The recent issue of Barron's has an article with Jim Rogers. While Rogers can get downright depressing at times, the truth sometimes hurts, and is certainly good to hear every now and then (imagine that). Beyond commodities, Rogers mentions that "perhaps the safest investment is the renminbi, the Chinese currency." Rogers has a built in bias toward China (he even moved there so his daughters could learn Chinese), but the strength of the Chinese economy does bode well for the renminbi. A spread between the renminbi and dollar, even with a potential dollar rally, might not be too bad an investment, especially given the amount of U.S. debt in China and throughout Asia. Rogers is also buying airlines, mainly international airlines, partly due to the increased fares and full planes he is observing. As for commodities, Rogers believes we are not in the initial stages of the commodity bull market, which probably began around the turn of the century, but somewhere in the middle with maybe 10 more years to go before we see a long-term reversal. Even so, he expects to see some corrections over the next 10 years, but does not expect to see overall commodity demand fall off. Given that no major mines or fields have been found recently, and the fact that it takes a long-time to even bring a new mine or field on-line, the bull market in commodities looks fairly safe for the foreseeable future.

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