You gave me a morning shudder when you talk of putting money into the bond market!!!!!!!! If you're speaking of short term I will relax but if you're contemplating 10 years or longer because of the higher yields, then you are going to lose a lot of money. With most countries of the world massively printing money, even if you keep the bond until maturity if you want to buy a loaf of bread with the original amount you will be out of luck!

If you want protection, probably buying long standing companies with superior dividend histories through bad times, you will survive O.K. but be prepared to watch them go down with everyone else in a down market, albeit not as far as most other stocks.

I personally favor a mix of 70% gold, 20% silver and 10% oil. If you are younger than I am, then you can change the gold silver-ratio to a greater amount of silver. The latter will perform better than gold but is more volatile. I thought China's new entry might slow down the massive manipulations by Goldman Sachs & J.P. Morgan but the first three weeks have not made any significant dent. Nevertheless silver will outperform gold. I am not concerned in the least by any short term correction in the gold market. I consider SLI to be a bright shining star amongst one's gold choices, and continue to appreciate our leaders for all their help.

Pertaining to their help, yesterday I made a précis of some of the pertinent points in the library and attached some library photos to an Email that I sent to a friend. He wanted some information to discuss with a geophysicist so this made a good start, and will save a lot of time. If anyone wants a copy let me know.