I don't bet on Football games, but someone who does told me that you can bet over or under on the final score. It was explained to me but I still didn't get it.
A few minutes ago, I was watching CNBC during lunch and I noticed an "over the closing high" window above the TV screen. To what depths have we sunken to in order to appeal to the greed of the masses?
The greedy and selfish will do anything they can to gain an advantage. I learned that from coaching youth league sports and watching how parents jockey for position in order to gain an advantage for their child. By the way, they still try and do it to high school coaches as well. Fortunately, many high school coaches ignore these types of people. It’s often been said that if you want to be constantly second guessed and hated, all you have to do is coach.
Let's get back to this "over the closing high" stuff again.
This morning I received an e-mail from Don Harrold, and even he said;
Oh, and one more thing: The new ticker that runs on CNBC is surreal. You know, the one that says, "38.55 above all time high"? If you don't think CNBC are worthless cheerleaders, you aren't watching.
The TRUTH is that 2 out of 3 Dow components are DOWN since the last "All time high" in 2000. I know the mainstream media keeps forgetting to tell you that.
That's entertainment folks!
I mentioned this quote in 2000, and its worth mentioning again. In the mid 1800's, P. T. Barnum had a circus and traveling show. This show eventually became known as Barnum and Bailey Circus, "The Greatest Show on Earth." Its first performance in Brooklyn drew 10,000 people.
Eventually the two-ring circus became the three-ring circus, which attracted millions of people over the years. Barnum was an ethical man, certainly more honest than some of the people that ran Wall Street and various public corporations over the past few years.
P.T. Barnum's famous quote was, "There is a sucker born every minute. All you gotta do is come along at the right time." So what was Phineas Taylor Barnum? He was an American showman. Isn't everything we see on TV a show of showmanship? Attract the eyeballs and sell, sell, sell. Almost everything we see tries to influences us to (one way or another) buy something.
Wal-Mart is adding "Merry Christmas" back into the Christmas holiday. TV Preachers try to save souls and take your money. Almost everything we see or hear is an attempt to get consumers to hand over their wallets. And you know what? It has worked!
For example;
1) RealtyTrac reported that 318,355 properties in the U.S. entered some stage of foreclosure in the third quarter, a 17% increase over the prior quarter. According to the Economic Policy Institute, "median incomes for households with people of working age (65 or less) fell last year for the fifth year in a row. Adjusted for inflation, these families are bringing in $3,000 less".
2) According to Richard Benson, president of Specialty Finance Group, LLC, “Back in 2000, when homes were worth $11.4 trillion, there were only $4.8 trillion in mortgages against them. In the second quarter of 2006, that mortgage debt increased to a whopping $9.3 trillion. In 2000, equity extraction was only about $160 billion, or just over 2 percent of wages and salaries. By 2005, it reached $511 billion, or eight percent of wages and salaries. In the first half alone of 2006, it reached almost $500 billion, or 15 percent at an annual rate!"
3) The Elliott Wave Theorist, published October 20, 2006, said; "We all know about the insane level of American indebtedness at all levels of society. We know that the national savings rate is below zero. We know that people have borrowed record amounts from home equity for spending and that the game is up. We know that declining real estate values are forcing a rash of foreclosures, and we all know that the reckless lending of the past two decades will stress the banking system. The credit bubble represents only potential for a bust – huge potential but just potential nevertheless. None of these conditions will matter to the economy until the stock market turns down in a big way. When it does, you will know that the social mood that kept the American financial casino going will then be working toward its destruction."
So, for those who continue to get sucked in to the market by showmanship like the "over the closing high" window above the TV screen, understand the famous words from P. T. Barnum; "There is a sucker born every minute.
