The Fed notes that were released reveal agreement that they have no intention of cutting off the Treasury cold turkey in July. In the event that Japan or others can’t show up to the market, the Fed will be more than happy to oblige.

Most of you probably guessed that. Myself, I was secretly hoping they’d show some spine and refuse to just go along with things. Too bad, full steam ahead.

The value of the U.S. dollar will now be decided solely in the halls of Congress. While some of you “democracy” advocates will likely be championing the issue, saying that is the way it should always have been, a word of caution:

Some things are not democratic. Some things don’t care about concensus. And, incidentally, most of these same things are heartless forces of nature that will ravage anyone dumb enough to stand in their path.

In my mind, it seems it would be a far softer issue if the illusion that continuing as we have been is taken completely off the table. Basic principles of conservation dictate that something has to change. We can’t all own the same puzzle piece; only one of us gets to lay it down. It would be nice if the Fed would settle this matter by forcing our Government to play by reality.

Precious metals are absolutely sprinting out here. I don’t doubt the release of the material and divided nature of the Fed has something to do with that.

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I spent today looking over some proxy information; AWK and AEC are out of the way, with CLP remaining.

AEC remains notable. Would you care to guess how much AEC lost last year?

The answer is about $8 million.

Would you care to guess how much the company lost thanks to depreciation & amortization?

That answer is about $40 million.

So if tomorrow, suddenly the slaughter in real estate prices were to subside, where would that leave the company, all else being equal?

A $32 million windfall, before amortization is added back in.

And who wants to guess that housing prices are making a significantly greater portion of the loss than anticipated maintenance expenses?

Why as a matter of fact, I do.

Also discussion worthy: AEC’s occupancy rate at year end was higher than it’s been since 2006. And, that’s after expanding operations significantly. Michigan and Ohio markets no longer make up more than half of their business. On a per unit basis, they now make up a little less than half of all business conducted, with great expansion in Southern states.

The other great cash flow consumer to AEC was their interest expenses. Those make up about $40 million more.

AEC’s debt is nothing but fixed interest rates until 2016. There is virtually no danger to the company from increasing interest rates.

The company is small, and are growing fast. They are growing fast with fixed interest. They are growing fast with fixed interest which, subject to occupancy and rent, will enable them to grow out of their current debt.

And you all know my opinion on occupancy rates and rent.

Expect the company to absolutely destroy expectations to the upside, in the relatively near future, as their losses to depreciation taper off and the ratio of losses by interest payments to revenue decreases exponentially.

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I am up over 1.5%, as my special collection of multifamily REITs, gaming corporations, water utilities, uranium miners, and grain operations thoroughly abuse the other market participants.

It’s a strong end to a lame week; one in which I found myself not caring to even check my results. Hopefully, that lull in excitement won’t carry over into next week.

Although I am up, I wouldn’t much mind a good bleed out in market participants. If such a blessing were to occur, I would laugh maniacally while watching people flood the streets. I would stand at the 9th floor’s window, my eyes ablaze as I cackle wickedly at the multitudes, caught off guard. Even though my own positions themselves would be getting cut down, I doubt it would deter my mood much.

Our markets have been pushing up for too long; it’s a monotonous trend, and one I don’t want to stick with. Spending the next five or more years pooling cash into slowly increasing collections, waiting for the next big volatility point, isn’t something I’m really ready for.

I want a little more of the good, old fashioned stock-market-lynch-mobs. A few more 10-15% corrections or massive panics…it’s just too boring when volatility drops out. Even when I’m making money, effortlessly from my office chair, I have to ask myself “could this be more interesting?”

Maybe I’ll get my wish when our next bond auction sucks? Or when the Fed announces that they stopped out their programs two months ago, so as not to risk mutiny from the Texas and Southern members? Or, God willing, when the Tea Party Representatives stiff arm the budget negotiations and sends our portly programs careening off the nearest cliff?

But one thing is certain, as I stand rigidly staring out this window of mine; I am not ready for the fun to be over yet.

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For those of you who have missed it, Bunge Ltd. (BG) is back on a run, rushing past $73 in the last few days of trading.

It took a while, but my portfolio was not deterred for long. Let the overpriced grain spectacle commence.

Last night, after a meeting and an accompanying trip to the bar (which itself was accompanied by a late night meal from a rather talented fry cook and a dark beer), I decided to swing over the MGM Detroit, to test just how business was doing.

The place was uncomfortably crowded, on a Wednesday night. Money was flowing freely, and I won a hundred bucks or so at the tables.

Two weekends ago, I went to MGM Detroit with an entourage of friends. The place was absolutely packed.

Look, if people in Detroit are able to carry on like this, how can you think the Vegas downturn will last for much longer? Albeit, Vegas is far more ritzy than Detroit, but it is also far more popular; if Detroit’s outer city destitute can afford to throw dice on a Wednesday night, I cannot imagine that Vegas is not in a similar boat.

Why, our own Checklist was commenting on that just a few days ago. I’ve been pulling the reports from MGM for the past five years, and putting the numbers into a spreadsheet. It’s taking a while, because I don’t have a plethora of time to work on it, but when it’s done, I’ll try to show you their debt story and why I’m a shareholder.

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There are a few basic powerful events here which you should remember, when making decisions in this market:

1. Europe is melting down again, with governments getting their crediting ratings cut on an almost weekly basis.

2. The ability of the U.S. government to sell treasuries without Fed assistance is in question.

3. The U.S. budget battle is largely being influenced by ideologically driven forces who aren’t beholden to the status quo.

4. There is a massive carry trade taking place on top of the Yen; but with Europe sucking horse cock, who’s debt are these traders buying?

Massive cross currents are always difficult to navigate, but by ignoring point 2, I’m betting the dollar strengthens substantially, because of the Europe/Japan/Congress trio, which last time I checked means the U.S. stock market is going to get hit hard. This whole situation reminds me of summer 2010.

I was on the beach in Texas, sipping Gin & Tonic, which was a very good thing; I was entirely too drunk to feel fear when I did take the time to look at the numbers coming in.

Except this time, we also have a budget battle taking place in Congress, with freshmen Tea Party members dead set on cutting spending substantially. Fuck whatever the Fed are doing, if our government actually cuts spending, that’s a dollar strengthening exercise in and of itself. It also can’t be accomplished without implementing some form of austerity on us U.S. citizens.

Altogether, the U.S. dollar is definitely the low cost / high reward trade here. Nobody wants to admit that our currency can be anything but garbage. However, all the forces are working back to U.S. supremacy, even after everything that’s happened.

You’ll notice I’m all long, with no notes on my books, other than what I need. Needless to say, I’m not a fan of the dollar. But I tip my hat to the realities of the world by having covered all my debt. I will not fight the U.S. dollar here, if it wants to be king once more. And all that needs to happen for that, really, is the U.S. government to go into a shutdown. It’s as easy as nothing getting accomplished, and if the other world events keep pressure up, then that event would be multiplied substantially.

Just keep an eye out; things haven’t changed substantially yet, but the underlying conditions have. Rewards shall be blessed on those who exercise constraint.

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Look, between you and I, I think petroleum products are awesome, and don’t believe in man-made global warming. These two things, by themselves, are enough to qualify me as a “nuclear renaissance” skeptic. Especially with the rest of the planet starting to fall in lockstep with my “who gives a shit about polar bears?” mentality, before the Japan tsunami, I wouldn’t have been caught dead holding uranium fuel and parts suppliers.

After my 20%-in-three-days jamboree, I got cocky. But after they found Plutonium today, I decided to back off and take profits in UEC. Those profits had been reduced to about 7% gains on a 5% portfolio position.

Cava…

As you’ll recall, alpha emitting core material leaking was sort of a pet peeve of mine. The real limiting issue of nuclear power has always been cleaning up after it, not the time during which it runs itself. If Japan is suddenly looking at huge land reclamation issues, those will spill over. So, I guess what I’m saying is that if they were just finding radioactive iodine and shit…oh well. But, there was already some growth prospects baked into that cake, which are going to be pressured much harder if this Japan thing becomes more difficult to clean up.

I still think nuclear companies are way undervalued here, but I’m not willing to dedicate 10% of my position sizing towards an industry I was never that excited about to begin with. In slashing UEC, I’m back to a 5% position, completely dedicated to CCJ.

CCJ is a company I can get behind anyway. Their balance sheets are squeaky clean and highly elaborate. They go in depth both with finances as well as the state of operations. If you want to know how long one of their mining tunnels is, you can find out from their filing. I’m usually not big on Canadian companies, but if any one does well, it will be this miner. They radiate intelligence like their product radiates particles.

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