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 Yesterday marked the 231st birthday of the greatest political experiment in the Western world. Markets were closed in observation. The 5 rested as well. We spent the day frolicking with neighbors in Mt. Washington, a quaint 19th-century neighborhood of Baltimore where H.L. Mencken used to spend his summers… where Al Capone recuperated after being released from Johns Hopkins hospital for syphilis treatment… and where the residents still believe in local democracy.
The highlight: One gentleman, speaking on a podium under an enormous oak tree on the front lawn of the Tuft’s mansion, read the Declaration of Independence, “in a voice loud enough that a tyrant named George may hear.”
 With empathy, major global currencies retracted some of the gains against the nation’s beleaguered currency over the holiday. Slightly. The euro slipped seven-hundredths of a cent off its all-time high. The pound sterling and the Aussie dollar also backed off roughly 20-year highs. Interest rate decisions from both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England will be made public today… watch this space for comment.
 “The yen is the last cheap major currency,” writes Chris Mayer in an e-mail over the holiday. “It seems like every currency puts up a good show against the dollar --Canadian dollars, South Korean won, Indian rupees. But the Japanese yen strangely falters despite.” (The yen recently hit a four-year low against the dollar and a record low against the euro.)
“Reports for May showed the Japanese economy will probably keep expanding,” EverBank’s Chris Gaffney tells us. “Export growth almost doubled, the jobless rate held at a nine-year low of 3.8% and household spending climbed for a fifth month, extending the longest run of gains in three years. Retail sales rose for the first time in eight months. So we have an abundance of data that contradict this leading index. I still think the BOJ will start raising rates next month.” Yet the currency’s price has yet to jump.
“Go ahead and book those flights to Japan,” advises Chris, “and think about putting some money to work in the yen or in yen-denominated assets.” Mr. Mayer made his yen play in ’06. In Mayer’s Special Situations, he bought a Japanese water treatment company that has already gained 55%.
Our friends at EverBank have also extended the “funding deadline” for a Japanese real estate CD. It’s a pretty sweet deal: a principal-protected CD -- just like any other -- except your annual yield is determined by the Tokyo Stock Exchange REIT Index. If it goes up, so does your CD. If it tanks, you get all your money back. Click here for more details… and tell ’em Addison sent you.
 Yesterday, we learned the Chinese government has engineered the removal of a World Bank report critical of pollution in China. Apparently, the Chinese are concerned reports of premature death caused by pollution would provoke “social unrest.”
Right. Better to keep it secret, then.
“The report showed that 750,000 people die prematurely in China each year, mainly from air pollution in large cities,” Christopher Hancock tells us. “Compared with imbedded smog hovering over coastal cities like Shenzhen and Shanghai, Los Angeles looks like the open horizon in rural Montana. Hong Kong can even burn your lungs. After living in Hong Kong on and off for two years, I returned home with a cough that doctors couldn't identify. Lung specialists prescribed a variety of medications to attack the ‘unknown’ ailment. It took a couple of months, but the cough finally gave way.”
Here’s how it affects you. According to James Kynge, author of China Shakes the World, "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that a third of the lakes and nearly a quarter of rivers in the U.S. are now so polluted with mercury that children and pregnant women are advised to limit or avoid eating fish there. Scientists estimate that around one-third of the mercury settling into the soil and waterways of the United States comes from other countries, China in particular."
Perhaps the Chinese will try to pull strings and have the EPA censored, too. They do fund the agency’s operations, after all.
 A poll released this week shows 62.5% of Iranians who voted for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005 would be “reluctant” to vote for him in their next presidential election. Of those who did not vote for Ahmadinejad in 2005, a mere 5% would vote for him in the future.
According to the AP, Iranians are responding to this week’s “gas rationing” program by lighting gas stations on fire, smashing the windows of related businesses and general looting/pillaging. Sounds like a good time.
 Meanwhile, Venezuelan President Chavez furthered Venezuela’s “strategic partnership” with Iran by agreeing to sell the country more gas. Weird.
 “If Iraqi [oil] production does not rise exponentially by 2015, we have a very big problem,” Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency, told the French newspaper Le Monde yesterday, “even if Saudi Arabia fulfills all its promises.”
“The numbers are very simple,” Birol continued, sounding a lot like our own Byron King. “Within five-10 years, non-OPEC production will reach a peak and begin to decline, as reserves run out. There are new proofs of that fact every day. At the same time, we'll see the peak of China's economic growth. The two events will coincide: the explosion of Chinese growth and the fall in non-OPEC oil production. How the oil world will manage to face that twin shock is an open question.”
“Very few experts would think that an ‘exponential’ rise in Iraqi oil production is within the realm of possibility over the next eight years,” responds Dan Amoss. And his Saudi oil production predictions are no rosier:
“Not only does Saudi Arabia publish questionable reserve numbers, but it also fails to mention the fact that most of what it has left is heavy, sour crude that hardly anybody wants. The Saudi oil minister has claimed over the past year that the country has a few million barrels per day of so-called spare production capacity, yet can’t find buyers for all its crude. Should this heavy, sour crude really be included in capacity if it’s impractical to refine? Perhaps this is why the Saudis are investing heavily in refineries. This trend has big financial implications for consumers of refined products like gasoline.”
Both Dan and Byron have been following the Peak Oil story intently… and have profited handsomely for their efforts. We’re getting ready to launch new “back-end” services authored by both these gentlemen. And you still have time to get into them absolutely free. If you become a member of the Agora Financial Reserve by midnight tonight, Energy and Scarcity will be yours for no additional charge… and you’ll be positioned properly for the drawdown in the world’s cheap and easy oil supply over the next decade. Don’t wait, join today and save big: Agora Financial Reserve: Doors close at midnight tonight
 Bill Gates has been dethroned as the world’s “richest” man. Second-quarter earnings at America Movil pushed Mexico’s telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim to the top of the list. Reuters estimates Slim’s net worth at $67.8 billion, easily ousting Gates’ measly $59.2 billion. Warren Buffett is now in third, even with the federal tax advantages he keeps whining about.
 The private equity buyout binge hasn’t tapped out just yet. Blackstone announced it’s purchased Hilton Hotels for $26 billion. The private equity giant has amassed over $41 billion in hotel-related assets over the past three years. Blackstone now controls over 700,000 hotel rooms across the globe.
Also of note in the private equity world, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. announced it’s following Blackstone’s lead. It plans to raise $1.25 billion by going public with an IPO in late 2007.
 And here’s an interesting little bit of comedy. We’ve known Bernard von NotHaus at Liberty Dollar for some time. He’s been a character on the alternative currency circuit since the ’80s. Yesterday, he announced this:
Bernard and his staff at Liberty Dollar have prepared gold, silver and copper versions of this coin, and the price of each includes a donation to the mighty Texan’s campaign coffer.
Enjoy your freedom,
Addison Wiggin
The 5 Min. Forecast
P.S. At 11:59 tonight, the door will begin swinging shut… don’t miss the deadline. The Agora Financial Reserve, ne’er will such a great deal be seen again:
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