![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/DowJonesOverTenYears.jpg\" "\\"DowJonesOverTenYears\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhich means now is not the time to buy an index fund. Now is the time to be ultra-careful buying stocks. For example, I continue to like Bidu (one of the stocks on the right)<\/p>\n
I’m dubious about Apple. Too much bad press. Too many questions.\u00a0 Cramer is right; Stay away from big techs like Dell, Cisco, Intel,\u00a0 Microsoft, etc.<\/p>\n Keep your stops tight.<\/p>\n Make sure you have a little gold in your portfolio:<\/p>\n Have a look at GORO. It’s an interesting spec. At least one of my friends reckons it will be worth $100 within three years. It’s now $28.<\/p>\n “Balancing the budget.”<\/strong><\/span> They squabbled over $38 billion. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, high-speed rail and law enforcement will get\u00a0 hit. But thee wars — Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya — with over $2 trillion in expenses so far, won’t. Go figure.<\/p>\n How do you deal with this?<\/strong><\/span> Chart from the Economist:<\/p>\n The Economist recently reviewed two new books on Pakistan:<\/p>\n + Pakistan: A Hard Country<\/em>. By Anatol Lieven. PublicAffairs; 558 pages; $35. Allen Lane; \u00a330. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk<\/p>\n + Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, America, and the Future of the Global Jihad<\/em>. By Bruce Riedel. Brookings Institution Press; 180 pages; $24.95 and \u00a316.99. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk<\/p>\n The article’s conclusion:<\/p>\n Although the books disagree somewhat about Pakistan\u2019s prospects, they are not far apart on at least one important aspect of its past. America\u2019s interventions, argues Mr Riedel, have made it \u201charder for Pakistanis to develop a healthy democracy that can effectively fight terror\u201d, by encouraging military interference in civilian affairs. \u201cIt has above all been the US-led campaign in Afghanistan,\u201d says Mr Lieven, \u201cwhich has been responsible for increasing Islamist insurgency and terrorism in Pakistan since 2001.\u201d These two books, in different ways, sharply illustrate an uncomfortable truth about American foreign policy: that the war in Afghanistan has helped foster in Pakistan exactly the sorts of tendencies that America went into Afghanistan to wipe out.<\/p>\n Why am I obsessed with our wars? Simple: the history on empires shows all empires collapse because of the debt they take on to fight wars. The debt is ultimately unserviceable. And the empire collapses. I don’t want us going the way of previous empires, from the Romans on down. Pakistan is key to our “success” in Afghanistan. Yet we’re losing Pakistan as well by the unintended consequences of our actions. This morning the New York Times reports:<\/p>\n ISLAMABAD, Pakistan \u2014 Pakistan has demanded that the United States steeply reduce the number of Central Intelligence Agency operatives and Special Operations forces working in Pakistan, and that it halt C.I.A. drone strikes aimed at militants in northwest Pakistan. The request was a sign of the near collapse of cooperation between the two testy allies.<\/p>\n You can read the New York Times <\/strong><\/a>and <\/strong>The Economist here<\/a><\/strong> and here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Pakistan would be a great tourist attraction if you didn’t feel so horribly unsafe there:<\/p>\n Donald Trump for President?<\/span><\/strong> Some are comparing him to Ronald Reagan, a “B”-grade actor who become an A-grade president. Stranger things have happened.Trump is a “birther.” He thinks Obama hasn’t produced his birth certificate. Here is Obama’s\u00a0 Certificate of Live Birth<\/p>\n You can see a bigger version on Snopes. Click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Downsizing Boomers Looking to Sell Their Stuff. <\/strong><\/span>This Wall Street Journal piece will prompt you to never buy anything ever again. Click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Monte Carlo Tennis is on.<\/strong><\/span> Check the Tennis Channel. Eat your heart out for their weather and location — right on the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n Favorite silly cartoon.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Baylor and Tupelo enjoy a wading pool.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n For the full, delightful video, click here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n