Another Sign of the Apocalypse?
Blackrock a publicly traded “hedge fund” is now jumping into the agricultural markets with both feet. The question is: can limited agricultural markets continue to absorbe massive speculative money? My opinion is yes, but others disagree. Many are asking if hedge exemptions for large “index funds” are responsible for price spikes that we have seen recently in the grain markets. Currently index funds hold roughly 20% of open interest in CBOT commodities. That’s some serious buying power.
BlackRock Plans $200 Million Agriculture Hedge Fund, People Say By Danielle Rossingh and Saijel Kishan
Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) — BlackRock Inc., the largest publicly traded asset manager in the U.S., plans to raise as much as $200 million for an agricultural commodities hedge fund, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.
The BlackRock Agricultural Fund will start trading early next month under Graham Birch, said the people, who didn’t want to be identified because the fund’s details are private. Birch, 47, who heads BlackRock’s natural-resources team in London, helps manage more than $30 billion.
Destroying Wealth
INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY Posted 8/28/2007
Washington: Rep. John Dingell plans to introduce a bill that would strip away the mortgage deduction for taxpayers who live in homes larger than 3,000 square feet. Does he want a step-off-the-cliff recession?
The Michigan Democrat’s grand goal is to discourage energy use — and it smacks of a political favor. This is the man who refuses to allow his party to increase fuel mileage standards in the auto industry that he represents, so he clearly feels that he must give his colleagues something. In reporting Dingell’s bungle, Canada’s Financial Post wrote that he “is stirring up a hornet’s nest” because of the mortgage interest deduction’s popularity. But thanks to a growing streak of hostility toward large homes — maligned as “McMansions” — fostered through resentment created by environmentalists and class warriors, his ill-advised legislation, part of a larger carbon tax bill, actually has a chance to pass the House.
More after the break: (more…)
Who Knew?
After today’s FOMC meeting I think we need some Police.
