Marjorie Mazel Hecht / Infowars – November 22, 2009

“Global Warming” is, and always was, a policy for genocidal reduction of the world’s population. The preposterous claim that human-produced carbon dioxide will broil the Earth, melt the ice caps, and destroy human life, came out of a 1975 conference in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, organized by the influential anthropologist Margaret Mead, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in 1974.

Mead—whose 1928 book on the sex life of South Pacific Islanders was later found to be a fraud—recruited like-minded anti-population hoaxsters to the cause: Sow enough fear of mancaused climate change to force global cutbacks in industrial activity and halt Third World development. Mead’s leading recruits at the 1975 conference were climate scare artist Stephen Schneider, population-freak biologist George Woodwell, and the current AAAS president John Holdren—all three of them disciples of Malthusian fanatic Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb.

Read entire article (PDF)

Link to original article below…

http://www.infowars.com/where-the-global-warming-hoax-was-born/

Not long ago I was guided to a particular website that essentially was a Chinese form of eBay.  I looked around, but it quickly became shockingly obvious that something was amiss on this site.

For example, $80 iPod Phones.  $200 “American Made” Custom Stratocaster guitars.  Ah yes, counterfeit merchandise…all at the touch of your sinful little fingertips!

I even had a chance to see one of the gadgets up close from a co-worker who was quite proud of his “iPhone” aquisition.  On the surface, it was a total copy right down to the Apple logo.  The interface however, was complete crap. It looked like the Apple interface ( I own a legitimate iPod touch ), but the icons were way off, the touchscreen unresponsive unless you applied Hurculean pressure, and the ability to sync with iTunes non-existent.  That didn’t seem to bother the purchaser though because it was a “deal”.  In a way I feel bad for him because he never saw a real iPod touch.  If he had he’d probably throw his fake through a window.

And yet another person is buying a guitar.  Being exceedingly talented at making barely tolerable music on guitar myself, I was intrigued.  After all, why wouldn’t I want a EVH MusicMan or Custom Fender Strat for a fraction of retail?  Can’t be THAT bad right?

Then I woke up out of my fantasy.  It certainly can be.

It’s bad enough that our jobs are leaving the country, but I find it unfortunate that we’re selling out our local businesses to instead buy a knockoff of shockingly inferior quality.  That counterfeit iPhone is not from Apple. Those cheap glasses frames do NOT look like the real ones.  And the closest that Fender guitar is to a real one stops at the fake logo.  The vertically mounted pickups in the picture may also be a slight giveaway!

We pay less, get a turd in the mail, and somehow think we’ve fooled the system because we got a “deal”.  And oh yeah…don’t forget the warranty.  As in you’ll get none.

People who argue the dark side argue for cost.  I counter with 2 points: quality and loyalty.  Quality in the product and loyalty to ones economy.  It doesn’t cost much more to get the real deal when you think of what you’re actually getting.

I’m still saving up for my Made in America Stratocaster, and someday when my playing reaches a point where people no longer cover their ears in horror, I shall reward myself accordingly!  It will cost a bit more, but it will be the real deal.  And above all it will be made by an employee in my economy.

Save a job next door.

The Dollar Gets Weak, again, and Home Sales up 10.1% (WOW).

• For the year, home sales are up 37% from their lowest point, which was January this year.  The 10.1% growth in October seem to be attributed to the Tax Credit (I sound like a broken record).  I wonder what November sales will look like?
• The bad news along side this news is that the median home price dropped 2% from September levels.  With lower mortgage rates, lower prices, and tax credits, one would think the turn may be sooner than later, however, time will be the telling factor.
• The DJIA (DOW) seems poised to close at its highest level in 13 months, finishing the day up over 1%.  The Dollar getting weaker is not encouraging, but the market didn’t care.

That’s all for now, check back for updates!

FT.com reports:

Microsoft has had discussions with News Corp over a plan that would involve the media company being paid to “de-index” its news websites from Google, setting the scene for a search engine battle that could offer a ray of light to the newspaper industry.

The impetus for the discussions came from News Corp, owner of newspapers ranging from the Wall Street Journal of the US to The Sun of the UK, said a person familiar with the situation, who warned that talks were at an early stage.

However, the Financial Times has learnt that Microsoft has also approached other big online publishers to persuade them to remove their sites from Google’s search engine.

News Corp and Microsoft, which owns the rival Bing search engine, declined to comment.

If a deal is struck between Microsoft and News Corp, this could have huge consequences. In effect, other news content providers could follow suit which would bring Google to revise its stance regarding complaints from news organizations that Google doesn’t financially participate in news gathering. To this day Google has been pretty dismissive of those complaints.
I am curious to see what gives.

Research groups TNS Worldpanel, Nielsen Ireland and Intertrade Ireland all, for some reason, chose the past week to release figures which show increasing numbers of southerners are traveling north to do their shopping.

One set of statistics suggests that some 250,000 households in the Republic are now heading over their border for their grocery shopping, an increase of 50,000 on last year’s figures.

No mention was made of traffic coming the other way.

A recent report from Ernst & Young Economic Eye reveals that Northern Ireland has been spared from the worst, as the  recession could have even more severe had the province not been cushioned by a weaker pound attracting a tidal wave of consumers over the border from the Republic.

Also the weakness of the pound (today one pound is worth just €1.11) has been a blessing for many retailers particularly in the border towns of Newry, Londonderry, Enniskillen, and even Belfast has benefited.

The lower rate of VAT, currently 15% compared to the Republic’s 21.5%, also provides added value for the Southern counterparts.

For the retail trade in the republic, this has been nothing short of a disaster, as figures has fallen sharply, part due to the differencies in VAT, but also due to generally lower retail prices north of the border, which more than compensates for the difference in the exchange rate applied by many retailers, exchange rates that makes a piece of clothing costing £100 in the north cost as much as €160 in the republic.

Some customers has even found a lucrative way of exploiting this difference by purchasing items from retailers in the north, only to return them in the retailers outlets in the republic, getting a full refund in the higher Euro pricing, making a profit on the retailers behalf.

In the smaller towns in the western part of the republic, the situation is even worse, with rampaging retail death due to the shoppers heading north, and some towns has seen their retail base decimated, and this is reflected in a somewhat lesser degree in the bigger towns.

For the east coast, a simple walkaround in Dublin retail center reveals that the customers are mostly looking, but not buying, and large shops can be seen having only the staff present, but no customers, despite the fact that people are around. The lights are on, but nobody is in.

Retailers such as Penny’s and Primark are the exception, as they offer what the public see as value for money, much thanks to their relatively low price point.

According to the European Union bloc’s executive, the European Union’s economy is set to rebound in early-mid 2010, recording a growth rate of 0.7% before accelerating to a rate of 1.6% in 2011. However some economies will emerge from recession faster than others and among those lagging well into 2011 are Spain and Ireland.

In terms of the republic, the crossborder trade creates a solid foundation for the prediction of a prolonged recession because of the very real discrepancies between the retail situations in the north versus the republic, as consumer confidence in the republic’s retail sector has been severely harmed, in many ways by the retailers themselves.

Add to this that the retail sector has through the previous years taught their customers that if they wait long enough, the retailers will eventually out of sheer desperation drop their prices by 50-75% or even more despite trading at loss just to get rid of excess stock and salvage what can be salvaged, and in doing so creating a spike trade, with nothing before or after, something that has in the past has proven to have had a deeply negative impact on retailers cash flow and general profit margins, and even forced some of the less resilient to close the doors.

Some recommendations to the cross-border retailers, that is of course, if you want to increase trade and restore customer confidence in your brands:

• Price match.Apply a like for like pricing between Pound and Euro, removing the price difference between NI and RoI.While this could be seen as a general reduction in profit margin, it is likely to induce a more steady and continuous trade, removing the spike trading at heavily cut or near zero profit margins.
  This will not only have a strong positive effect on medium to long-term cash flow but also the increase the overall profit due to leveled continuous sales and increased customer confidence in the brands.
• Aggressive Price and Quality policy.The Irish customers are strictly looking for “value for money”, and brands such as Penny’s and Primark has displaced other brands in the market by offering the customers what they percieve as the right price point for the quality.

  The retail brands must provide the customer with this sense as they enter.

  Product quality must match the price, and the product must have a price point that is being perceived as realistic by the intended customer. This is currently not the case in a too large share of the customer base with many brands, and it is very to prohibitively costly to recover a lost market share.

The Business Insider, September 30, 2009

U.S. Income Inequality Is Frightening–And Much Worse Than We Thought

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The newest economic inequality numbers, which ran counter to the expectations of almost all experts, are frightening.

The Associated Press released an article titled, US income gap widens as poor take hit in recession. The opening paragraph of the article, based on recent census data, reads:

The recession has hit middle-income and poor families hardest, widening the economic gap between the richest and poorest Americans as rippling job layoffs ravaged household budgets.

The article, which then discussed the Census statistics that led to this conclusion, failed to mention that the Census Bureau considered the differences between 2007 and 2008, with regard to economic inequality,statistically insignificant.

But, whether the Census Data shows a meaningful increase, or not. is irrelevant. The Census Data reports that, contrary to the almost universal expectations of economists, economic inequality most likely did not decrease in 2008. Experts had anticipated that the declines in income of the rich would lead to a reversal in this groups ever–widening share of our national income. Instead, the Census reported that the 2008 income losses by the top 10% of Americans were offset by larger losses among middle class and poorer Americans.

MIT economist Simon Johnston appears to have been one notable exception to this expectation of a shrinking income gap.

Let’s review what we know about the measurement of income inequality before discussing the disturbing implications of this newest government report.

About two weeks ago, I critiqued a Sept 10, 2009 front page story in the Wall Street Journal titled, Income Gap Shrinks in Slump at the Expense of the Wealthy. My critique had three central points:

First, economists have, with few exceptions, agreed that Census Data is inappropriate for measuring income inequality because it consistently understates the income of the wealthiest families. To protect the privacy of reporting individuals, the Census “top-codes” income, which means that no one is ever recorded as making more than about $1.1 million in a single year. So, oil traders, hedge fund executives and anyone else at the super-high end of the income strata who might earn $100, $50 or $5 million in a single year, always earn $1.1 million or less in this Census Data. In addition, the Census Data does not include capital gains income, which is typically a large source of income for the wealthiest Americans.

Two economists, Professors Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty, developed a method for measuring income inequality using IRS data, which avoided the problems inherent in using Census Data. This data was recently updated in response to the IRS release of 2007 information, and found that: Economic inequality in 2006 was, by some measures at the highest levels, ever found in the data available for the past 95 years. In 2007, these same measure showed a further jump further bringing America to it it’s highest levels of economic inequality in recorded history.

As a consequence of Census top-coding and the lack of capital gains data, the Saez-Piketty methodology has consistently shown that the Census substantially understates the extent of economic inequality in the nation. This means that, there is a real possibility that the the new Census Data understated the extent to which income inequality grew in 2008, and that the relative losses of the wealthiest families, versus less fortunate Americans, will be more than statistically insignificant.

It is possible that losses in reported capital income by the wealthiest Americans, if captured by the Saez-Piketty methodology, will be larger than the the incomes above $1.1 million that were not reported and offset the Census findings, leading as economists anticipated to a decline in the share of income going to the rich. However, I view this as unlikely. In considering this possibility, its important to remember that the IRS works on reported income gains, not gains which were never captured as taxable income. For income reporting purposes, the question is not whether the market value of capital assets declined but whether they were sold at an actual loss from their purchase price.

We will not know the answer to this question until July or August 2010, but in weighing the available evidence my working hypothesis is that as demonstrated by this new Census Report, income inequality did not decrease from 2008 to 2007.

Second, the original Journal article expressed a strong expectation that, as a result of the Great Recession, the ongoing growth of income inequality would decline substantially through 201o. My critique indicated that this was “far from clear.” The conventional economic wisdom, based on historical data, is that income inequality decreases, at least temporarily, as the richest Americans lose income faster than less-well-off Americans during a downturn. In contrast, this new data suggests that the dangerous cycle toward increasing income at the top of America has become even more self-reinforcing than previously recognized. We are now at the point where the pure market forces, which many economists told us would eliminate this issue, are no longer effective.

Third, the Journal article implied that the decrease in economic inequality it incorrectly predicted might be the start of a long-term trend. Instead, I demonstrated that, even if income inequality did decline in 2008 and 2009, it would almost certainly be “temporary.” The historical evidence shows that economic inequality frequently declines in a downturn, in the absence of strong government action, but that it will almost inevitably rebound and continue its march forward.

Now, let’s return to our main point:

Early next week, my new book It Could Happen Here will be released by HarperCollins. The book is an in-depth look , based on a historical analysis, of the implications of our historically high levels of economic inequality for the nation’s ultimate, long-term political stability. As economic inequality grows, nations invariably become increasingly politically unstable: Should we complacently believe that America will be different?

A central conclusion of the book is that once economic inequality reaches a self-reinforcing cycle it is halted only by inevitably controversial, hard-fought, bitterly opposed government action. Senator Jim Webb encapsulated this idea, when he wrote in his book, A Time to Fight: Reclaiming A Fair and Just America:

“No aristocracy in history has decided to give up any portion of its power willingly.”

In 1928, economic inequality was near today’s levels. Franklin Roosevelt succeeded in reversing the trend toward the continuing concentration of wealth, but it was a turbulent battle. In 1936, while campaigning for his second term and speaking at Madison Square Garden, FDR told the crowd:

“Never before in all our history have these forces [Organized Money] been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me and I welcome their hatred.

I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said, wait a minute, I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master.”

In FDR’s era and in our own, money brings power: both explicitly and implicitly, in hundreds of different ways, both large and small. Today, the wealthiest Americans, together with a number of financial and corporate interests that act on their behalf, protect their ever-increasing influence through activities that include, among others, lobbying, supplying expertise to the councils of government, casual conversation at dinner parties, the potential for jobs after government service, the power to run media advertisements that influence public opinion. Indeed, MIT economist Simon Johnston, writing in The Atlantic asserted that the U.S. is now run by an oligarchy:

The great wealth that the financial sector created and concentrated [ from 1983 to 2007] gave bankers enormous political weight–a weight not seen in the U.S. since the era of J.P. Morgan (the man) … Of course, the U.S. is unique. And just as we have the world’s most advanced economy, military, and technology, we also have its most advanced oligarchy.

The new inequality data suggests that the potential problems for the nation associated with the concentration of wealth and power are even more severe than previously recognized. Two weeks ago, Iwrote that “Once income concentration becomes a reinforcing cycle of the kind we are witnessing, it is never stopped by pure market forces.” This mechanism is now in full swing. The market forces associated with the Great Recession, which many economist had expected to stem the growing, corrosive gap between the rich and the poor, appear to have become ineffective.

The great strength of American democracy has always been its capacity for self-correction. However, Robert Dahl, the eminent political scientist, recognized that political power fueled by wealth may ultimately neutralize this central aspect of our democracy. In his 2006 book, On Political Equality, Dahl wrote:

As numerous studies have shown, inequalities in income and wealth are likely to produce other inequalities..

The unequal accumulation of political resources points to an ominous possibility: political inequalities may be ratcheted up, so to speak, to a level from which they cannot be ratcheted down. The cumulative advantages in power, influence, and authority of the more privileged strata may become so great that even if less privileged Americans compose a majority of citizens they are simply unable, and perhaps even unwilling, to make the effort it would require to overcome the forces of inequality arrayed against them.

In the chapter following this quote, Dahl notes “that we should not assume this future is inevitable.” He’s right. But, was clearly concerned. Three years late, we should be even more concerned.

Many current Executive Branch initiatives deserve our support and praise: However, nothing proposed to date will effectively halt growing economic inequality, and its corrosive impact on our economy and the long-term future of the nation. (In a future post, I will explicitly discuss the proposed regulatory reform of the financial sector.)

My analysis in It Could Happen Here concludes that without a vibrant middle class, the the American democracy as we know it, is not sustainable. Before the Great Recession, the middle class was in far worse shape than was generally acknowledged. In an economy with a record number of job seekers for every available job, the potential for nearly one-half of all home mortgages to be underwater, and increasing foreclosures, the collapse of the middle class will accelerate. With each job loss and each foreclosure, another family becomes a member of the former middle class.

America has never been a society sharply divided between have’s and have not’s. Unfortunately, this new data says to me we continue to head in that direction. Economists assumed that the Great Recession would be a circuit breaker that would halt this advance, at least temporarily. It did not.

With no new legislation, it appears we are potentially on course for 13 million foreclosures, almost one in every four mortgages in the nation, from the end of 2008 through 2014. Do we really believe that we can turn such huge numbers of Americans out of their homes with no consequences for the health of our system of governance? Could our democracy survive a transformation into a nation composed principally of a privileged upper class and an underclass which struggles from paycheck to paycheck and lacks basic economic security?

We will only stop the growth of economic inequality if the President and the Congress are ready to fight in the style of Franklin Roosevelt. FDR was a divider not a conciliator. Before World War II, he fought an all-out war at home. Today, “There’s class warfare, all right,” as Warren Buffett said, “but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

I fervently hoped that we have not passed the point of no return, described by Professor Dahl. The recent news shows we are one step further on this road. If we continue down it, our nation may be on the path to becoming a House divided against itself, which ultimately cannot stand.

from Canada Free Press:

Obama: The Worst President Ever!

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 By Alan Caruba  Sunday, November 15, 2009

Barack Obama’s deep bow to the emperor of Japan and earlier bow to the Saudi Arabian king is so deeply offensive to America’s history and traditions that it cannot and most not be explained away in any fashion.

The framers of the U.S. Constitution were particularly sensitive to the conditions under which a President could serve or any hint that a privileged, monarchal class might emerge.

“No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States. And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office or Title, of any kind whatever from any King, Prince, or foreign state.”

It follows that no U.S. President or office holder shall ever bow to a king, prince or foreign state. Obama has done this twice now in less than a year of taking the oath of office. Stated or unstated, the protocol of such matters precludes bowing.

This protocol is reflected in flag etiquette that prohibits it from being “dipped to any person or thing.”

For a man who allegedly taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago, it is doubtful that Obama does not know this. It is doubtful that he cares. His first instinct with foreign leaders and foreign nations is to toady to their perceptions in the belief that America will gain their acceptance.

For full article: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/16905

What value would you attach to talent? What price would you be willing to pay someone for their dedication? How about for your intensity and even plain old ability? Seriously … take a moment and think about this. If you had spent all or most of your childhood, adolescence and young adulthood training and preparing to do what you love to do (on a professional level) what things would you want someone to consider when they negotiate your salary?

 Think like a professional athlete for a moment. I think my perspective would have to be explained by showing you what these men and women hear on a pretty regular basis from:

 Team Owners:

“Remember now, if you get hurt on the job, there is no workman’s compensation. You are expected to, within reason, get up, shake it off, and keep it moving. Maybe you didn’t sleep well the night before. Who cares? GO TO WORK! Even if a close family member or friend dies, if you are scheduled to work, you will go to work.”

It isn’t just your boss who expects this – he or she is mostly concerned about the thousands of screaming fans in attendance, and possibly millions more watching at home or from various sports bars and other venues. Your team’s owner knows who is going to watch you, critique your performance, take pictures of you at your very worst moment, and plaster these images all over the internet, television and newspapers. He also knows how this will affect the franchise…the brand. You are, after all, a PRODUCT.

 Vendors:

“You see, we depend upon you. We are able to make OUR living because of what YOU do. Our clients turn to you for entertainment. We plan major events around what you are doing. We need to sell hot dogs and beer…you can’t let us down now! What will happen to us?”

 Endorsers:

“Listen…I need to sell my (insert anything and everything you can possibly think of) and if I put your face on the (insert packaging description), I am sure that my profits will increase! Yes, I will give you a very small percentage of my earnings, but I will complain about it, because you are already making all that money for, I mean … that team is already paying you a hefty salary. I do not care how many expenses you have, I just want to get paid!”

 Fans:

“GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME! I can’t believe you dropped that ball! We’re not going to make it to the playoffs this year because of YOU. No home field advantage? What the… What do you mean you have a torn rotator cuff? Suck it UP! All my life I dreamed of playing professional sports…now that I can live through you (since it didn’t work out for me) PLAY THE GAME THE WAY I WOULD HAVE PLAYED IT! What kind of role model ARE you? I want my kids to be able to look up to you! I can’t be a good example as a parent, so I’ve chosen YOU, sports figure, to put on a pedestal and if you do ANYTHING wrong, I will make sure you never play in this league again!”

 Granted, if things are going very well for you and your sport, this makes everyone happy and your salary is justified. (Umm…how often does THAT happen?)

Still think professional athletes are overpaid? Tell me what you REALLY think. I’m just sayin…

Consumer prices rise 0.3%. October Labor Department data shows CPI up 0.3% and core CPI up 0.2%. Overall consumer prices are down 0.2% across the past 12 months of data, but core CPI (minus food and energy prices) has gone up 1.7% in that stretch.¹

Producer prices follow suit. PPI rose 0.3% in October, while core PPI (factoring out food and fuel) dropped 0.6%. Core PPI only rose 0.7% in the last 12 months, the smallest gain since March 2003-2004.²

Leading indicators keep climbing. The 0.3% October gain in the Conference Board index marks the seventh straight monthly advance. Six of ten indicators were positive, including jobless claims, interest rate spread and consumer goods orders.³

Retail sales & inventories fall. In September, inventories shrank by 0.4% … but sales slipped by 0.3% as well. Commerce Department estimates did show auto dealers replenishing inventories.⁴

So do housing starts & permits. Construction starts dropped 10.6% last month, and permits 4.0% (maybe attributable to the presumed-expiring tax credit for buyers). The Mortgage Bankers Association reports that 14.41% of home loans were 30 days past due or in foreclosure at the end of 3Q 2009.^5,6

DJIA rides 3-week winning streak. Last week, it advanced 0.46%, closing Friday at 10,318.16. The NASDAQ lost a little ground on the week (-1.01% to 2,146.04), as did the S&P 500 (-0.19% to 1,091.38). Oil futures ended the week at $76.72 a barrel, and gold futures settled at $1,146.40 per ounce Friday.⁷

(Source: CNNMoney.com, ustreas.gov, bls.gov, 11/20/09)^8,9,10

Indices are unmanaged, do not incur fees or expenses, and cannot be invested into directly. These returns do not include dividends.

___________________________________________________________________

These views are those of Peter Montoya Inc., and not Statler Financial Services, and should not be construed as investment advice. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted index of 30 actively traded blue-chip stocks. The NASDAQ Composite Index is an unmanaged, market-weighted index of all over-the-counter common stocks traded on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System. The Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) is an unmanaged group of securities considered to be representative of the stock market in general. It is not possible to invest directly in an index. NYSE Group, Inc. (NYSE:NYX) operates two securities exchanges: the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) and NYSE Arca (formerly known as the Archipelago Exchange, or ArcaEx^®, and the Pacific Exchange). NYSE Group is a leading provider of securities listing, trading and market data products and services. The New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. (NYMEX) is the world’s largest physical commodity futures exchange and the preeminent trading forum for energy and precious metals, with trading conducted through two divisions – the NYMEX Division, home to the energy, platinum, and palladium markets, and the COMEX Division, on which all other metals trade. All information is believed to be from reliable sources; however we make no representation as to its completeness or accuracy. All economic and performance data is historical and not indicative of future results. The market indices discussed are unmanaged. Investors cannot invest in unmanaged indices. The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If other expert assistance is needed, the reader is advised to engage the services of a competent professional. Please consult your Financial Advisor for further information. Additional risks are associated with international investing, such as currency fluctuations, political and economic instability and differences in accounting standards.

Statler Financial Services, Inc. is registered as an investment adviser with the state of Florida. The presence of this Web site on the Internet shall in no direct or indirect way to be construed or interpreted to suggest Statler Financial Services, Inc. is soliciting to sell advisory services or offering to sell advisory services to residents of any other state other than the state of Florida.

Citations.
1 marketwatch.com/story/consumer-prices-up-03-led-by-energy-cars-2009-11-18 [11/18/09]
2 bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_DFcB_WJQEM&pos=2 [11/17/09]
3 marketwatch.com/story/leading-indicators-rise-for-7th-straight-month-2009-11-19 [11/19/09]
4 marketwatch.com/story/inventory-clearance-stalls-in-september-2009-11-16 [11/16/09]
5 businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/nov2009/db20091118_201644.htm [11/18/09]
6 latimes.com/business/la-fi-mortgage-defaults20-2009nov20,0,1052221.story [11/20/09]
7 cnbc.com/id/34067975 [11/20/09]
8money.cnn.com/data/markets/dow/ [11/20/09]
8 money.cnn.com/data/markets/nasdaq/ [11/20/09]
8 money.cnn.com/data/markets/sandp/? [11/20/09]
8 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=11%2F20%2F08&mode=add&symb=DJIA [11/20/09]
8 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=11%2F19%2F04&mode=add&symb=DJIA [11/20/09]
8 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=11%2F19%2F99&mode=add&symb=DJIA [11/20/09]
8 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=11%2F20%2F08&mode=add&symb=COMP [11/20/09]
8 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=11%2F19%2F04&mode=add&symb=COMP [11/20/09]
8 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=11%2F19%2F99&mode=add&symb=COMP [11/20/09]
8 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=11%2F20%2F08&mode=add&symb=SPX [11/20/09]
8 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=11%2F19%2F04&mode=add&symb=SPX [11/20/09]
8 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=11%2F19%2F99&mode=add&symb=SPX [11/20/09]
9 ustreas.gov/offices/domestic-finance/debt-management/interest-rate/real_yield.shtml [11/20/09]
9 ustreas.gov/offices/domestic-finance/debt-management/interest-rate/real_yield_historical.shtml [11/20/09]
10 treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/press/preanre/1999/ofn100699.pdf [10/6/99]

Are We Watching a Failed Presidency?

For the past couple of months I have worried about the risks of a failed presidency. No one should want this, regardless of party affiliation. It is harmful and dangerous to our economy and country. However, it appears obvious to me that the royal regime known as Obama has ended.
 
Seth Leibsohn writing in the National Review summarized it this way:
 
“This is reminiscent of the Jimmy Carter years – the last time the U.S. was seen as weak – unable to move and coax other countries, unable to reassure dependent allies, unable to have the respect of the world and, of course, unable to move the mullocracy of Iran.”
 
Even the liberal media are beginning to question the effectiveness of  the President. The media, in full Camelot mode, are slow to react and often lag what the populace started to recognize months ago.
 
ALSO:
 
Rush Limbaugh: More Obama Fail: Another Week, Another Half a Million Out of Work
 
Angry Congress Lashes Out at Obama
 
Politico: Obama’s Asian Trip Was a Failure
 
Midterms: Obama ‘Beyond Radioactive’

Read The Full Article

POLITICS

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos on Saturday urged his party to implement a zero tolerance policy on government corruption, as Africa’s biggest oil producer struggles to improve its image abroad (Reuters).

ECONOMY

Angola’s foreign exchange reserves fell for the first time in three months to $12,1-billion in October from $12,8-billion in September, despite a sharp recovery in oil prices, the central bank said (Mail & Guardian).

Lately I’ve been speaking a lot to clients and professional groups about the outlook for 2010. Sometimes people buttonhole me as I get my coffee or wait for the presentation to begin. It often sounds like this: “So, are you going to give us some good news today?” This is delivered with a hint of sarcasm because they don’t expect good news from an economist, but they do want to know the bottom line. At Grubb & Ellis, we call this the elevator speech, when a client asks for our view of the market in less than a minute – the length of an elevator ride.

Here is my elevator speech: The recession is over, but 2010 is not going to feel like a classic recovery. There are too many headwinds, notably lagging job creation, lingering weakness in consumer spending and tight lending conditions. But we will see more decisions made by tenants, landlords, buyers, sellers and lenders. Keep in mind that Depression 2.0, a latter-day version of what the world endured in the 1930s, was still on the table through the first few months of this year, which made everyone freeze in place. Next year will bring more clarity and with it an increase in leasing and investment transactions. It won’t be pretty, but we are likely to see more results from our efforts.

Robert Bach – SVP, Chief Economist – Grubb & Ellis

Existing sales rose 45%, marking 14 months in a row for higher year-to-year sales. National housing sales up 10.1%. Read more.

ECONOMY

The 13th edition of the Cape Verde International Trade Fair (FIC) began on November 18, on the island of São Vicente, with the participation of businesses from Cape Verde, Portugal and Brazil, at a time when the government has expressed its intention to turn the archipelago into a business center for the Middle Atlantic. The nearly one hundred companies occupy a total of 92 stands distributed through two pavilions (A Semana).

BANKING

Macau-based company, Geocapital has become the biggest private shareholder in Cape Verdean bank, Caixa Económica de Cabo Verde (CECV), by acquiring 27.1 percent of its capital, the bank said in Praia (Macauhub).

INVESTMENT

The Spanish hotelier group Sol Meliá has reached an agreement with The Resort Group PLC to manage two new 5-Star Hotel Resorts on the Island of Sal, Cape Verde, under the MELIÁ brand (Hotelnews).

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The dollar fell by the most in two weeks against major counterparts Monday, after a Federal Reserve official’s call to extend some of the central bank’s stimulus measures suggested interest rates will remain low indefinitely.

James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, made the comments. He’ll have a vote on the Fed panel charged with setting policy on U.S. interest rates next year.

The dollar index , a measure of the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of rivals, fell 0.8% to 75.061, on the heels of having with its first weekly gain in three weeks on Friday.

“There is no question that most [Fed] members are still very cautious” about raising rates as they stare at the U.S. unemployment rate above 10%, said Kathy Lien, director of currency research at Global Forex Trading.

“The more cautious the Fed is, the less likely they are to implement an exit strategy,” Lien wrote in emailed comments. “As a result, traders are selling dollars.”

Weak Dollar Lifts Gold, Copper And Resource Stocks

The dollar weakened against the euro in the European foreign exchanges Monday, helping the gold price hit a fresh record high, boosting copper and other base metal prices, and helping mining, energy and raw material stocks lift equity markets as a whole.

Dollar weakness was particularly evident against the euro to start the holiday-shortened week.

The single currency neared the key $1.50 level, receiving a lift after upbeat euro-zone data and central bank talk about starting to remove fiscal stimulus put in place following the crash in the global financial markets last year.

The euro rose as high as $1.4999, up from $1.4860 in North American trading late Friday. In October, the euro briefly traded above $1.50 for the first time in 14 months.

Slightly stronger-than-expected purchasing managers index readings for November underlined expectations that the euro-zone recovery is gaining some momentum in the fourth quarter. Read about euro-zone PMI.

DOW INDUSTRIALS (DJIA)

• Biggest rising, falling stocks      • Market Snapshot: U.S. stocks in focus • Technology stocks | Energy stocks • Metals stocks | Retail stocks • Financials | Airline stocks | Pharma and Biotech • Bond Report | Oil News | EarningsWatch • Currencies | Market Data | Economic Calendar

Also, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said governments need to begin putting together detailed plans to exit stimulus measures once economic conditions improve. The central bank’s extraordinary monetary-stimulus measures are set to phase out by design.

The comments added to those made by other European officials discussing the withdrawal of stimulus measures, boosting expectations that the topic will be broached at the European Central Bank’s meeting next month.

Pressure on the dollar Monday was also seen after a report that showed U.S easy payday loans. existing-home sales jumped 10.1% in October. Read more on the housing report.

More stimulus, says Bullard

The St. Louis Fed’s Bullard said Sunday he would like to see the Fed’s asset-buying program continued “but at a very low level” beyond the planned March 2010 cut-off in order to give the central bank more policy options if needed. See story on Bullard’s remarks.

The asset purchases have been viewed as a negative for the U.S. dollar because they tend to increase the supply of money in the financial system, effectively devaluing the dollar. At the same time, stimulus measures in general have helped fuel moves by investors into equities and commodities and away from the perceived safety of the greenback during the credit crisis.

“Investors are today reveling in abundant liquidity and downplaying the prospects for the U.S. dollar,” said Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers. “As they do so they are reversing last week’s theme of global slowdown.”

Equities in the U.S. “have been propelled higher by this confluence … once again sending the dollar down the tubes,” he wrote in an email.

U.S. stocks jumped Monday, following broad-based moves higher by markets in Asia and Europe.

“Stocks are up globally, fueled by positive data and policy comments suggesting that stimulus will remain in place,” T.J. Marta, chief market strategist at Marta on the Markets, wrote in a research note. “The U.S. dollar and Japanese yen underperformed on the positive sentiment.”

The dollar edged higher against the Japanese currency, a low-yielding rival, to trade at 89.13 yen, down from 89.03 yen on Friday.

Rand, Aussie rally

Meanwhile, gold soared again to another all-time high crude futures added more than 2% as the dollar declined. See Metals Stocks.

The South African rand jumped nearly 2% against the dollar, boosted by the rally in gold and expectations that data due Tuesday will show the South African economy grew by an annualized 0.5% in the third quarter from the preceding quarter.

“Many are linking the rally in gold to new record highs with the rand’s strength,” said Marc Chandler, currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., in a note to clients.

South Africa, the biggest economy on the African continent, is a major exporter of gold, platinum, diamonds and other metals. The rand has gained 27% against the dollar so far this year.

Other commodity-oriented currencies were also on the rise, with the Australian dollar gaining 1.1% to change hands at 92.48 U.S. cents. The U.S. dollar fell 1.2% against the New Zealand dollar to stand at NZ$1.3627.

Overall activity in currency markets was limited by a public holiday in Japan and anticipation of the Thanksgiving Day holiday in the U.S. on Thursday, analysts said.

Currencies: Dollar slumps as Fed official backs more stimulus

Darryl Harper playing smooth tunes onstage at Creative Alliance

Let’s see….did something I’ve never done before Friday night. Went to a jazz concert at the Creative Alliance, just east of Patterson Park on Eastern Avenue, to see jazz clarinetist Darryl Harper. What a talent he is….he had gathered some great local jazz guys in for a concert and the music was smooth, smokey…very blues. Darryl’s latest album is Stories in Real Time….you can hear  some selection by clicking here…and the Creative Alliance has many unique offerings… for music lovers, film lovers, classes for adults and children, including a 4 week Saturday session of running away to join the circus…”Admit it–your child is amazingly gifted and you’ve dreamt of creating a circus act together. Now’s your chance! Aerial superstar Lizzie Lyra introduces parents and kids to the circus arts: acrobatics, partner balancing, hooping, trapeze.” Come on people! You don’t see that everyday….

OK…saw Twilight…I’m in…all in.  And now I’m ready for New Moon….maybe over the holiday weekend. But I also want to see Precious….I’ve heard it is simply amazing….and Blind Side….also supposed to be just wonderful. It could be a good movie marathon weekend!  I love doing double features with a snack in between. Time to get my movie on. 

Oh, and I made some mean pork belly for dinner one night..(which is the new foie gras, or some people say). Not that I was  foie gras eater…I wasn’t, but I do love properly prepared pork belly. I used a variation of  Jamie Oliver recipe that I found on someone else’s blog….thank you very much….and it was luscious. Just absolutely fantastic. Still have some leftover in the frig. Wait for me…no matter where you are, I will find you!

Bank of America Merrill Lynch sees better profits ahead and more upside in U.S. stocks over the next twelve months.

David Bianco, head of U.S. equity strategy at BoAML, raised his 12-month S&P 500 target to 1275 from 1200, after raising his 2010 normalized EPS estimate to $79 from $76.

He said the financials, energy and technology sectors, all almost equally responsible for almost the entire EPS raise.  

“We remain over-weight all three of these sectors and expect strong appreciation. Excluding Financials & Energy, we forecast 2010 EPS up 12% and 2011 up 8%,” he said in a note to clients.  

Over the next month or so, Mr. Bianco expects the S&P 500 will continue to advance and hit 1100 by the end of this year. 

“S&P at 1100 would be trading at 15.5x 4Q09 annualized EPS of about $70, which given current 10yr Treasury bond yields is very undemanding,” he wrote.

Source: Financial Post

yeah I already posted this but God dam it’s so funny!