Well, I thought this heading would get your attention! And, yes, our resident possum has been sleeping around because for the last few mornings it never poked its head out of the 'Possum Penthouse' but this morning there it was again, demanding breakfast in bed.
Then I had to drive into the Bay to see the vet. No, not for myself but for Rover who seems to have developed, on top of his cataracts, an ulcer in his left eye. $118 and the tiniest 10mg-tube of 'Conoptal Eye Drops' later, we were back at "Riverbend", watching the share market and watching the news, none of which was good.
While I’m personally a pacifist, I believe, with tensions in Ukraine, the South China Sea, and the Middle East rising at an alarming rate, the Third World War has already started. It's quite clear that the US - a declining economic power, and it doesn't like it one bit - wants a war.
Having considered itself the world’s policeman, the US has poked its nose into every geopolitical event since the Second World War. The difference this time is that China — the world’s second largest economy, and soon to be the largest — won’t be pushed around and its Central Military Commission is already preparing for war.
So where does this leave the stock market? As legendary investor Jim Rogers said: 'War isn’t great for much else but commodities', so if you want a hedge against war, buy commodity stocks, especially oil.
Speaking of which: when push comes to shove, you had better stock up on candles and get out your old draft horse because Australia, one of the world’s top energy exporters, closed its last oil refinery in 2014, and the whole country will come to a grinding hold when our 90-day stockpile runs out.
Let's hope those ordered twelve $50-billion French submarines and 72 F-35A fighter planes can be converted to run on cheap Hunter Valley chardonnay or else we'll be sitting ducks.
And that's all the good oil for the day!
