The attempt to make the world safe for neo-colonial enterprises is now running into a snag. Governments in resource-rich countries are becoming more proactive with respect to resource management and local resource companies are getting more aggressive in their pricing strategies. This trend is nowhere more clear than in Brazil.

In January 1939, Isaac Asimov published I, Robot, the first of 10 science fiction stories about a misunderstood robot motivated by love and honor. In order to build sympathy for his positronic protagonists, Asimov formulated three human-friendly cardinal rules for robot behavior, including a no-harm prime directive: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

Asimov’s high-minded, humanistic principles have been superseded. however, by the more mercenary mentality of modern times. One of our A-List holdings, iRobot, clearly named in honor of Asimov, is now a leader in military robotics. iRobot was upgraded a week ago, pushing the stock up 11% that day, but has since pulled back. It's a buy here. .

In this issue we will discuss some interesting developments in unmanned warfighting technology, but first, we will discuss the well-publicized tightening in the defense budget. 

Belt Tightening on the Beltway
Due to the telegraphed budget cuts in the defense department, we have been only lightly invested in military hardware providers. What we know now, however, is that the Defense Department may be tightening its belt, but ...

In SSIA we invest in areas related to the theme of Homeland Security. Of course, security is defined in different ways at different times. After 9/11 there was a surge in spending on airport screening devices, vehicle and cargo scanning, Internet security, infrastructure security and data security. If the company had a security angle, it was hot. That theme lasted 2-3 years.

One reason for all the curiosity and confusion is that gold has recently been promoted from the ‘commodity’ category to a monetary surrogate. This is odd considering that not a single country in the world is still on the gold standard. How do we know this has happened? The relative strength of gold is starting to significantly diverge from silver, the non-monetary precious metal. Silver peaked in value in March 2008 a little over $20/oz and is now trading about 20% less. Gold on the other hand, is trading 20% higher than its 2008 peak.

The fiscal crisis in Greece has caused a sharp decline in the eurozone currency. A few weeks ago, the eurozone nations and the IMF (supported by the U.S. Federal reserve) agreed to a $1 trillion bailout pac

Summary: There are now almost 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The Taliban are on the verge of establishing the world’s first militant Islamic drug cartel, which is why the U.S. is planning to attack Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban. The political and economic realities in the country, however, have compromised government support of this critical mission. The more the U.S. speaks out against corruption and drugs, the worse the situation gets.
 

The enormous cultural differences have made cooperation between Washington and Kabul a walk on a diplomatic tightrope stretched back into the Middle Ages. In the course of the last few months, every significant U.S. emissary sent to the country has slipped and fell into the abyss, including the Vice President, various ambassadors, special envoys and even U.N. officials. President Karzai has that effect on people. A two hour session of constructive criticism concerning the eradication of corruption leveled at Karzai by President Obama on March 28th produced nothing constructive.