Mid-day news has the Germans banning many forms of short selling from midnight tonight. That is the direct result of recent massive short selling of most things shortable denominated in Euros. The shorters would primarily be hedge funds and British and American investment banks, and some of it as agents for national governments. The funds received will be re-invested in USD or gold backed instruments, but primarily USD. Since there is virually no equity involved in these transactions, they are also manipulative and contribute in a major way to market instability and the weakening of the Euro. Whether you like the Euro or not does not matter much, the reality is that on a per capita or per $ of private GDP basis the USD debt far outpaces that of Europe. So again, these short trades have nothing to do with long term investment. Like the many others restictions and circuit breakers being brought in over the coming days, they will tend to force the currency issues into the open and begin to separate them from equity issues. Gold and commodities should benefit from this if only by bringing focus to long term values as opposed to the day to day confusion of manipulation. There are no straight lines- volatility will remain but bringing focus to value is good for NOT.

In another news piece, Moody's is pointing out the huge implications to credit and capital planning that will result to the majors from the new Henry tax. As well it points out the countries including Canada that stand to benefit. Whether we do or not will be our choice as to whether we are prepared to formulate a longer term mining policy. Canadian bureaucrats like Australian see resources as a cash tax tap, with dozens of adjustments annually from provincial and federal budgets, so do not hold your breath. The US and southwards are the most likely benefactors.