Mohammad Khatami, the ex-president of Iran is doing a two-week speaking tour here in the United States. Apparently he needs the speaking fees to help fund his country’s foreign policy since oil has declined almost 14% from its $78 high in late July.

What is he talking about at our universities, social groups and even the U.N.? How the West misunderstands the Mid-East and we all need to sit down and talk about our differences. The only thing we need to talk about is how his country is ignoring the protests of the rest of the world and continues to work at developing a nuclear explosive.

Because of this nose-thumbing, the people of the world were nervous about what would happen if Iran defied the U.N. mandate. This fear kept the issue of Iran on the front headline and in the minds of speculators for months. Each time a media person burped the word Iran the price of oil futures went up.

Now the deadline is past, nothing is happening, Mohammad Khatami is over here talking, talking and more talking. What are the people of America doing, especially those who are cheering the recent $.50 drop in gas prices while all this talk continues? They’re like the kids in the back of the classroom falling asleep. The rumors of war are old news, the NFL is kicking off soon, and oil continues to slip downward, for now.

My money is on oil futures continuing to trend lower through mid-November. There will be some peaks, especially if someone starts getting serious doing something about Iran and the bomb. However, over the next 6 weeks I believe oil futures could possibly dip into the upper $50 range, barring any major disruption in the Gulf of Mexico.

Once the elections are over and America is turning its attention to Christmas and the rosy economic picture the price of oil futures will begin to rise again. Mid-October will be a good time to buy oil futures for mid-2008. These futures will rise in value and should be sold in a ladder pattern - 20% every $5 you make in profit.

The bear is still chasing the stocks of companies who buy debt and attempt to collect. In fact, the bear is going to be around until the negative effects of high energy prices and rising interest rates dissipate.

These two issues are the reason the reported collection levels for the second quarter were lower than analysts expected. Slowing collections are believed to be part of the reason NCO Group is going private. The merger offer is $27.50 a share, recently the stock was selling on NASDAQ for $26.

Encore, another debt buyer is exploring ways to unlock value, could also go private. If stock prices remain low, the pressure will be on for other companies to go private again, or by take-over targets. Asset Acceptance is a third company that may leave the public arena.

All companies face the rising price of debt portfolios from other public companies and debt buying organizations backed by private investor and large fund groups. As the cost of buying debt increases and the ability to collect from cash strapped debtors decreases, earnings will continue to fall.

Encores earnings are down 7% year over year. NCO Group reported 31 cents a share net income, down from 42 cents last year. The only real exception was Portfolio Recovery which grew its earnings 23 percent year over year.

If you are holding onto shares of a debt buyer, you have two choices – hang on and hope for someone who wants to take the company private, or give the stock to a charitable organization and write it off your taxes as a worthwhile donation.