Don Coxe thinks basics like food and energy are the places to be. For food, he suggests farm-equipment. A friend was telling me that her financial adviser had her back in Caterpillar CAT. She has been in and out of the stock over the years, each time with significant returns. She is sure that this time is no different. So, maybe it is time to add some Caterpillar. It isn’t exactly into food productions, but roads and infrastructure are pretty basic, and in in need of maintenance and repair. Dividends are currently over 4% so this is in the income asset class.

Good old John Deere DE could be poised for good things. Now that is your basic food production bet. We visited Landmark Winery in Napa. The great grand children of John Deere are the owners and still in the agra-business. They have the best assortment of John Deere merchandise - napkins and key ring for first brother who is restoring a vintage Deere tractor. Some John Deere stock for me. The dividend yield around 3.4% isn’t too wonderful, but this is the stock equivalent of comfort food.

Fred says…

• S&P PEs need to get to about 7. Given that they are currently almost 19 today in November 2008, there is a way to go there
  http://tal.marketgauge.com/dvMGPro/charts/charts.asp?chart=PERATI
• Gold will go back up. The current $740 is a result of the carry trade unwinding - the US dollar is strong right now and gold is cheap briefly. Gold ETF (GLD)
• Gold producers in stable countries will be good bets. AEM
• good tech stocks will be ok, especially solid software companies - Microsoft (MSFT), Sybase (SY), Adobe (ADBE)
• Bonds aren’t a good idea, especially given Bernanke’s determination to avoid the mistakes of the past - deflation and depression, at all costs.

..from Wikipedia article Government debt

universal debt relief for poorer countries. A less extreme measure is to permit civil society groups in every nation to buy the debt in exchange for minority equity positions in community organizations. Even in dictatorships, the combination of banks and civil society power could force land reform and overthrow unaccountable governments, since the people and banks would be aligned against the oppressive government.

Creditary economics and Islamic economics argue that any level of debt by any party simply represents a violent and coercive relationship that must end. As the existing system of public debt finance based on Bretton Woods is critical to the financial architecture, significant monetary reform would be required to realize this.

Using a debt to GDP ratio is one of the most accepted measures of assessing a nation’s debt. For example, one of the criteria of admission to the European Union’s Euro currency is that a country’s debt does not exceed 60% of that country’s GDP.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_debt#Scale

The idea that civil society groups could overthrow unaccountable governments is encouraging. We have the unaccountable government. Now all we need is the active civil society.

b.. are you a big reader? And, possibly most important, are you a ‘real’ democrat? If so, I have found a great author, Anne Lamott. Just finished the second of three books I have of hers. Man, I wish I could be as articulate as she is. I realized from reading her that I am so far left I have a difficult time communicating with those on the right and/pr those who think they are on the left, but are masked conservatives.

v.. I’m a libertarian - in with Ron Paul, and Bob Barr. That doesn’t mean
I won’t read Anne Lamott.

b.. I read some of Ron Paul’s literature and saw/listened to him. I think he is kind of a nut - and that’s coming from someone who is kind of a nut. What do you value in the libertarian party - is this a Canadian come to the US thing?

v.. I think there is way too much gub-mint, doing stuff for its own ends,
primarily employing government workers, too many of whom add very
little value - adult daycare. It keeps them off the streets, but some
of that money and talent could be used more productively.

b.. Too many people in government - that’s fair - but, that is true of all institutions and bureaucracies and countries. I’m asking what the libertarian party is about - unless, of course that’s all it’s about which is pretty weird in these times of serious world and at home problems…. Ron Paul always seemed possessed when I heard him talk. In fact, was he the conspiracy theory guy regarding 9/11 - one time during a debate he actually seemed crazy - a nice crazy, but crazy none-the-less.

v.. http://www.lp.org/platform More articulate that I.

b..Oh, WOW, again. Not me but interesting. I’ll pay closer attention - I evaluated based on ‘candidates’ not their platform.

And so it goes…