“But this time it’s different!!!” Any time you hear that from a financial analyst, you should run. Or better still, take the other side of his trade! If you’re numerically oriented, you know that patterns tend to revert to the mean.

Kudos to my friend George Friedman and his crew at Stratfor. If you didn’t see the article in this week’s Barron’s about Stratfor’s analysis of the geopolitical risk premium built into oil prices, you missed a really good piece of work. You’ve probably heard Napoleon’s quote that “Amateurs discuss strategy, and professionals discuss logistics.” If you want a perfect example of how that quote plays out for the markets, take a look at Stratfor’s article below. It’s precisely the kind of sober, fundamental research that makes Stratfor my invaluable source for geopolitical intelligence.

This week I want to share with you one of the more important tools in my arsenal for keeping up with what is going on in the world. As I’ve told you before, George Friedman and his team at Stratfor are my go-to guys for geopolitical intelligence. Their insights into this facet of the world are simply without peer.