Gary, no apology needed--gloom is all the fashion these days.  That's an interesting article but a bit extreme.  China has that huge surplus and is getting increasingly smart about spending it; they're in a downturn too but may wrell cope better than we will.

Kerryvan, thanks for warning me about the new M* . 50% OF ALL MY HOLDINGS ARE NOW UNCLASSIFIED!  I'm told they are "unusual", which makes no sense at all.  However crude it was, I depended on M* to tell me my US/foreign split.  I hope they fix this sometime reasonably soon.  

I'm really impressed that you invest directly in Chinese stocks, Alan.  The more I learn about those markets the more scared I get--too much potential for government meddling to my mind.  There was a very interesting series of articles in Slate a few years back by Henry Blodgett that you might be interested in. His bottom line is that the young should go work there but he won't invest.  That series was three years ago and China's learning--but still, I have my doubts about how well people who were raised to hate capitalism can run a market.  Are your stocks fully independent or partly government? Were you holding them through the big recent hit?

And finally, I hope some of you who know more than I do will be willing to help write starting posts--Kerry and Alan both seem like good candidates.  What sorts of approach will give us focus? What do we all need to know about global that will make us better investors?  Where are the good sources of information? 

DrH