March 23, 2010 By Josh Levine

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The institutionalization of finance has been good for Wall Street power brokers, enabling them to concentrate control and profits. But it has done absolutely nothing to improve the environment for small innovative companies seeking to raise $5 million, $20 million, or $50 million. In fact, it has sucked capital away from emerging growth firms and into a mundane mosaic of investments – everything from securitized mortgages to ETFs of every stripe.

The Giant Sucking Sound: Will Washington Hear It?

If I recall correctly it was Ross Perot who first coined the term the “Giant Sucking Sound” in his independent presidential bid of 1992. He criticized NAFTA as a force that would destroy American jobs by moving them to Mexico. The idea was that jobs would be “sucked away” from the US industrial base by Mexico’s offer of cheap labor and government support. Obviously Mr. Perot’s prognostication didn’t resonate, at least enough with the voters, to win him elective office.

Written by Michael A. Berry, Ph.D. - [ Discovery Investing Web Site ]

CRITICAL METALS: WILL US POLICY MAKERS BE START TO “GET IT”?

We have written consistently and forcefully in Morning Notes for some time on the need for a sensible (economic and sustainable) natural resource policy in the US. The benefits that such a policy could provide, from high quality jobs, new industrial production and development of intellectual property, are more apparent each day. One has only to examine the supremacy of China in the rare earth (REE) supply chain to understand what has happened to US high quality jobs and secure, supply of crucial products.

Written by Michael A. Berry, Ph.D. - [ Discovery Investing Web Site ]

Fukushima: God versus man

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

God’s Grandeur, Gerard Manley Hopkins

Written by Michael A. Berry, Ph.D. - [ Discovery Investing Web Site ]