Holiday is over folks. Hope you enjoyed it. Time to get back down to business. Sadly things did not magically improve over the weekend. The best news is that "O"binhood signed a bill that will halt "No Notice Evictions" in which tenants are give is little as 15 minutes to leave, with nowhere to go, and nowhere to put their belongings. This is a pretty sad story that actually got better. Very unusual for these days and times.
Now to the bad news (which today is considered good news by CNBS. Listen for the spin machine to turn these stories into feel good hallelujah situations). Lets start with a post by Mish addressing Jobless Graduates Face Dismal Jobs Market. Mish summarizes, "Graduates hoping to become Wall Street wunderkinds or commercial real estate tycoons better be thinking about Plan B. Other than those with specialties in bankruptcy, the Plan A jobs simply are not there. Moreover, those who waste too much time pursuing jobs that are not available are likely to end up in Plan C, working at Starbucks."
Nouriel Roubini (in a must read IMO - I could have done a whole P3 post on this) is telling us "Don't Believe The Optimists" in this post from Forbes. Nouriel says,"According to the consensus, the recession will be (1) over by the middle of 2009 (i.e., in a month or so); (2) positive growth will return by Q3 and be as high as 2% by Q4; and (3) the recovery of growth in 2010 and beyond will be rapid, sustained and close to potential growth, with no risk of another economic downturn. All three elements of the new optimistic consensus are flawed." in a wonderful article that should scare the hell out of all of us, but I get some strange satisfation from.
Now let's have some fun. Tyler at Zero Hedge does a great job keeping up with David Roesnberg's updates. In David Rosenberg: "600-840 On The S&P" Tyler's conclusion goes like this, "Putting it all together: $50-70 in S&P mid cycle earnings, slap on 12x and you get 600 - 840 as a sensible S&P500 target. As Rosie concludes: "we know what the range of outcomes can look like: 600 to 840 on the S&P 500. On March 9th, there was much more upside; today at 892, quite the opposite."
And to put the cherry on top, no well rounded post would be complete these days without a little discussion of impending socialism. Zero Hedge has a nice vid on Geitner denying that every American taxpayer is getting it in the end. Geithner Dismisses GOP Socialism Charge as 'Ridiculous'.
Well, how's that for a welcome back post from the holiday weekend. Folks, the red alert is still alive and well and I plan on continuing to sound the alarm. Good luck this week. I'll be vacationing in NYC this week with the family, but I'll try to do some work and get a few posts out while there.
