Seeking Alpha by Adding Beta

For last one week Japan has been fighting with three calamities - biggest earthquake in recorded history followed by tsunami followed by nuclear plant possible meltdown. Japanese people have shown a great resolve, calm and solidarity with each other in these difficult times. We all world citizens are with Japanese people in their difficult times. While Japanese people are showing great resolve, Japanese politicians and Tokyo Electric Company are failing them by not able to get control on nuclear reactor fiasco. This is typical due to slow response to crisis by government and corporates. I hope they do not repeat the mistakes of real estate bubble crisis from which Japan is still recovering after 2 decades. Japan's government had a chance to rise to the occasion and handle their "Katrina" and "9/11" moments. The response till now seems to be below expectations. This triple whammy along with troubles in Middle-East and European debt was too much for markets to h

Almost every-thing I mentioned in subject of this blog is giving strong indications that inflation is coming. Oil has crossed $100, Gold is back above $1400, Gas is almost nearing $4 and Silver is at all-time high. Some of these are due to un-rest in Middle-east while most of it due to strong growth and demand across world. Are central banks behind the curve in raising interest rates ? They were behind the curve in cutting them in 2007 and now it looks like they may be behind the curve in raising them. I don't blame Bernanke since he would rather have little bit of inflation provided growth than fear of deflation and double-dip. Last week, DOW had multiple moves over 100 points indicating that markets are uncertain about its direction. DOW is stuck between 12000 and 12500 and S&P between 1300 and 1350. Most likely Q1 results or something significant in Libya would help in breaking it out of this range. In all the Mid-east news, people forgot about trouble in Europe especiall