Interesting view, thanks for sharing, 

Given what the Ben-Hankee team had to deal with, wouldn't you agree they have done a heck of a job. They have wounded the commodity bull, managed to slow the financial free fall, sprayed many gold bugs into early exinxtion, have caused short covering rallies in housing and retail -- they have bought a lot of time.

I think they have proved themselves better connected and more imaginitive than many other players in the market. They realized the fault line of hedgies: leverage, and inadequate risk management, and pushed them over, and with that went commodities, and most important of all, future inflation expectations. what took inflation pundits years to build (it's all about perception, after all) evaporated in a few weeks.

So far, IMHO, they have been brilliant, like a poker player who stays in the game on a constant stream of extremely bad hands.

End result may still be the dire conclusion of a bear market, but they are very clever players.