seriously ?

Why I'm Committed to the UltraShort Financials ETF

Dear Jimmy,

This is a trader driven event. It is not a systemic event.
Agreed, but if this is the case why do you keep talking about BAC's fundamentals as if they really matter here ? SKF is clearly in a speculative "bull" phase. May be a good short term play, but how much lower can BAC and company go ?

We all know the entire herd can't feed at this trough, especially as it is herd...err.....trader driven ... right ?

Selling My Hedges on Today's Hard Fall

Nice move, definitely 36 hours of panic here and there should be some sort of uptick this week to correct.
However, I don't think the type of corrections you are looking for are going to continue through this recession ( yearish outlook ) because I frankly see no way out.
What I do see is stereotypical irrational bubble behavior, articles begging for the market to go up, a "stimulus plans" that aren't and shouldn't work, lightening quick changes in opinion on very macro-economic issues ( US consumer power, china's bubble, "subprime" , cheaper oil; what!?)
China has too far to drop and who can say what will happen if the dollar inflates at an even greater rate and something like the petrodollar disappears/gets heavily contested. I can only imagine something like this causing severe panic throughout markets.

Maybe it's time to straddle the VIX ? ( panic subsides in deep recessions/depressions )

What I keep wondering and frankly bewilders me; is why are no economists/analysts talking about peak oil or food inflation.

The rise of global population and the BRIC countries etc is very real, Oil is simply not going to get cheaper sans a global depression. The demand is rising much too fast, food and water are becoming similiar problems.

The Financial Times recently ran a small article mentioning oil demand would outstrip supply by 2013 ( peak oil ). Forget the great depression, how is the industrial age supposed to maintain it's economy without moderately priced energy ? How can the american consumer ( whom we all very recently said "drove the global economy" ) survive when they are already in debt on average and can presently barely afford gas.

My point is:
I don't think its naive to think this "recession" could quickly become a global depression. It would not require many unlikely things to occur, but only a few of the many likely things that could trigger it . ( Oil, inflating dollar, starving/thirsty populace, present day economy etc )

I am not saying armageddon is upon us, I suspect industrialized nations will start relying on nuclear power eventually, but I don't think things can be anything short of ugly for the next 5 years.

But 'till we go nuclear ( or discover a magical form of energy )
where will the energy/ food / cheap materials / consumption come from ? China is running out of these things too.

Does any economists dare contemplate that we may hit some kind of global carrying capacity limit for an industrialized fossil-fuel dependent populace ?