August 24, 2012 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Read today that Scott McKenzie, who performed the 1967 ballad San Francisco (Be sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair), which became a defining hit for the counterculture generation and helped draw tens of thousands to the Haight-Ashbury district for the Summer of Love, died on Saturday in Los Angeles.  San Francisco was written by John Phillips, a founder of the Mamas and the Papas, who had been a friend of McKenzie’s since high school.  The two started a band called the Journeymen, which recorded several albums in the 1960s.  San Francisco hit a nerve with people looking to protest what they saw as an unjust social order, and it soared on the charts.  – News from The New York Times

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy. – Leo Buscaglia

Earlier this month, this announcement was made:

University professor to study life after death

By Claudine Zap, Fri, Aug 3, 2012

Does life exist after death?

A University of California, Riverside philosophy professor, John Martin Fischer, has been awarded a three-year, $5 million grant by the John Templeton Foundation to study just this topic—and yes, students can take his class.

Fischer noted in an email to Yahoo News, “Both I and my post-doc, Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin, will teach related classes over the next three years. I have frequently taught classes on death, immortality, and the meaning of life both at Yale University and UC Riverside.”

So what’s the meaning of life? More on that in a moment.

Fischer noted, “We’ll be open both to studying religious and non-religious views about immortality. One thing that we’ll study is whether human beings would want to live forever: would it be boring? Would it lose its meaning and beauty and urgency? Does death give meaning to life?”

According to the university’s website announcing the grant award, many anecdotal reports of the afterlife abound, but there has been “no comprehensive and rigorous, scientific study of global reports about near-death and other experiences, or of how belief in immortality influences human behavior.” The research will look at a range of phenomena, including heaven, hell, purgatory, and karma.  The grant is the largest ever awarded to a humanities professor at UC Riverside, and one of the largest given to an individual at the university.

Fischer said in a statement, “We will be very careful in documenting near-death experiences and other phenomena, trying to figure out if these offer plausible glimpses of an afterlife or are biologically induced illusions,” Fischer said. “Our approach will be uncompromisingly scientifically rigorous. We’re not going to spend money to study alien-abduction reports.”

The grant will also fund two conferences to discuss the findings. Said UC Riverside Chancellor Timothy P. White, Fischer’s research “takes a universal concern and subjects it to rigorous examination to sift fact from fiction.”

The Immortality Project, as it is called, will solicit research proposals from eminent scientists, philosophers and theologians whose work “will be reviewed by respected leaders in their fields and published in academic and popular journals.”

The research will also delve into cultural aspects of the afterlife. For example, there are reports of millions of Americans seeing a tunnel with a bright light at the end. In Japan, reports often find the individual tending a garden.

The professor added that the academic research could include a range of issues, like “heaven and hell: If we are material beings, how can we exist in heaven, where we would not have physical bodies (or not of the sort we have here)?

“There is a lot of interest in near-death experiences. We can carefully catalog them and look into whether there are patterns. There has already been a lot of work on this. Perhaps some cross-cultural studies would be helpful.

“We’ll also be open to studying the relationship between beliefs in afterlife and behavior–moral behavior and crime rates.”

Sounds like the kind of research topics that many college students have already spent hours pondering. As for the meaning of life? The professor says check back in three years.

How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?

And on this day in…

79 AD – Mount Vesuvius erupts devastating Pompeii and Herculaneum, killing thousands.
1814 – British torch Washington and the White House, to avenge the burning of Toronto.

1899 – Jorge Luis Borges was born: I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. – Jorge Luis Borges
1981 – John Lennon’s killer sentenced.
1982 – A Wall Street scheme is hatched – Arbitrageur Ivan Boesky and M&A exec Martin Siegel meet at the Harvard Club, in New York – Boesky suggests that if Siegel supply him with early inside information on upcoming mergers, there would be something in it for him.

All across the nation, such a strange vibration,

People in motion

There’s a whole generation, with a new explanation.

-Scott McKenzie, 1939-2012

photos of the day August 24, 2012

A girl look out at the beach as Tropical Storm Isaac approaches in Barahona, Dominican Republic.

Ricardo Arduengo/AP

The sun rises on the Villa Germaine vineyards of Ariccia, on the outskirts of Rome, Italy. Drought and hot temperatures are forcing Italian farmers to start harvest at least a week earlier than usual.

Gregorio Borgia/AP

A long time exposure photo of an early morning thunderstorm with lightning over Zurich, Switzerland, seen from Gockhausen.

Alessandro Della Bella/AP

Market Closes for August 24, 2012:

North American Markets

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks climbed, led by financial shares, after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank has the ability to take additional steps to boost the economy.

Royal Bank of Canada rose 1.6 percent. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. advanced 1.2 percent and Suncor Energy Inc. added 1.1 percent as oil increased in New York. Petrominerales Ltd. gained 5 percent for the biggest jump in the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index.

The S&P/TSX climbed 52.32 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,114.83 at 1:18 p.m. in Toronto. A measure of banks, brokerages and asset managers contributed the most to the advance in the gauge.

“It’s a central-bank driven rally,” said Todd Johnson of BCV Asset Management in Winnipeg, Manitoba, who manages C$380 million ($380 million). He spoke in a phone interview.

“Everybody is looking to global central banks to provide a prop for asset prices, to provide some sort of stimulus. Any positive comment that comes from the Fed will help boost enthusiasm.”

The index fell as much as 0.2 percent earlier after data showed demand for U.S. capital goods dropped in July by the most in eight months. Bernanke spoke in a letter dated Aug. 22 to California Republican Darrell Issa.

Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s largest lender, advanced 1.6 percent to C$54.16 and Toronto-Dominion Bank gained 0.6 percent to C$80.98.

Energy shares rallied with oil as Tropical Storm Isaac strengthened in the Caribbean Sea on a path that may threaten crude production in the Gulf of Mexico. Canadian Natural Resources advanced 1.2 percent to C$31.21. Suncor Energy added 1.1 percent to C$31.58. Petrominerales Ltd., a Calgary-based oil company that operates in the Andean region, gained 5 percent to C$9.91.

Silvercorp Metals Inc. added 1.6 percent to C$5.91 as the price of the metal climbed for the fifth straight day, up 0.7 percent to $30.74 an ounce.

China Gold International Resources Corp. slumped 1.1 percent to C$3.63 and Gabriel Resources Ltd. sank 5.5 percent to C$2.45.

US

By Inyoung Hwang

Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, paring the first weekly decline in almost two months for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said he saw “scope for further action,” increasing speculation the central bank will act to boost economic growth.

Nine out of 10 groups in the S&P 500 rose, as consumer discretionary, industrial and technology stocks erased earlier losses. Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. climbed 6 percent for the biggest gain in the benchmark gauge for U.S. stocks as its generic painkiller Lidoderm got approval from the Food and Drug Administration. QEP Resources Inc. jumped 6 percent after agreeing to buy North Dakota oil assets.

The S&P 500 added 0.7 percent to 1,411.13 at 4 p.m. New York time. The gauge fell 0.5 percent for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 100.51 points, or 0.8 percent, to 13,157.97 today. Volume for exchange-listed stocks in the U.S. was 4.7 billion shares, 24 percent below the three-month average and the third-lowest level of the year.

“It was confirmation of Bernanke’s commitment to potentially do something more if the economy appears it needs it,” John Carey, who helps oversee about $220 billion at Pioneer Investments in Boston, said in a telephone interview.

“That was reassuring to people who might have thought he was stepping back from that.” He said, “It’s summer trading and volume is light so it doesn’t take much to move the market. A little whiff of positive news was enough.”

The S&P 500 had advanced for the past six straight weeks amid optimism that global central banks will take actions to stimulate growth. At the same time, trading volume and volatility have dropped this month as vacationing traders await policy clues from the Fed’s annual summit in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and a European Central Bank meeting in September.

“There is scope for further action by the Federal Reserve to ease financial conditions and strengthen the recovery,”

Bernanke said in an Aug. 22 letter to California Republican Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s July 31- Aug. 1 meeting showed many members judged that more stimulus “would likely be warranted fairly soon” unless the pace of the recovery picks up. Bernanke will have an opportunity to clarify his views in his Aug. 31 speech at Jackson Hole, where he signaled a second round of bond buying in 2010.

A report today showed demand for U.S. capital goods such as machinery and communications gear dropped in July by the most in eight months, indicating companies are pulling back on investment. Bookings for non-military capital equipment excluding planes slumped 3.4 percent, the Commerce Department report showed.

Global stocks fell earlier as two central bank officials said ECB President Mario Draghi may wait until Germany’s Constitutional Court rules on the legality of Europe’s permanent bailout fund before unveiling full details of his plan to buy government bonds. With the court set to rule on Sept. 12, investors looking for Draghi to announce a definitive program at his Sept. 6 press conference might be disappointed, according to the officials.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a joint press conference with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras that Germany is ready to help the Greek government as it takes the necessary steps to resolve his country’s economic woes. Samaras will go to Paris for a meeting with French President Francois Hollande tomorrow after concluding his visit to Berlin today.

“It’s a resilient market,” Walter Todd, who oversees about $930 million as chief investment officer of Greenwood Capital in Greenwood, South Carolina, said in a telephone interview. “When you think that losses will accelerate, the market rallies back.” He said, “It’s just a very difficult environment to read.”

The S&P 500 has struggled to break out of a narrow trading range as price swings in the index have averaged 0.7 percent a day since Aug. 6, the smallest fluctuation over any comparable periods since January 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The index has hovered above 1,400 since Aug. 7, and failed to stay above a four-year high of 1,419.04 after briefly surpassing it on Aug. 21.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, known as the VIX, fell 4.9 percent to 15.18 today. It has lost 43 percent since June 1 and touched 13.45 on Aug. 17, its lowest level since 2007.

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index, a gauge of 30 U.S. stocks tied to economic growth, rose for the first time in five days, adding 0.4 percent. Sears Holding Corp. led gains in the measure, rising 3.8 percent to $56.51. Masco Corp., a home improvement and building products maker, advanced 1.4 percent to $14.13.

Nine out of 10 groups in the S&P 500 gained at least 0.4 percent, with telephone stocks rising the most. Consumer discretionary companies climbed 0.8 percent, after earlier falling as much as 0.2 percent. Industrial stocks added 0.5 percent after losing 0.4 percent. Technology stocks erased a 0.6 percent decline, advancing 0.4 percent.

Watson Pharmaceuticals advanced 6 percent to $83.32 after the Parsippany, New Jersey-based generic-drug maker said in a statement after the market close yesterday that its generic version of Lidoderm received approval from the FDA and it is planning on launching the product in September 2013.

QEP Resources rallied 6 percent to $28.80. The explorer spun off from Questar Corp. in 2010 agreed to buy North Dakota oil assets from companies including Sundance Energy Australia Ltd., expanding its Williston Basin acreage by 30 percent.

Eli Lilly & Co. added 3.4 percent to $43.86 as the company said its experimental Alzheimer’s treatment slowed the decline of cognition in some patients even though it failed to meet the primary goals of two large studies.

Autodesk Inc. plunged 16 percent to $30.13 for the biggest drop in the S&P 500 after the software maker lowered its annual sales forecast and said it plans to cut jobs as it restructures to focus on cloud and mobile computing.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

Thought is crooked

because it can invent anything

and see things that are not there.

It can perform the most extraordinary tricks,

therefore it cannot be depended upon.

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

Carolann

One determined person can make a significant difference; a small group

of determined people can change the course of history.

-Sonia Johnson, 1936-

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP, CIM, FCSI

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7