True Confessions -- I've been doing well in this business (subscriptions, so far, are equal to last year's). I get suspicious, and I ask myself -- why?

 For comparison, I watch two well-known advisory stocks, Morningstar (MORN) and Valueline (VALU). Both stocks have tanked. With this in mind, I continue to wonder why I've been doing as well as I have. Because we're in a recession, I almost feel guilty about it. Here's what I've concluded. I write about what I'm thinking and what I know. I have full faith in the markets -- I really am obsessed and fascinated with the markets. I do have one advantage -- experience. I've struggled with the markets for over 60 years. I know what I know, and what I don't know. I don't BS my subscribers that I know at all times what's going on. Subscribers know BS when they read it, and baloney makes them angry. I know it makes me angry.



When the re-confirmation of the bear market occurred a few weeks ago, I had to depend on my firm belief in the Dow Theory. At that time I heard a lot of objections to the Dow Theory -- people in publications saying that the Dow Theory was antiquated, that it wouldn't work because of the "unrepresentative Industrials Average and the outmoded Transportation Average." I wrote that, as usual, I was taking the Dow Theory at face value -- no alterations, no "ifs ands or buts."

As it turned out, the Dow Theory re-confirmation of the bear market was correct -- it worked. After the re-confirmation, the stock market continued to melt down.

Occasionally, I insert a few of my personal opinions on the site (which some subscribers don't like), and occasionally I tell one of my WW II stories, which, for some reason, subscribers seem to love. But it's the markets, the markets, that keep me fascinated and in business.

And based on subscriptions coming in, I guess I'm doing something right. At least I hope so. I don't do any advertising or mass mailings. I depend strictly on word of mouth.

Incidentally, people are always fascinated with dinosaurs. Well, you're reading one. I lived through the Great Depression and WW II. The other day one of Ryan's friends asked about the War and what I did. I told him that I had been a bombardier in the 12th Air Force. He asked "What's a bombardier?" I told him that the Air Force doesn't use bombardiers any more, but that I was the guy who aimed and dropped the bombs. The kid looked puzzled and asked, "Didn't they do that automatically?" I said, "No, we had to do it with a top secret instrument called the Norden Bomb sight." The boy looked puzzled as he took it all in. Then he said, "Gosh, I never knew all that."

You see, I'm a living dinosaur.
...............................................

Maria Bartiromo interviewed Jim Rogers for the current issue of Business Week. Rogers was George Soros' partner when they started the fabulous Quantum Fund. Rogers retired and invented his famous commodity index. Here are some tidbits from the interview.

Question -- What do you think of the government's response to the economic crisis?

Rogers -- "Terrible. They're making it worse. It's pretty embarrassing for President Obama, who doesn't seem to have a clue as to what's going on -- which would make sense from his background. And he has hired people who are part of the problem (Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner who was head of the New York Fed, which was supposedly in charge of Wall Street and the banks more than anybody else. And you remember Obama's chief economic adviser, Larry Summer, helped bail out Long Term Capital Management years ago. These are people who think the only solution is save their friends in Wall Street rather than save 300 million Americans."

Question -- So what would you be doing?

Rogers -- "What I would like to see happen? I'd like to see them let these people go bankrupt, let the bankrupt go bankrupt, stop bailing them out. There are plenty of banks in America that saw this coming, that kept their powder dry and have been waiting for the opportunity to go in and take over the assets of the incompetent. Likewise, many, many homeowners didn't go out and buy five homes with no income. Many homeowners have been waiting for this, and now all of a sudden the government is saying: "Well, too bad for you. We don't care if you did it right or not, we're going to bail out the 100,000 or 200,000 who did it wrong." I mean, this is outrageous economics, and it's terrible morality."

On Wall Street-
"Wall Street has paid something like $40 billion or $50 billion in bonuses in the last decade... Stan O'Neal (of Merrill Lynch)... He got $150 million for leaving, even though he ruined the company. Look at the guy at Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines. He did worse accounting than Enron. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac alone did nothing but pure fraudulent accounting year after year, and yet that guy is walking around with millions of dollars. What the hell kind of system is this?"

On agriculture-
"I really think agriculture is going to be the place to be. Agriculture's been a horrible business for 30 years. For decades the money shufflers, the paper shufflers, have been the captains of the universe. That is changing. The people who produce real things will be on top. You're going to see stockbrokers driving taxis. The smart ones will learn to drive tractors, because they'll be working for the farmers. It's going to be the 29-year-old farmers who have the Lamborghinis. So you should find yourself a nice farmer and hook up with him or her, because that's where the money's going to be in the next couple of decades."




























































Volkswagen CC VR6 4Motion

Instead, we wanted a VW CC with the turbocharged four-cylinder that returns 29 mpg on the highway, while only being marginally slower than the big V6. Together with a more modest, yet still impressive features list, that version of this sleek Volkswagen sedan makes a lot more sense as an alternative to family sedans like the Honda Accord.

Honda Civic Hybrid: Performance

Our 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid featured the 110-horsepower 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine (the only option for the hybrid sedan) coupled with an electric motor that kicks in 20 more hp, and a continuously variable transmission (CVT). The Civic Hybrid is a little different from hybrids from other manufacturers in that the electric motor assists the gasoline engine when it needs it, but can't power the vehicle on its own (as Toyota's system can). Honda calls it Integrated Motor Assist.




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