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 The U.S. markets defied gravity yesterday. Despite gads of bad news from the investment banking world, the S&P gained 8 points, to 1,518; the Dow rose 76 points, to 13,577… and the Nasdaq tripped up 12, to 2,651. This morning, the Dow and S&P 500 are about a percentage point away from their all-time highs, once again.
 Ironically, short interest in the S&P 500 is at a three-year high. This many speculators haven’t put their chips on a crash since just after the invasion of Iraq.
 The pound continued its rally against the dollar yesterday, ending trading at $2.03. The euro held steady at a record high $1.37. Gold, too, continued its push toward record levels. The yellow metal opened in New York this morning at $669.
  U.S. domestic airlines' operational costs rose 10% in the first quarter of 2007… be prepared for more expensive plane tickets. Despite the fact that the 10 biggest domestic airlines are on track to double last year's $1.5 billion profit, higher fuel costs will likely make their way to your wallet.
This week, Southwest Airlines jacked up prices across the board for the third time this year and the ninth time in the last two. Industry rumors say other domestic airlines will follow suit.
Airlines have been booking flights at about 90% capacity this year… up from a 75% average in 2000.
 “For the first time, crude oil from Alberta, Canada, reached as far south as the giant Cushing pipeline hub in Oklahoma,” reports Chris Mayer. It did so on pipelines that for decades carried oil in the opposite direction. The Canadian oil sands are beginning to produce so much oil that pipeline managers are making plans to reverse the flow of domestic pipelines permanently.
And about a month ago, Canadian crude traveled all the way down to Texas —
the world’s largest cluster of refineries and the traditional “front door” for much of
the U.S.’s oil supplies. Chris’ Canuck oil pick is up 40% since February.
  “Corn condos” are selling faster than brokers can put them on the market, reports Kevin Kerr. Leave it to our Maniac Trader to find the one niche of condos that aren’t losing money.
“Condo” grain storage, developed in the ’80s, offers an alternative to farmers who don’t want to store corn on their own property.
Because of the ethanol boom, “everybody's scrambling for storage,” says Steve Sukup, an Iowan farmer. Some ethanol-crazed farmers are looking to unload up to 200,000 bushels of extra corn and soybeans “just about anywhere that will take them.”
As regular readers of The 5 know, Mr. Kerr is a skeptic on the ethanol boom and thinks this bumper crop in corn is bound to crash prices. Yesterday, he booked a 75% gain on a soybean trade.
 This New Jersey man put a windmill in his backyard:
Of course, now he’s being sued by his neighbors. Our Greg Guenthner sees a trend developing. “Everyone claims to support alternative energies,” he writes. “But most aren’t willing to live near the source.”
A worthy compromise for the NIMBY crowd? Gunner suggests geothermal. “The facilities aren’t monstrosities, and they don’t produce any noxious odors or chemicals. And many of the places where they are currently built are not heavily populated. It could be a solution that even the pickiest of neighbors could live with.”
Gunner’s new Bulletin Board Elite letter will be arriving this weekend, complete with Gunner’s first ultra-small-cap pick… a geothermal play set to increase in value as energy gets scarce and legislation for alternative energies kick in. Details on the way… or send an e-mail to psfortunes@agorafinancial.com to reserve your spot.
 There are more per capita millionaires in Norway than anywhere else on the planet. According to Merrill Lynch, one in every 86 Norwegians is worth at least a million bucks. And that doesn’t account for the value of their primary residencies. Since the beginning of 2006, the number of dollar millionaires in Norway rose nearly 10%.
Here’s one reason: Just by holding the Norwegian currency -- in a bank, a fund, in a coffee can under the bed -- Norwegians have been rewarded with 7.6% gains against the dollar this year alone. Add a booming offshore oil industry, a frothy local stock market, and almost no national debt… et voila, a healthy economy and a boom in millionaires.
You may recall our friends at EverBank have put together a way for you to profit from Norway’s boom without taking on the big, complicated risks of Forex trading. It’s called the World Energy CD -- a bundle of four of the best performing, energy-robust currencies, including the krone. Learn more about it here >>
 This week, the “nonpartisan” Congressional Research Service published updated financial costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:
Since the invasions, Congress has appropriated $610 billion to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The war in Iraq is now costing approximately $12 billion a month, a 40% increase over last year. The entire Vietnam War -- adjusted for inflation -- cost less than $650 billion. By the end of the year, the “war on terror” will be the most expensive U.S. conflict since WWII.
 In case you’re curious… spending year over year, by presidents from Roosevelt II to Bush II >>
“The term ‘national debt’ really is a misnomer,” writes Ron Paul. “It is not the nation's debt. Instead, it is the federal government's debt. The American people did not spend the money, but they will have to pay it back.”
 “I have thought for a long time about unemployment among young American blacks,” responds one reader to this week’s report that teen unemployment among blacks has shot up sevenfold this year. “Many of them dropped out of high school, and are on welfare or perhaps in the drug trade. There seems to be a blindness on the part of our ‘leaders’ to the fact that these young men (mostly) could be trained to do skilled work without going to college. They could do things like carpentry, plumbing, electrical, air conditioning and heating, auto repair and many other jobs which many illegal aliens are now doing, and earning anywhere from $15 an hour and up. Let's help our own citizens get off the dole and do honest work, which would give them some sense of self-esteem! Could it be that the politicians and some businesspeople would really rather hire illegal aliens?”
 “As a small business owner, I cannot find a teen who is willing to work,” writes another, “either part-time in the office or garden for $12 per hour or for that matter any price...they are all out partying. The good workers are just not available, with the exception of the Mexican workers... they are excellent and hard workers.
“Plenty of Mexican adults are willing to work for $8 per hour, and they are becoming harder to find and the price of hourly wage is moving up in our agriculture area.”
 “The trickledown theory proposed by Reagan was the biggest lie ever perpetrated on the American public,” writes another disgruntled reader. “And George II just gave us another lethal dose. We are financing the debt with 5-6% interest and we will be paying all the federal taxes this year till July 4 just to pay the interest on the debt. Countries everywhere are cutting back on the amount of our debt they are willing carry at these terms. I remember back in the early ’80s when rates went beyond 10%. Simple math tells me we'll be broke when that happens again.
“Looks to me like we are beyond the point of no return. We are going to make America a second-rate society in short order. I've disinvested myself of owning anything that is in American dollars in the last two years. Sad to say, I've done very well -- a real indictment of American fiscal practices. I can't imagine how the next generations will ever enjoy the American dream.
“The thing that is so disturbing is how little attention the general public gives this problem. No one wants to do what has to be done. Raise revenues and cut spending. Yes, raise taxes! I said it! Taxes are not a dirty word, as Reagan wanted us to believe. What are dirty words are pork barrel politics, wasteful spending (most notably wars!), high interest rates and lobbying.”
Right. Those things… and taxes. Dirty words.
Cheers,
Addison Wiggin,
The 5 Min. Forecast
P.S. Three days until Sarnoff’s next options recommendation >>
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Recent guerilla attacks in western Mexico have authorities on both sides of the Mexican border scrambling to protect billions worth natural gas pipelines. Companies such as Hershey’s, Honda, and Kellogg’s are losing up to $7 million a day as local rebels bomb energy sites left and right. Meanwhile, several little known organizations are well positioned to profit from a sudden energy grab... or… worse yet, a full blown U.S. / Mexico Border War. 
