$38,000. For a fortunate few, $38,000 might be a bill for a weekend in some exotic place that includes the finest of food, drinks, and accommodations. For others, $38,000 might be the price of the car that they are going to buy, either through financing or a single stroke of the pen. $38,000 may be a down payment for a home or used to purchase of some critical business equipment. For the vast majority, $38,000 either implies wealth or a significant investment. In other words, $38,000 is a lot of money.

Regardless of who you are in America, we all have one thing in common with this $38,000 sum. If you were to average out the debt of the United States of America to the roughly 300-310 million citizens, it would come to be about $38,000, very likely even MORE per person by the time you read this (as the debt is actually growing much faster than the population). In fact, the debt of the US is growing faster than $3 billion per DAY and doesn’t take time off for weekends and holidays.

Synaptics (SYNA) went on big time sale.

Wow, SYNA was just hammered Friday in ways that you don't often see in a stock. The only stock that I know of that had what I consider to be bigger action was Huron Consulting (HURN) and HURN is restating earnings and booted some of the top brass (without pay packages).

I started selling some Intel (INTC) August puts today.

I am just starting to move into INTC by selling the AUG 14 puts starting at a price of .37 each and with 5 contracts. I normally start very small with my swing trading when it's to the long side as world events can hand you a very crushing blow from time to time.

Yesterday's release of the US inventory numbers of oil and oil related products had a quick and meaningful impact on prices.

With the news machines pumping full speed ahead to tell us how bad the economy is doing, it's no wonder why we have seen a crash in prices.

Why is it that people with no understanding of financial markets feel compelled to offer solutions to what they perceive as problems?

This recent New York Times opinion article suggests that a transaction tax to reduce liquidity of US markets would be a good thing. Not so. People from all over the world use the US markets precisely because of the high liquidity and small transactional costs, ultimately to the benefit of the American economy. The stock exchanges, brokers, market participants, retirement funds, large investors, and mom-and-pop investors all reap the rewards of one of the most welcoming markets in the world. Clearly, the long term consequences of a transaction tax have not been considered. With this transaction tax, all investors, from the large institutions to the mom-and-pop hundred share lots, would pay more upon buying and receive less upon selling.

This is a follow up to my previous article Las Vegas Sands Hasn't Folded Its Hand Yet

Last month, I traveled to Las Vegas to visit and observe Las Vegas Sands (LVS) (Venetian), Boyd Gaming Group (BYD) (Orleans, Coast Casinos), and several other properties on the strip. Given that the first weekend of the New Year is traditionally a very busy one for Vegas, I decided it would be the perfect time for a follow up. I opted to stay at the Venetian for this trip to get a better inside look at the customer experience and staff attitude as the hotel hosted the New Year's crowds.

Las Vegas Sands (LVS) has been written off by so many. While not currently priced at bankruptcy anymore as a result of the last couple of weeks of appreciation, its stock has been stripped of almost all value.

One way to look at LVS is to think of it as an option that never expires. This type of 'value' investing usually looks a lot better than it is. There is a reason why stocks go down to value. When the value goes down to the point that people question if the company will go bankrupt, they are normally right. Even when wrong, a stock will often spend the next several years in a price range that could drive the most patient investor mad.

With all the money that the US Fed, as well as other central bankers, are willing to put into the world economy, it might be tempting to think that inflation is just around the bend.

The first weakness in that theory, at least in the short run, is that the equities, bonds, real estate and job markets are still going down at a much faster pace than the Fed is pumping money into the system.