Commodity Online – Agoracom market analyst Peter Grandich, who isn’t among those who expect the world at large to emerge from “this absolutely horrific downturn” by year-end, instead sees good opportunities on the horizon for investors who want to “buy things on the cheap” because prices will fall in the equity markets.

He also sees bright prospects for gold—particularly gold ETFs and mining companies that are in or near production and have potential for developing additional deposits. At the same time, Peter tells The Gold Report that the “severely wounded” U.S. economy should anticipate rougher and tougher times.

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The Australian – After suffering one of the worst years on record, Australia’s $62 billion hedge fund industry is bracing for even tougher times in 2009 as a confluence of factors works against them, including poor performance, more regulation, further short-selling bans, and a flood of redemption requests in late 2008 that are due to be repaid right about now.

The result is that an unprecedented level of cash is being pulled out of hedge funds and funds-of-hedge-funds by investors this quarter, just as they face millions of dollars of losses from the ban on short selling.

It is no surprise, then, that a lot of lobbying is going on behind the scenes to ensure that corporate watchdog ASIC lifts the ban on short selling financial stocks on January 27.

But speculation is running hot that the ban will be rolled over and some believe it could remain until the credit crisis subsides — a move hedge funds can ill afford.

In Britain, the ban is due to be lifted on January 17, but Andrew Baker, deputy chief executive of the Alternative Investment Management Association, recently said the ban could last for the entire length of the financial crisis.

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