Looking at PWE

Reasons to buy PWE:

1. Natural gas is at $3.83, the lowest in years.
2. 45% of U.S. natural gas rigs have been shut down since September. This covers 5.2% of production, while demand is down 1.9%. There's a big cushion here.
3. PWE has good management and is consolidating the industry
4. 25% dividend, which is easily covered by cash flow at $45 oil and $5.50 natural gas
5. No debt due until $2.5 bil in 2011.

Problem is that the favored tax status goes away at the end of next year. However, none of that matters if we get a couple of nice big hurricanes this year. I'm thinking of going long a 5% position.

And what about Treasuries? There is lots of data out there that foreign banks and countries are dumping U.S. assets. European banks used a lot more leverage than U.S. banks, and most of their funding was in dollars.

Including the Fed, the U.S. was a net lender to the rest of the world last quarter. I don't see how China can continue to buy Treasuries if they don't have a trade surplus with us, and that is vanishing rapidly. The wild card, however, is whether Bernanke starts to buy Treasuries.