2008 good riddance to you,
All that’s left is a big IOU.

AIG, Freddie, Fannie, Lehman and Bear,
All you could do was wake up and swear.

Too big to fail was the rallying cry,
Hang on to your wallet, little guy.

CEO arrogance led to the end,
A few to jail we should send.

A $50 billion scheme was the cherry,
This time it’s the rich not merry.

So in with ‘09 some hope we need,
Yes we can, if not there is always weed.

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Aaron Katsman is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. He is lead portfolio manager for the Israel Growth Portfolio and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email aaron@profile-financial.com.

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With the curtain closing on 2008, it’s time for me to take out my crystal ball and predict what will happen in 2009.

1- Even with a surge in the polls, due to the Israeli/Hamas conflict, both Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni will falter badly in the upcoming Israeli elections, paving the way for former PM Benjamin Netanyahu to reclaim the title, Prime Minister.

2- Due to continued falling crude oil prices, Iran civil unrest will lead to an overthrow of Ahmadinejad.

3- The earth will continue to cool, and Obama will have to back off some of his environmentally friendly campaign promises.

4- As cracks form in the European Union and talk heats up whether the Euro will continue to exist as a currency, the US Dollar will make a strong move back to parity against the Euro.

5- US economic growth will rebound much earlier than expected, end of Q1, and we will see GDP growth of over 3% by end of ‘09.

6-S&P 500 will rebound strongly from a dreadful ‘08, and end ‘09 at 1132.

7- Despite spending the equivalent of a small country’s GDP in free agency, hated New York Yankees will contend with Baltimore for the cellar in the stacked AL East.

8- With many small market NBA teams taking a big financial hit, look for the city of Seattle to regain an NBA team.

9- With multinationals cutting back on R&D, look for the recent wave of Israeli M&A to continue, as they look to acquire technology instead of building it in-house.

Please see our Disclaimer HERE.

Aaron Katsman is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. He is lead portfolio manager for the Israel Growth Portfolio and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email aaron@profile-financial.com.

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As 2008 comes to a close, let’s take a look back at the predictions this pundit made a year ago. Let’s start out with some of my correct calls:

1- At some point during the year the price of crude oil will trade below $75 a barrel. This will be great for the consumer as they save a lot of money at the pump, and will cause a crashing of many alternative energy stocks, especially the Solar plays like First Solar(FSLR).

Nailed that one!

4- Late in the summer the current Israeli government headed by PM Ehud Olmert will fall, and new elections will be called.

Many will say that was a no-brainer.

6- The earth will cool, there will be no global warming.

Just look outside your window.

Now for some of the less accurate predictions:

2- There will be no recession in the US economy, despite the best efforts of the media to “will” one. While the economy should slow somewhat during the first half of ‘08, the economy will grow enough to stay out of a recession, and the second half of ‘08 should bring back 4+% GDP growth.

Oops!

3- The Rudy Giuliani/John McCain ticket will surprisingly win the US presidential election. With Republicans given virtually no chance to hang on to the White House, with a strong economy and the continued  new-found success of the war in Iraq, they not only win but win back control of Congress as well.

So I missed a few on this one.

All in all not too bad. Stay tuned for ‘09 predictions.

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Aaron Katsman is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. He is lead portfolio manager for the Israel Growth Portfolio and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email aaron@profile-financial.com.

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What would you say if I told you that there was a company that developed GPS-like technology for the human body? You’d probably say that that is really cool. Well leave it to Israeli ingenuity and creativity to create such a cutting-edge technology. In fact it’s such an interesting technology that St. Jude Medical(STJ) has bought the Israeli company for $300m.

In a market with very little M&A, this makes 2 acquisitions of Israeli companies in as many months. Johnson & Johnson(JNJ) bought Omrix Biopharmaceuticals(OMRI) as well. This shows that multi-nationals would rather outsource their R&D than develop it in-house. if this trend continues, it could get very interesting for Israeli hi-tech.

MediGuide was founded in 2000 by Gera Strommer, president and CEO, and Uzi Eichler, vice president technology, as a spin-off from Elbit Systems (Nasdaq: ESLT), which owns 41.3% of the company, and with backing from Israeli venture capital fund Vitalife.

According to Globes: “MediGuide has developed technology and products for minimally invasive navigation and tracking within the human body. Its devices are for use in cardiac procedures and catheterization. The system consists of sensors mounted on a catheter introduced into the body, with the locating done on the basis of the distance of the sensors from several sources of magnetic radiation, with an accuracy of fractions of a millimeter.

The information from the sensors is combined with an image of the interior of the body, in a way that is similar to the way locating using a GPS device works. Since in catheterization or other invasive procedure, the human body undergoes changes, the device measures physiological indications from the body breathing, EKG, and so on and amends the picture accordingly.”

What will they think of next?

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