Our commodities event yesterday at the NYSE was arguably our best ever on meatiness of content, but also one of our most bleak.

By about midmorning at the NYSE yesterday, the packed room was despondent. The reality is that while we booked this event when commodities were booming, we could not possibly have picked a better time to drill into serious substance than the current trying market.

Peter Schiff was devastating, and crystal-clear in his observations. He thinks we're going to hell in a handbasket. He's got a couple of new books out that must be worth reading. His 2007 book was called Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse. Jim Rogers, Derek Van Eck, John Brynjolfsson, Jon Nadler and others were not exactly cheery in their tone either.

And what were the takeaways?

• We're headed for a money-printing binge and a highly inflationary environment.
• The dollar could collapse (after continuing to rise in the ongoing de-leveraging).
• Gold is likely to rise ferociously (after potentially falling further, near term).
• China is the future.
• Asian currencies are the future.
• Emerging markets are a good place to be.
• Commodities are a great place to be in the coming inflationary environment.
• Your children should all learn Mandarin.

So that was the story. I really LEARNED some things at this event ... both my panels on currency and gold taught me things I didn't know ... and I follow those two areas VERY closely. It was really fun, and a GREAT venue at the NYSE. Consensus was that it was a good experience for all, if a somewhat frightening one.

Here's the Web site if you're interested in seeing the agenda.