Al-USA

A Junk Stock Rally

givargi wrote:
"
You need three things for capital creation :1) cheap labor, 2) cheap resources, 3) consumer market. We are running out of all of them.
"

A good description of the state of capitalism, a crisis of over-production (or demand destruction). This will play out in years though, and while 2010 will hit like a "ton of bricks", outside any external massive demand stimuli, 2009 will be the last year to "party" for the last of the trapped longs.

So, if your 401k was reduced to a 201k, use 2009 to get out with, perhaps, a 301k. Such a chance might not come again in a generation, or at least until 2023, according to the proprietary investment rate model by Thomas Kee.

Good luck to all, and yes, if you're a nimble trader, as long as the market is open, there are opportunities to make some cash.

Recent Policy Decisions and a Greater Depression
seekingalpha.com/artic...

Why Were Markets Up 7% Yesterday?

If you bought puts at the end of the session yesterday you where well rewarded today. I also opened a small trade with April IWM puts and cashed them out with almost a +40% gain.

The Road to Economic Hell

Decline and fall of the American Empire

Free markets inevitably lead to monopolies. The end result of "successful" capitalism is a crisis of over-production. In my opinion, we are seeing the

decline and fall of the American Empire

Just as it happened in the 1930's when capitalism unleashed forces which threaten Western Civilization, forces are now in motion which, once again, pits the survival of Western Civilization against the "free markets". In the choice between barbarism or civilization, who will choose barbarism?

You have to look at capitalism from its entire 500 year history. From the time of the European voyages of discovery, starting in the 1500's, to now, one can observe that capitalism, as an economic model practiced world wide, has now reached its "natural" conclusion: a crisis of over production. The methods of production have accumulated into too few hands so what we are experiencing is the culmination of the "success" of first regional capitalism, then nation state capitalism and now, finally, the "success" of global capitalism.

About twenty years ago the capitalist ruling class was euphoric after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the proper demise of the caricature of socialism, built up by the monster Stalin, which was the USSR. We were promised a world of peace and prosperity, a new economic paradigm of constant uninterrupted growth, but now all those promises have been shown to be false.

The last 20 years have been difficult for the working class, their average wage have shown no increase, after inflation, and were instead forced to resort to massive debt accumulation to maintain working class living standards and the continued smooth functioning of the globlal "free markets". In summary, for the working class, with the global economy came not prosperity but, as is clear now to most observers, global economic crisis...

Now, trying to look at things from the perspective of the ruling class, the best solution they can deploy, like they did in the Depression of the 1930s, to save capitalism, is a reformist President along the lines of F. D. Roosevelt who will introduce something like the New Deal. If not, we will end up with a REAL dictatorship. Is Obama that man? I don't know, he certainly talks the part.

However, the fact is, America is already ruled by a dictatorship - the dictatorship of Money, of the "corporate masters" who make all the real decisions while giving the masses the illusion of democracy. But democracy in America, as in Europe and elsewhere in the West, is only a sham, a hollow shell. They pay no attention to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or anything else. Everything is decided by the one percent of the population who own America.

In my opinion, the Republic ended in 1950. Since then we have had an imperial system. What are the chief characteristics of this system? First, the USA intervenes in an aggressive way in every part of the world. According to published research, since 1950, the USA has waged at least 300 wars in different parts of the globe.

Even our much-vaunted American freedom is largely fictional: three percent of the population is either in jail or on parole, connected up by electric devices to the prison administration. There is very little real freedom. Freedom of the press? The press and the media are owned and controlled by "our corporate masters".

What about living standards in the USA? Eighty percent of Americans have been falling behind since 1973. That is the date they usually cite for the oil crisis. Nowadays a husband and wife make less money than the husband alone made at that time. Before the "financial crisis" twenty percent did support the Empire. These are the lawyers, the journalists, politicians and bankers and so on. But even the twenty percent that is in the service of the one percent is now also getting the "axe", and getting it heavily.

"Forced From Executive Pay to Hourly Wage"
www.nytimes.com/2009/0...

Citizens' rights have been demolished in our country. The Bill of Rights has been either suspended or cut down. Bill Clinton started the process at the time of the Oklahoma bomber. Then they passed the US Patriotism Act, a document of thirty pages that nobody bothered to read. It permits the government to organize surveillance, arrests and deportations. In fact, if you criticize the government you could be arrested for "giving comfort to the enemy". And Congress passed this Act and the President signed it immediately! But in practice it did not work.

It is an American Empire, but as the "financial crisis" has shown, it is more like a colossus with feet of clay. Quite simply, America is in the process of overreaching itself just as the Roman Empire overreached itself.

On the bright side, there's no need to worry about the American people. The establishment treats us as if we are fools, but we are not fools. Information is still widely available and the American people can learn, both online and from relevant books. They will learn most from the greatest book of all - the book of life itself. And when that happens, the American people will move as one...


More information below:
"Destruction of Demand"
seekingalpha.com/artic...
littlurl.com/b8z3e

"Recent Policy Decisions and a Greater Depression"
seekingalpha.com/artic...
littlurl.com/2it28

"The Fed's War on the Middle Class"
mises.org/story/2983

"What's Behind the Financial Market Crisis?"
mises.org/story/3111

"Economic Fascism and the Bailout Economy"
mises.org/story/3333

"How to Avoid Another Depression"
mises.org/story/3103

General Electric: 'Buy America' Clause Severely Limits Downside Potential

Mr. Saxena, good article. Thanks for taking the time to elucidate this complex subject.

Of course, there are always those who are married to their particular ideology and will not pursue what is in the best interests of the country. Even if you are personally high enough in the pecking order of capitalism so that you benefit most personally from the current impoverishment of your fellow Americans, consider that each of the so-called global financial "power-houses" retreated to its respective home country to be bailed-out: the Americans got bailed out by hard-working American taxpayers, Europeans by their respective countries, etc.

So, to continue to be married to an ideology which only narrowly serves the purpose of a select few is, to put it simply, evil, in my opinion. Buy hey, if one's nature is naturally evil, then what do you care, right?

U.S. Market: So Much Stupidity in Such Little Time

It doesn't look good folks. I'm ready to take to the streets as soon as the demonstrations start.

However, history tells us that once the ruling classes, or capitalist elites, have become parasitic, the civilization is on its decline and eventual destruction. The best and greatest example is the Roman Empire in the classic book, "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire".

History also has numerous examples of how one particular civilization, for example The Ottoman Empire, has rein its corruption among its elites, relative to other comparable powers, and elbows its way to a position of dominance on the world stage.

The lesson is clear, great civilizations tend to collapse from within. That is the danger now facing the USA. It can be revived, as once the Western Roman Empire collapsed the remaining Easter Roman Empire rejuvenated itself and did manage to hold onto the Balkans and Asia Minor (Turkey) as the Byzantines for another 1,000 years. But, maybe Americans are not good enough or deserve to continue to have the greatest civilization in the history of the planet.

PS I recommend the article below as the latest example of parisitic behavior of the ruling classes.

" Preventing The Greatest Heist In History"
clusterstock.alleyinsi...