"Bubbling Up"

Mortgage Rates, Gas Prices on the Move

One of the signs that's something afoot in the financial markets -- as it is now -- is that interest rates re-set several times in one day.

(More typically, they re-set every few days.)

Although the increments have all been small, that's been happening all week in the credit markets.

Think of the re-sets -- all up, by the way -- as a series of 2.0 and 3.0 seismic (financial) tremors.

Meanwhile, local gas prices, which had been unchanged seemingly for weeks locally at around $2.89 a gallon, suddenly rose twice in the last two days to $3 (or more).

On Your Mark . . Get Set . . . Dig!

"The Levi Strauss Strategy"

Caterpillar Inc. said it will buy mining giant Bucyrus International Inc. for about $7.6 billion as the heavy-equipment giant looks to bolster its mining-equipment production.

--"Caterpillar to Buy Bucyrus"; Wall Street Journal (11/15/2010)

What do corporations do when the price of metals -- both base and precious -- double and triple?

Start digging.

Or, in the case of Caterpillar, buy a company that makes digging equipment.

Call it the Levi Strauss strategy: there's as much (or more) money to be made selling supplies and equipment to the gold diggers, as there is in digging for gold.