For the past four weeks gold has been in to doldrums, hanging around the $1,330 range. Some hedge funds sold out their positions. Analysts were on the tape saying that gold has lost its luster and is ready for a fall.

Now, today, you look at the gold price and it's up. $15.80 at $1,364 per ounce. And you are wondering what's going on. You look at today's news and you read that China has just raised interest rates. So as a trader you decide to sell the gold short because gold does not like higher interest rates. Wrong! The market turned around like a vengeance. By noon it was up $13.00. It wasn't logical, but it happened anyway. The shorts quickly covered their positions.

What happens when a bank has to accept the collateral posted for loans? Well, in Russia, it's like the punchline to a bad Yakov Smirnoff joke. "In Russia, when a bank takes collateral, it has to set up a pigpen!"

Well, this is exactly what happened to Alexander Lebedev's OAO National Reserve Bank. It wound up with 40,450 of them. As Russian banks are coping with the financial crisis, they are finding themselves with a variety of hard goods that they never expected to receive.

Starting a business can take months -- and can be expensive. Also, it's tough to anticipate some of the problems you'll run into. That's why buying a business can be a good alternative.

So where do you get financing? One approach is to get a Small Business Administration loan.

Basically, this is like any other business loan. However, the main difference is that the loan is guaranteed up to 85% from the SBA, which is a federal program. Because of this, there are usually advantages versus conventional loans, such as:

• Longer terms (10 years for the business, and 25 years if there is real estate involved).
• Lower interest rates (prime rate plus 2.25% to 2.75%)
• Lower down payments (20% to 30% or so). In fact, the down payment also includes seller financing.

OK, what does it take to get such a loan? Let's take a look.