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Time to "buy the dogs" in Nigeria?  Our friend, long-time subscriber and far-flung correspondent Jonathan Auerbach thinks so, with an emphasis on banks and brewers.  You can reach him at Auerbach Grayson, 212 453-3575. Here's a note from him that accompanied the firm's most recent report on Nigeria: From various sources we have heard that Nigerian President Yar'Adua has died; however there is no official confirmation but in fact Vice President Goodluck Jonathan has been administering the country for almost 2 months during Yar'Adua's prolonged illness and absence. Nigeria was one of the worst performing emerging markets last year (buy the dogs?) exacerbated by margin loan problems at a number of major banks which have been dealt with decisively by the Central Bank. While the market has been up 10% in the last week (open the attachment please) we think that any media frenzy over succession, in a country where most pedestrian observers put a full stop after they deal with corruption, oil problems, and assorted chaos, could provoke volatility with a selling bias. Our view (read my notes on Nigeria from my visit last month) is that any market price weakness would be an attractive opportunity to add or initiate positions in this remarkable land. Ideas call Zoran or me. The easy calls are the surviving banks and brewers.

Alex Scipio has created a fascinating blog, "In This Dimension," that you can access by clicking here.   If you want to know how a true hard-liner would conduct a war on terror, this is the place to find out.  Here's an excerpt:   "No valid reason exists not to use nuclear weapons on our enemies, particularly Riyadh and, if they get much closer to the nuclear club, Iran and North Korea. "From a political standpoint, winning the war against Islamist fascism will require the general destruction and collapse of the societies that breed it, much as killing Nazism required the destruction of the society that bred it, and killing Imperial Japan required the collapse of the society that created it."

Why is it okay for Morgan Stanley to stop making payments on five buildings in San Francisco, but immoral for a homeowner to walk away from a mortgage that is underwater?  Click here  for a New York Times magazine essay by Roger Lowenstein that explores this question in some depth.

...because Pennsylvania has just voted to allow table games.   Here's how my friend Glenn Klotz wrote it up at AtTheBeach.blogspot: "More terrible news for Atlantic City. The Pennsylvania House of reps. in Harrisburg passed Table Gaming for Pa., Casinos! The next step will be the Delaware River Casinos in Philly. What this means for AC is more market share lost for our 11 casinos precisely when they can't afford anymore losses. What it really means is the gambling experiment for redevelopment is essentially over. The results are for everyone to see. I'll leave it to all of you to judge whether the 30+ yr. experiment to use casino gaming was a success or not?"

Here's the latest dispatch from our friend and long-time subscriber Jonathan Auerbach, whose NYC-based brokerage firm, Auerbach Grayson, makes markets in some of the world's most exotic places:  "As I peruse this morning's Pakistan headlines I am truly relieved that there are no new suicide bombings listed, nevertheless we do have announcements of drones, terrorists killed, militants apprehended,compounds cleared in places like Swat and Waziristan; to add to this Dante-esque litany of hourly dismay are moments of keystone kops absurdness such as a protest by the US Ambassador today to the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs to cease 'provocative actions" of stopping cars, driven on behalf of US officials, carrying bogus license plates.' Kind of makes you want to howl... what are we doing there?  If you are not yet completely worked up and shouting, let me take you slowly down from the ridiculous to the sublime and the chaos of Pakistan to calmly address the IPO of the Fatima Fertilizer Company which plans a dutch auction on the Karachi Stock Exchange next week of 150 million shares. "The offering will be conducted as a transparent 'book building' with a minimum price of PKR 10. At that price the aggregate value of the offering would be ~$23 million and the market cap of the company ~$230 million. We expect the price to be higher than the minimum. If you want to pariciapte as a US institution you must be a QIB since we shall rely on Rule 144a on placing the shares. We can provide you today with an offering circular and a summary of the company's activities. We have scheduled a conference call with company management for tomorrow morning at O830. If you decide to bid on the shares you must arrange for a deposit margin to be escrowed at

An interesting take from Jesse's Cafe American, it would appear that households have effectively been pushed into Treasurys by almost non-existent yields on money-market funds. Click here   for the story.

If not for after-hours manipulation designed to leverage thin markets, stocks would be flat since September. As Tyler Hurden documents, virtually all of the substantial gains shares have achieved since then have come after the NYSE closing bell.  Click here  for  the full story at ZeroHedge.com.

It is absolutely dumbfounding that Harry Reid's legislative turd is about to become law. For yet more reasons why this is The Worst Bill Ever, click here.   A Wall Street op-ed piece dissects some of the bill's hidden costs, which are all but certain to bankrupt or drive out insurers who serve the market for individuals and small groups.  For one, because such companies don't enjoy the economies of scale of larger insurers, their administrative costs are typically around 30%. And yet, Reid's big, fat stinker would make them give rebates to customers if administrative costs exceed 10 percent.

“Deflation suddenly is looming, crowding out the prevalent global view that only higher inflation can possibly be ahead. QE (Quantatative Easing) isn’t working; money pumping, once thought a flawless cure for crises, now falls flat, from lack of confidence. QE is, in fact, having the opposite of the intended effect as it’s obviously a ploy, &  QE simply adds to debt, which now chokes the holders. Gold can handle deflation nicely, but not much else can.”