Attached are articles that were published yesterday August 19, 2009, written by Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway and Bill Gross of Pacific Investment Management Company. These articles give additional comfort that our positioning of your portfolio is aligned with some of the best respected minds in the financial world. In the beginning of the year, we added inflation protections in the form of TIPS and Commodities in order to protect your “greenback” purchasing power. Most recently we are in the process of adding a gold component as well. As for growth opportunities, we are in the process of increasing exposure to Asian Markets in order to take advantage of expected growth in that region which the Pimco article highlights.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions regarding the attached articles or your portfolio specifically. Also if you have not scheduled your 3rd Quarter Meeting, please email or call to set that appointment.

Meanwhile, CEOs are getting their mega bonuses.

Quiet slicing of the West Bank makes abstract prayers for peace obscene

Condemnation of ‘illegal’ settlements and violence only blurs the reality of what the Israeli state is sanctioning, day by day

On 2 August 2009, after cordoning off part of the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in east Jerusalem, Israeli police evicted two Palestinian families (more than 50 people) from their homes; Jewish settlers immediately moved into the emptied houses. Although Israeli police cited a ruling by the country’s supreme court, the evicted Arab families had been living there for more than 50 years. The event – which, rather exceptionally, did attract the attention of the world media – is part of a much larger and mostly ignored ongoing process.

Five months earlier, on 1 March, it had been reported that the Israeli government had drafted plans to build more than 70,000 new homes in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank; if implemented, the plans could increase the number of settlers in the Palestinian territories by about 300,000. Such a move would not only severely undermine the chances of a viable Palestinian state, but also hamper the everyday life of Palestinians.

A government spokesman dismissed the report, arguing that the plans were of limited relevance – the construction of homes in the settlements required the approval of the defence minister and the prime minister. However, 15,000 have already been fully approved, and 20,000 of the proposed housing units lie in settlements that Israel cannot expect to retain in any future peace deal with the Palestinians.

The conclusion is obvious: while paying lip-service to the two-state solution, Israel is busy creating a situation on the ground that will render such a solution impossible.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/18/west-bank-israel-settlers-palestinians

Bwahahahahahahahaha….Alan Dershowitz’ picture is in the dictionary beside the phrase “RADICAL KOOK.”

Get real.

Well, yes, Krugman did suggest such nonsense. But, that’s not a recommendation.

Borrowing MORE money and increasing the debt will not help us in our current debt crisis. You wouldn’t do that in your own budget; and you would laugh if anyone suggested you do it. Yet Krugman wants you to believe it’s going to solve our national economic problems. It won’t; in fact, it’s making them worse.

We have to unravel the debt, stop borrowing; deleveraging and default of bad companies ARE the solution. Obama’s policy of life support paid for by taxpayers is sucking all the oxygen out of the treasury.Krugman is completely wrong to suggest more debt is the answer to suffocating debt which is strangling our economy!