Can I go on a rampage without offending the masses?
I think if you look in between all the political rhetoric taking place over the coming election you will see that it is apparent few politicians have good a grasp of what were facing. While they will never admit it, they are mostly perplexed over the current situation and are not real sure what to do. I'm not criticizing them either, that is just a fact. You can argue for or against tax cuts/hikes, and a whole slew of other things, but for every logical proposed solution there is an equally logical opposing argument. Whether we increase our debt more, austerity, stimulation, etc.......and in the end no one knows. I haven't a clue either. All I can say is everyone is ----'d! But I do oppose further bailouts. Let em crash and get it over with.
YOU GREEDY PEOPLE STOLE MY FUTURE WITH ALL YOUR WASTEFUL SPENDING!
I was thinking yesterday how I would just love to be a fly on the wall while Tim, Ben and the Fed heads are all sitting around drinking a few drinks discussing candidly how far up the creek we really are. I bet ol Alan doesn't get much love either from the group for keeping rates so low for so long all those years and manipulating the inflation gauges to please the markets. And he thought he would go down in history as one of the greatest? Um, wrong. Anyways...I digress. This is the only game in town for us, so we have to make do with what we have, and our options are truly limited.
I've got a lot of stuff I found interesting that I will be adding throughout the day. Here a few interesting articles I just saw on The Business Insider........
Obama Shows His First Sense Of Panic About Backsliding Economy
If Greece's Budget Cuts Are Sufficient As The EU Says They Are, Then Why Are Greek Yields Approaching Crisis Levels Again?
It Looks Like U.S. Government Bonds Aren't Supported By China Anymore
And from Bespoke........
S&P 500 and Sector Trading Range Charts Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 04:40PM
Below we highlight our one-year trading range charts of the S&P 500 and its ten sectors. For each chart, the blue shading represents between one standard deviation above and below the 50-day moving average (white line). The red shading represents between one and two standard deviations above the 50-day, and the green zone represents between one and two standard deviations below the 50-day. Moves into or above/below the red/green shading represent extreme overbought/oversold territory.
After trading into overbought territory for the first time since the April highs, the S&P 500 quickly pulled back and is now back below its 200-day and 50-day moving average. The trading range for the index has really turned sideways with the market basically going back and forth for the past couple of months.
Bonds Gain Edge Over Equities in Economic Debate
By: John Melloy, Executive Producer, Fast Money
Bond investors are looking more and more on the money than stock investors these days after poor economic data sent the 2-year Treasury yield to a record low and the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging by as much as 200 points.
Before this summer swoon, many investors scratched their heads as stocks rose, while bond yields continued to fall. The natural relationship is for the two to move in tandem as higher economic growth and inflation lifts stock prices and at the same time, hurts bond prices and sends yields higher.
This conundrum has puzzled market participants, most famously former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan in 2005, a few times over the years. Most of the time, according to Citigroup Global Markets, equities are proven to be right as the economy recovers and yields are forced higher. But are they this time?
Data today showed weekly jobless claims at their highest level since November and that a measure of manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia-area unexpectedly shrank. This is not the kind of activity that an S&P 500 up 7 percent from its 2010 low (before Thursday) was predicting.
“The bond market is telling you the economy is worse off than people think,” said Guy Adami, Drakon Capital managing director and a ‘Fast Money’ trader. “People argue about a double-dip, but I would argue we never got out of the recession.”
If bonds are right, it would be a break from history. “Of the eight previous episodes where bond yields have fallen, but equities have rallied (like now), we have found the equity market was ‘right’ on five occasions,” said Citigroup’s Robert Buckland, in a note. “After each it was bond yields that rose to catch up with stock prices rather than vice versa.”
There was one case, in 2004, where it wasn’t entirely clear which asset class was right, according to Citigroup.
“This time, we expect the conundrum to be resolved through rising bond yields,” said Buckland. A “sustained global economic recovery and gloomy fiscal outlook should push yields up from their current historically low levels.”
The other option is that that both asset classes are wrong. “This time Treasuries are not about inflation or deflation,” said Brian Kelly, founder of the aptly named Kanundrum Capital. “They are about capital preservation as baby boomers approaching retirement want to protect what is left of their nest egg.”
It’s still a close call, but today’s data argues that it’s equities that are behind the curve, the yield curve that is.