It's a weird world when Coke thinks China has a better business environment than the US. Are they drinking the product or snorting it? Or do they have a germ of truth that Communists have a better handle on economics that social democrats?
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Gold bugs took a hit when the Chicago Merc raised the margin deposit requirements on gold futures contracts, causing gold to take a 10% hit. That would indicate that a lot of the rise in the price of gold was due to a lot of speculative long positions in gold futures; when they had to cash out some positions due to lack of margin, it drove prices down.
If the market is neutral towards gold, you could see a margin change not effecting price, but the small-fry money was on the long side. That's not surprising, since you see gold bugs advertising on Fox News incessantly; in other avenues, you'll often see gold futures being plugged for their leveraged abilities. However, leverage works both ways, and the folks who were long gold futures got hammered.
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Not a bad time to be a sports fan. The Tigers are doing well, the Lions are 3-0 for the first time since I was a teenager, and the Pistons.... are mercifully locked out. Even UofM is off to a 4-0 start, albeit with a schedule of Notre Dame and three cupcakes.
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A Chris Christie boomlet is getting suppression fire from the American Spectator; Christie has said some unconservative things on global warming, which makes him unwelcome in the knee-jerk right crowd. Everyone has something that isn't 200-proof to the right.
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