What makes investing particularly difficult now is that the distortion in prices, as if reflected in a funhouse mirror. Normally market prices should reflect underlying demand and supply. As in a vegetable stand, the prices come from the buying and selling of people in the market. But with all the artificial ...read more

Can you believe it's already June? What a month May was for commodities. They are Lazarus, come from the dead to tell us all that the world will not stop turning if there is a financial crisis in the West. Or something like that. If we were using numbers instead of ...read more

I keep thinking of Ray Stevens ("Ahab the Arab," "Shrine Convention," "The Day the Squirrel Got Loose," etc.) I just want to sing my little song," plot my stock charts, love my great sailor, play in my greenhouses, buy gold no matter what the economy is doing, and be the happiest ...read more

It was almost sad to see 2008 come to an end. Talk about moving markets… As investors with discipline, there was something for everybody. The first half of the year saw ALL-TIME HIGHS in gold, crude, wheat, unleaded gas, copper, corn and soybeans. But as they say, what goes up must ...read more

Good news everyone. Gold has reached a one-month low. In fact, February gold futures on Comex fell the most in six weeks. They tumbled four percent on the day, down US$34. This is very good news. It means you will have a chance to buy gold at lower prices before it ...read more

Now to the big subject of the day: Inflation. You’d think evidence of even bigger deficits in the U.S. is clearly inflationary. But not everyone thinks so. The new prophet of doom, Dr. Nouriel Roubini, says at least four factors are setting up what he calls “Stag Deflation” (as opposed ...read more

Mohnish Pabrai, a popular speaker at the Value Investing Congress and portfolio manager of Pabrai Investment Funds, reminds me of a young Warren Buffett. He’s delivered roughly 30% annualized returns to his investors since launching his partnership in 1999, similar to the return Buffett earned for his partners in the ...read more

A year ago, the average choice grading steer fetched around $85.50 per cwt to the meat packer. (The abbreviation "cwt" stands for hundredweight. Hundredweight simply means "per 100 pounds specified weight." It is always qualified as the type of weight used for cattle.) Two weeks ago, the average was $94.44 cwt, ...read more

It's impossible to make the case that there's a perfectly free market in oil or any other globally traded commodity. Production limitations, depletion, military conflicts, nationalization risks, taxes, and environmental regulations -- they all muddy the waters of a market that many would like to be clear and efficient. The international ...read more