In the issue dated March 31, 2008, the cover story asks, "Guess who's behind the Commodities Boom" and indicates that "more than half of all bullish bets on commodities have been made by speculators, both big and small.  When these markets fall, they'll fall hard, perhaps by 30%." 

 The article is written by one of their regulars, Gene Epstein.  He talks about China being a huge force, but the various mutual funds and etf's which specialize in commodities.  According to analyst Steven Briese (author of the Commitment of Traders Bible), the commercial players are betting on price declines more heavily than ever before. 

 The article concludes that commodities prices have been pushed too high by speculation, and what might burst the resultant bubble would be a slowdown in the Chinese economy.  The article also quotes Societe Generale analyst (Albert Edwards)  as follows:  "The commodity bubble is nonsense on stilts," he has the "very strong conviction that before the end of this year, commodity prices will be unraveling."  No Societe Generale jokes, please!!

My view is that such are the walls of worry that every bull market must climb, but just thought you all might want to know that hit the newstands this weekend.

Commodities did not have a good day Friday; I've noticed on many occasions that when something is either panned or pushed in Barron's, that the Friday before its release, the price action on those issues concerned reflects the viewpoint of the article (you all remember the scandal over the WSJ's "Heard on the Street" column).  Hmmm.