the book which established Obama’s pose as a brilliant writer (and therefore a fine mind, in the estimation of many). The stylistic resemblance between the Dreams and Ayers’ work is stunning. Now we know, thanks to Chris Andersen’s new book,that Obama hit a brick wall trying to fulfill his contract to produce a book, and shipped off his notes and tapes to Ayers. That is the classic description of a ghost writer’s assignment. And it completely fits the theories Cashill had inferentially reasoned from the data of his literary studies.

Sarah Palin has finished her book, Going Rogue, early; unlike Obama, she has publicly acknowledged her use of a professional writer.  Yet the main stream media is still chanting the canard that Obama is a great writer.  Matthew Shaer writes:

Fair enough. November is holiday book-buying season, and Sarah Palin is a hot commodity. No reason to think Palin’s book won’t skyrocket to the top of the best-seller list. But let’s pause for a second: Did Palin really write “Going Rogue” all by herself? As MSNBC’s Chris Matthews noted back in May, “She’s got this book deal, she obviously is not gonna write it.”

Matthews was right. Palin had help.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that – unofficially, we’d estimate that 90 percent of the books published by politicians are heavily ghost-written. (A notable exception: Barack Obama, whose “Dreams from My Father” was considered by many critics to have real literary merit.) In Palin’s case, help came in the form of Lynn Vincent, a senior writer for the conservative Christian publication World Magazine.

Mr. Shaer, via the illustrious Chris Matthews, here implies that Palin has not been honest in acknowledging the use of a professional writer, as if that was ever in question; thus, he ironically tries to accuse her of the crime of which Barack I-actually-wrote-them-myself Obama is guilty.  Mr. Shaer writes for the Christian Science Monitor, but he obviously is a sub-par journalist, who is unaware that Prof. Jack Cashill has argued definitively that Bill Ayers had a major hand in ghost writing Dreams of my Father.  But don’t expect anyone in the mainstream media to deal with this story soon (except perhaps Glenn Beck), since they are incompetent.  The Associated Press will now even make up a quote out of whole cloth  if necessary to provide their tendentious version of the news.

Obamalatry Worshipping a Man

The Bible says that when Herod Agrippa was hailed by the crowd as a god,  ^“Immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he did not give God the glory; and he was eaten by worms and died “(Acts 12:23).  Yet many of Obama’s followers have become Obamalators.  Many noticed that there seemed to be a cult of Obama during the election, beginning with Oprah’s endorsement that he’s “the One”.  But this worship is intensifying in certain quarters, with public school children being taught to sing hymns to Obama and now a new video surfaced (hat tip Red State) in which a liturgy offers prayers to Obama (see below); Obama must reject this worship publically, lest he fall under the same divine punishment as Herod Agrippa.

And this meeting of the Gamaliel Foundation:

more about “Community Organizer Group Prays to Ob…“, posted with vodpod

http://www.abcnews.go.com

The thing about something like this is that we know that it is a trick of the Left to do outrageous things like this and then get the media to blame it on conservatives.  Michelle Malkin calls such acts “fake hate crimes”.  Mark my words, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was done by pro-Obama people.

Here is the difference between the September 12, 2009, conservative protestors and Obama supporters: