Peace, Market

I want to acknowledge President Obama for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. What a tremendous responsibility publicly bestowed on his shoulders to monitor his progress towards meeting the expectations of those who chose him for this award.

This week I sold stock and brought my cash position to 40% of my portfolio. I am in the process of rethinking how I invest and also, the memory of the October 1987 crash when I was fully invested played a role in this action.

Gold has reached record highs as the dollar continues in the other direction with a few blips, now and then. Countries, like Australia, who recently raised their interest rate is financially solvent, and so has more freedom in taking this action. The U.S. with its debt level is limited in this direction, even for the purpose to counter inflation.

U.S. Dollar and Foreclosures

Gold is over $1000 an ounce and other commodities are going in the same direction. The U.S. dollar is down. For the first time since 1976 the Canadian dollar is equal to ours. The Euro has reached a new high against the dollar. Countries are diversifying out of the dollar. For example, Russia use to hold 90% in dollars and now it's 45%.

Today, the Treasury Department acknowledged that 'there are millions more in foreclosures.'

These facts are reconfirming what I have written about in this blog. Given the markets continued climb in the month of September when historically it has been different, it seems that psychologically investors will hang onto any piece of optimistic news and invest.