Happy St. Patty's Day!

 Last night to enter Shanky's NCAA Tournament Challenge! We're up to 27 entries which is respectable. Come join the fun! Join shanky's group and the PW is shanky.

Quickly tonight cause I have green beer to drink - lots of it!

ZH -Ben Bernanke Has Become The Pied Piper Of Momoism This is really funny (yet sad at the same time) TD comments on Rosenberg's most recent post. "Who cares about any of this, one may ask. The market can only go up, up, up. Yes, if one considers price discovery to be a function of micro volume block buying by algos who have only been programmed to bid the market up. We broke key resistance levels in the past 2 days, and nothing: no major short covering spree, no influx of new buyers. The market has become a stealth melt up mechanism, driven by who knows what money (mutual funds are out), with shorts out. This is precisely the environment that allowed the market to go bidless overnight in 1987. When will this happen - nobody knows. Although if we continue to antagonize the only major foreigner who has allowed the Fed and the government to embark on its ludicrous policy of fiscal and monetary insanity, we will surely find out very soon."


My new mentor and buddy Rich sent me this one (yes, he is a calming influence in my life right now - I'm sure he hates me). Wednesday's update from Stocktiming.com. When Institutional Investors "shift direction" ... it the post. you need to see the momo chart on this post. Just a bit toppy.

Was that another snow job during the snow storm? You thought Greece was bailed out, right? I knew it was the dumbest thing on the planet to do it, but I was under the impression they had ST financing to get them over the hump (more like Everest). Well, apparently they aren't out of the woods, Wait A Second - I Thought Greece Was Done? Denninger has, "But this time it's different, so I think you should believe our fine friends over in Greece, even though Germany says they won't violate their Constitution (Merkel has repeated this enough times now that she's got to be blue in the face) and the news reports that trickle out say that indeed, Greece has no deal - not in the bag, not on the table, just plain not.". We all know they are in deeptrouble. So deep that all the other nations in just as deep trouble can't bail them out and they can't go to the credit store anymore, so this will be it. Do we finally gt a default?

Mish has Christie to cut N.J. school aid by $800M; 800 Layoffs in San Bernardino; R.I. Court Upholds Salary Cuts; Lancaster PA Pension Tsunami I don't think I need to elaborate on this one. I've been warning you this is all gonna come crashing down. The credit store is CLOSED. No more borrowing our way out of problems. The hard truth is finally arriving and it will hut so good.

Jon Stewart on Dodd. This is wonderful. If you have not seen it, please watch.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
In Dodd We Trust
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

Cause I love the video so much - here it is again

Out On A Limb - A Very Thin Limb!

Up, up, up we go! Thank goodness for the reflation trade. Lord knows our bubble may have burst and that would have been horrendous! Thank goodness the removed FRE and FNM from the federal budget, wrapped them in protective bubble wrap, removed all sharp objects from the room and put them in the closet not to be addressed till 2011. Phew, I feel better now that they have addressed that problem!

Why the out on a limb title? Well, anytime I bring Prechter into the mix it gets dangerous. The timing is better for his prophecy this time. The link Bear Market Armageddon: Why Prechter Might Be Right This Time (the title kind of says it all - this time) takes you to a good article and a series of videos you may want to listen to. The whole series is pretty good. Even better, I don't think he mentions the word "top" once! Bottom line is the vids provide a nice all around primer for everyone. 


Further out on the limb I go when I bring you Jon Stewart. Last night he did a great piece on how we're getting screwed by the CC companies in Make it Rain - Bank of America - Wyatt Cenac examines Bank of America's hidden credit card fees with a former employee and a mafia loan shark that is worth a look. The loan shark at the end is really funny. 

Since the economy is out on a thin limb why not cover some of the action today. The news today was just as nasty and bountiful as any other, but you never would have known that given the markets actions. The MSM cheer leading propaganda machine tends to neglect major news events as well (or spins them if they should be forced to cover a tough issue).

Mish's site is full of wonderful posts every day (if you are into the doom and gloom thang). Just view the recent posts list on the left side and start reading. Today he has Is Consumer Confidence a Contrarian Indicator?. This is a good one in the case that the bulltards will spin and twist the numbers as big buying signal, but Mish (and I) think differently, "Rather than being a contrarian play, I think consumers have reached the recognition phase, with a panic phase yet to follow. This possibility is something that economists might want to take into consideration if they would ever take off their rose colored glasses and view the real world for how it is. It may be darkest before dawn, but the sun has barely set. The contrarian play is to bet against the masses who misunderstand history."

Pension Pulse has a great post on something I like to key on every now and then, underfunded pension obligations. In Pension Systems on the Brink? you get a nice report that breaks down the major flaws that exist in the $1 Trillion unfunded gap. This is a HUGE deal. States can not fund these obligations (they never have - how could they now). Big brother to borrow from to fund obligations (read - living on xtra credit just like everyone else to get thru) is no longer there. This will be a huge part of the total meltdown (especially after P3 hits and the unfunded portion skyrocket).


I suggest that you troll on over to Calculated Risk and sample the fare there. The news surrounding the RE/housing crisis was not pretty today. CR covers it from every angle.


For those of you that rarely go to Zero Hedge, just pop over there and read the headlines of the posts today. It will make your head spin. (Don't look at yesterday's unless you want your head to spin so fast you wind up getting sick)


LOL, what do we find at the tip of the limb? Denninger on Kaiser Report? Yup, only in Russia can you get something that good. Karl comes on about 14min into the program and then stumbles thru explaining the difficult to explain synthetic CDO's that have wiped out Greece and made the banksters rich biach while some hypnotic circle spins in the background (psychedelics not provided).  The whole 30m is worth watching IMO.

Not sure who put the water wings on the markets in the last fifteen minutes of trading or if TOS just has some errors (nothing happened on the minis).

Have a good one.

Weekend Video - Lou Dobbs And Jon Stewart

An pretty darn good discussion between Jon Stuart and Lou Dobbs? I thought so. No screaming or shouting or talking over each other. No in your face zealot outspoken righteousness. A simple well presented discussion by two informed people with different views of government and the state of the country. From why CNN asked Lou to leave (controlled media) to their debate on HC and other issues are all well worth a listen.

I would appreciate it if you would watch these vids. I believe there are things we can learn from both sides. I think there are ways we can learn from how they discuss the issues that we can use on a daily basis to present our opinions to others. I will not comment or voice any personal opinions till the comments start rolling in (but my readers can guess whose side I support more). 

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Lou Dobbs Extended Interview Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Lou Dobbs Extended Interview Pt. 2
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Lou Dobbs Extended Interview Pt. 3
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

I got the clips from this infowars.com post Stewart to Dobbs: Your views are ‘abhorrent, wrong, but consistent’.