Markets and Economy As most of you know I'm an IBD guy and the usual indicators don't affect me at all. I do know that I don' t invest in new stuff when the major indexes are down, and they are down right now. My five stocks are not down, and I credit Bill O'Niel at IBD for all that. And no, I don't work for him and don't get money from him, dam it.

What I think all of you should look at over the next few days or weeks is water. We are approaching the time where water could be more important than oil. The major countries like China and India are approaching crises proportions in terms of potable water supply. Their major rivers are hoplessly polluted and as populations leave the farms and jam into the cities things are getting serious. The major long term player must be aware of companies that are in the water purification or desalinization business. A good reading sources for starters is HERE. Keep in mind that the American Southwest is virtually out of water right now and water cannot be shipped from place to place economically.

One thing not covered by all the smart guys is the millenia known fact that silver is the greatest water purifier known. Period.

Silver was used to provide shuttle crews with pure water for drinking, air conditioning, food preparation and other operations. By establishing 100 parts of silver per billion parts of water NASA will totally eliminate the need for chlorine! The most dramatic purification tests occurred in 1976 in a 20,000 gallon swimming pool in Nebraska. There was no disinfectant of any kind in the water. Fifty gallons of municipal sewage waste water was put into the pool. That produced a dangerous concentration of 7,000 E coli cells per 100 millilitre [half a cup] of water. Contents of the pool were then pumped through a tank containing alternating anodic and cathodic silver electrodes for disinfection. Within three hours the pool was entirely free of E. coli and the water contained only 3.2 parts of silver per billion parts of water

All the way back to the Ancient Greeks who placed silver coins at the botom of their casks, the Phoenicians who used silver casks, and American miners who used silver coins inside canteens and casks. Read up on silver HERE and follow links. You may also be surprised at the healing effects of silver. Another interesting link is HERE. A more technical explanation of how silver works to clean up both water and wounds is HERE. Like anything else, the overuse of silver substances can result in some bad side affects. Turning blue is probably the best known----site is loaded with other data too. One last little tid bit: Because some overuse can cause the skin to turn blue, the term blue blood to denote royalty comes from the fact that the rich always ate from silver plates and used silver utensils; the accumulation of silver into the bloodstream after several generations turned royals a slight blue in color.

And something you may not read anywhere else: The expression, "Born with a silver spoon in his mouth," refers to the fact that in Britain during the times of the plague the very rich who used sliver knives, forks, and spoons did not get sick because of the anti-bacterial qualities of silver. Can it supress the HIV bacteria? Why not invest in silver? Because the government(s) are not pushing silver for anything. This in spite of the fact that silver is one of the most plentiful metals on earth. It is a by-product of every copper mine, is found throughout Mexico and South America, as well as India.

Those interested in reading up on the curative powers of silver, use Ask Jeeves and you'll get plenty. It's quite amazing.