"You know what the news is-- in a minute, you're going to hear the rest of the story"- Paul Harvey

Let's be clear about something. If sales at stores like WalMart (WMT) are up, then the economy is clearly in bad shape.

I like going to WalMart because it is a great place to gage the mood and spending habits of consumers. Since 2000, WMT has traded as high as $69, and as low as $41.50. If the US economy remains weak for the next year or so, WalMart may once again revisit the upper-end of this eight year trading range.

The difference between the 2000-2002 recession and the current one is consumers had more money back then. Sure, the NASDAQ debacle left many broke, but not everyone got suckered into the NASDAQ. Unlike the NASDAQ, consumers got suckered into another money sucking scheme. That sucker game was thought to be infallible, but turned out to be much more deceitful.

The game was;

Interest Only Mortgages
100-120% Financing.
Home Equity Loans.
Credit Cards.
No Down Payment Home Purchases

While all these sucker loans were being issued, Wall Street devised a scheme where they would package bad mortgage with good ones, get them labeled with triple A ratings, and sell them to banks, pension funds, and local and state governments. What could possibly go wrong?

Bond insurers who didn't do their homework insured these venomous bonds, and now they are all on the brink of collapse.

I have a question. Who is responsible for all of this? And, why are these people not facing a firing squad? Consumers clearly are!

As was the case in 2000-2002, most of the law suits against Wall Street and mortgage issuers will probably get thrown out.

The class action suits against Wall Street and the conflicts of interest that existed with their analysts and investment bankers went nowhere. Judge Milton Pollack dismissed several class-action lawsuits by saying investors were "high-risk speculators," who knew or should have known better.

As far as the above mentioned loans are concerned, there were many "high-risk speculators," and borrowers who knew or should have known better.

In any event, thats where we stand.

The Rest of the Story

As Barack Obama shores up the bid as the democratic presidential candidate, news broke that three members of his church of 20 years- Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ- were murdered execution style with bullets to the backs of their heads.

For now, the mainstream media is trying to keep away from this one, but for how long?

I don't know if any of this stuff is true, but nothing surprises me nowadays.

My opinion on all of the candidates for president remains; "Is this the best we can do?"