The US dollar is hitting new lows, foreign currencies are soaring (FXE,FXC,FXB,FXA,FXF), oil prices are over $90/bbl, commodity prices are hitting new highs, but this morning we are told that inflation is under control.
How sad it is when our citizens can only get the truth at the end of every month when their checking accounts are bordering on overdrawn.
Consumer confidence keeps declining because the CPI data continues to lie about real inflation. Here are the numbers;
Jobless Claims- last week
We could go on and on, but why bore you with the obvious.
This morning the Fed Funds Futures are signaling a 88% chance that the FOMC will lower the the Fed Funds Rate .25 basis points to 4.50%. The December odds are at 40% for another .25 basis point cut to 4.25%.
As rates come down, inflation continues to soar!
On the stock front, Google (GOOG) stock jumped to over $700/ share this morning. I find it amusing that not a single Google insider has any interest in hanging on to their shares for the long term. Every time they get a chance to sell stock they were GIVEN, not bought, they sell.
If you were wondering how people become billionaires, keeping buying Google while the insiders are selling. Its simple math, you turn your money over to them when you buy the stock.
Yes, I know, but the stock is skyrocketing! So did AOL and Amazon in 1999.
If you want to know where the recent new life in the Nasdaq has come from, look no farther than Google (GOOG), Apple (AAPL), and Research In Motion (RIMM).
The Nasdaq 100 is up over 400 points since the beginning of the year, and 230 points of those points can be attributed to the three stocks above. One day, without warning, the plug will be pulled. When the initial downturn comes, bargain hunters will view the decline as a buying opportunity. Then the second, third, and fourth wave of selling will drive share prices into the ground. It happened in 1999-2000, and it will happen again.
Politics and the Market
What is going on in our nation? I thought we lived in a democracy;
-Our Presidential hopefuls from both political parties are a joke. Hillary Clinton has some unbelievably big money behind her. The influential people backing Hillary brought her to a remote district in New York, got her elected to the Senate, and now wants to put her in the White House. Who are these backers???
I find it interesting that the media focuses their attention on 2 or 3 candidates from each party. When they do this, they are essentially choosing who the next President will be. You see, most US citizens vote for whoever gets the most media attention.
- We have a President who could care less what the majority of the nation’s citizens want. He tells people who lost their jobs due to outsourcing to go back to school. For those who want to go back to school, they can't get into Harvard Business School like the President did with a C average. We need to ask Harvard about that.
In addition, most American want out of Iraq. We are getting US soldiers killed in Iraq in a fruitless, but very oily war. If we wanted to beat up on a nation where terrorists are grown, we should have attacked Saudi Arabia. Why not, they have more oil than Iraq.
Now talks of a pre-emptive attack on Iran are heating up. Russia and China are backing Iran, and the US is backing Israel. This is a no-win situation. Can anyone say $150/bbl oil?
-We have a congress that is bought off by big money constituents. In addition, these people don't have the guts to tell the powerful lobbies to get lost, and get our soldiers out of the Middle East.
I do not believe that our nation should get in the middle a religious war that has been going on in the Middle East since the beginning of time. Israel can defend themselves without our help. If their existence was ever threatened, they have enough nukes to take care of the problem. For some reason our politicians are afraid to take a stand on this issue.
