Gold is a hedge against government perfidy, but a difficult one to play. You have to have physical possession for it to be useful in an Aftershock.

Virgil, there is a lot of excitement about the Maker revolution in VC circles, but it is awfully early. It might not scale until the 2020s after the Great Recession finally ends, and the combo of 3D printing, robotics and genetic manipulation powers a "digital meets physical" rapid growth period. Manufacturing would come back, but highly robotized or distributed, not in factories of old. The risk we run with our incoherent industrial policy and zombie banks is that China gets there first. What this means for China's hard landing or not is unclear; Yves thinks the Shanghai is a buy, as above, as do some very clever and secretive fund managers I know.

Virgil, interesting analogy to his 1995 book given the timing of the next tech boom. Faceplant IPO seems to have slowed the current tech boom, but a bunch of venture-backed companies are lining up to go public over the next year, and the bell may ring as it did in 1998. The 3 of 3 bullish scenario comes from a rotation into US assets as a flight to quality (EUR and JPN to USD) while macro fundamentals are poor. This market would show breadth and buying volume increase as this 3 of 3 develops. Many pundits think locally when they should think of global money flows. Would mean Treasuries stay at low yields and foreign money is in a Global Scramble for Yield. Most plays are done, including China (near the end of a huge real estate bubble) and the commodities countries. Where does the fickle finger of fate find yield? In a re-emergence of whacky tech IPOs.

Hock, Paul - I have been waiting for the triple top for quite a while. It is a technical call, based also on external factors (such as the coming recession globally), and yet with the continued liquidity pump of the central banks, may turn out to be the wrong pattern. It may be the whole pattern from 2000-17/20 ends up like a triangle; but then the drop from 2000-09 counts as a model of a flat, and so this uptick would be an X wave connecting to a new corrective pattern. It looks a lot like an X, a simpler pattern than the prior, and yet not impulsive like the breakout of a new bull market. Normally in such complex corrections, the X would not breach the scale of the prior flat. We'll see, soon. “Predictions are hard. Especially about the future.” - Yogi Berra

Todd, yes, but the other sideways markets ended on a low or triangle end (1949) not on a high! You'd have to believe 2009 was the cycle low. It came a bit early then in time (1966-82 = 16 yrs, 1929-49= 20 yrs). If 2009 is the low, like 1932, expect continued sideways until 2017-2020).

Virgil, Norway is pushing forward on Thorium. Watch that space. On Apple, their iPhone 5 is apparently pushing the limits of teenage girls dexterity and eyesight, so Apple may have no choice but to embrace robotics. We could have a manufacturing renaissance here, albeit of such high productivity it would not bring back assembly line jobs.

Choose on iTunes the high bit rate VBR recording, such as 320bps. That makes the ripping impact sound much less.

Virgil, the ability of young women to do fine assembly in the iphone5 seems to be hitting a limit. Apple is beginning to bring it home. The logical method is via robotics now, and 3D printing in about a decade. Take a lot at this analysis: http://www.asymco.com/2012/12/07/the-real-threat-that-samsung-poses-to-apple/ This won't happen fast, though.

My suggestion is to watch the Naz and particularly AAPL for an early warning. AAPL often fades this time of year and bounces, but the chart says it *should* fall to $400 and some are suggesting $300.

KRG, we would more likely issue gld backed bonds and hold e gold. The bonds could be at a huge increase in gold price, such as $10k/oz, and be used to retire fiat debt.