KERKO DUMPS GM...

It's nice to see that even smart guys can make investing mistakes...and have to dump out eventually...

Retail plungers take heart...you are not alone!

JIM WEBB FOR PRESIDENT...!

A few of the New Populist Democrats are not afraid to speak the truth... Maybe that's why George Will has his knickers in a twist about Jim Webb...

The NEW POPULISM is going to be hard for the elites and their media shills to swallow...but in the long run it will save "the system" that supports the rich and the Washington elites.

We are in for a 1932 Redux experience...! But is it really "as bad" as 1932... Well, in many ways it's actually worse... The US has to INVENT a new post-industial economic model to live by...and frankly, that model simply does not exist yet in mainstream economic thinking...

Along with our revisit to 1932...we had best come up with another J.M. Keynes along the way...to give us a theory to justify our new realities...!

DOLLAR DOWN. GOLD UP.

Nice day for the goldbugs...

Oil is heading back up now too... The elections are over

MALIKI IS TOAST...

And Bush is demented...

Ya think we have a problem yet...?

SADRISTS PULL OUT OF IRAQI GOVERNMENT

So, is Maliki now the President of the Greenzone...?

Does it make any difference...?

If you assume that nothing will be done during the Bush Administration...

The Neocons simply can not pull out now because it would be an admission of total failure...

A failure that could be used at future war crimes trials...

These trials will be held AFTER the administration leaves office...the international community will simply insist on it...

And we don't even know how bad this thing is going to get going forward...

In effect Bush is "taking the fifth" on Iraq these days...hoping that in two years he can seamlessly pass his mess to a Democratic President...who will be distracted by the disaster and have no time for indignation against the former administation...

BUSH IS SHOWN THE DOG...INSTEAD OF SUMMIT!

In Arab hospitality...style is everything...there is a lot of hidden symbolism...it's not like a Texas Bar-b-Que...

What happen today with Bush being kept out on the porch...while the others talked about policy was no accident!

And this spin that Maliki didn't want to talk about Palestine...so he avoided Bush is...well, Totally Rovian!

The notion of the President of the US being snubbed and ignored is sending a serious message that something SERIOUS is up...!

Sadr and his boys are pulling all the strings now...! What now Neocons?

THE BAKER PLAN...

The Big Plan for Iraq is due out soon...

But, what can be done realistically...?

My hunch is that removing US forces to the Norhern Kurdish Regions would be the best of many bad alternatives...

Consider:

In the Kurdish region...

1. Americans could put pressure on the Kurds to stay a part of Iraq...which is essential, but not necessarily a given.

2. US Forces could "gaurd" the northern oil fields...and perhaps win contracts from the Kurds for development of resources...after all they do "owe us one!"

3. The US could "keep an eye on" the Kurdish PKK rebels, who are making many attacks in Turkey and Iran; and pushing for an independant Kurdish state. This would keep Turkey and Iran out of the north of Iraq.

4. American military power would be permanently based in a key region for future possible action.

5. The Kurds could be "protected" from the Sunnis and Shia, who will slug it out for control of central Iraq during the coming "civil war."

6. An additional idea would be to declare Baghdad to be an "open city" with it's own government that is seperate from the other regional "federal districts"... Baghdad would be basically like Washington DC...not really a part of any one "state." But rather, a FEDERAL DISTRICT, that is "owned" by all of the states in Iraq... This notion of an open city might be enough to get Sunni "buy in" to a Federalist government.

7. The oil revenue must be controlled by a central body and distributed through a scheme that's decided by the parties; perhaps on a per capita basis...with some allowance for local autonomy that is not based on population...something like the US Senate where statehood, not population, is the basis for power.

From the treatment Bush is getting in Jordan today...it is also possible that the regional leadership in the middle east will join together...WITHOUT BUSH AND THE NEOCONS...and solve this mess themselves...

The US is the 800 pound gorilla in the room...to be sure...but you don't really have to "negotiate" with a gorilla...!

All you have to do is keep it quiet and contented and not causing trouble...sort of like Bush in Jordan tonight!

IRANIAN PRESIDENT SENDS "MESSAGE" TO AMERICAN PEOPLE

Here is the message from Iran's President to the American people...

Might as well read it...our non-reader President doesn't seem to be getting us anywhere these days.

"Just communicate" is always the best policy...

OIL SOARS! SO DO STOCKS...!

Gold down...even while oil soars...and stocks rally... Wassup...?

Well likely we are back in the grip of the Wall Street Bonus Army for a while...

The move in oil today should have been disturbing... But with mutual funds flush with retirement cash from the American sucker public... The market masters can simply buy their way out of any declines in stocks...

The weaker the dollar gets...the higher the nominal value of the Dow can go... Which is fine as long as you don't look at the prices of oil and gasoline and alas, even gold eventually...!

BUSH SNUBBED...IGNORED!

This has got to be the greatest insult to an American President in recent memory...!

Bush is being treated as a persona non grata in the middle east...and is being avoided and snubbed by those who now insist that the Neocon-Zionist agenda also consider other parties in interest...

Truly amazing... Don't the US and Israel "control" the middle east...?

If there was ever any doubt that the wheels are coming off in Iraq; and in the middle east in general...it is this "insult" to Bush by his hosts in Jordan... Bush is being treated like your crazy aunt who has to be kept in the kitchen while everyone else is in the dining room!

Maliki is no longer the obedient puppet of the US occupation...but does he have the power to stand alone without the Sadrites in Iraq...probably not. Today Maliki and the King decided that they would meet to discuss things...without the President... Bush was simply ignored!

Lately the middle east debacle sort of reminds me of the US economy.... It's a myth. A show. A House of Cards just waiting to be pushed over...by the slightest unfortunate breeze...or ill wind...

Perhaps a new American President will be able to restore American respect in the world...

But it's going to be a long long wait till January 2009...!

THE DUMPSTER DOLLAR

How bad is it...? Down on the Euro by 50% in five years...! See link.

Do we have a devaluation yet...? At these levels the Dow should be selling at 20,000 just to stay even with the rate of devaluation on the currency...!

FOLLOW THE HOUSE CRASH AT THIS LINK

FORD BUYS OUT HALF OF WORKFORCE...!

But just what exactly were these people doing BEFORE they took the buy out...?

What seems to be happening is the demise of auto making by American companies... The last of the "legacy" manufacturers may now be allowed to fade away...or perhaps be aquired cheaply for their brands, copyrights and patents...

DOLLAR STRUGGLES AT 132 ON EURO...

Some happy talk must kick in soon...it always does.

FED IN HAPPYLAND...

This link restates a lot of ideas posted here... Noting that there is a huge gap between perception and reality... But can reality be denied for long...? Obviously not. Just as with the dotcom bubble which everyone knew was based on faked information...so too the inevitable will happen in this case. The dollar simply must plunge...or rates must raise substantially.

CIVIL WAR DEFINED...

Much of the discussion lately is about IF Iraq is in a "civil war."

But no one bothers to define the phrase before they start to opine about it.

Here's my attempt at a definition:

To have a "civil war" you must first have AN ESTABLISHED GOVERNMENT TO REBEL AGAINST...!

Iraq only has a proposed government...the one that was recently elected...under the occupation.

Iraq would seem much more like a "civil war"...IF there had been an established government...and then, a rebellion arose against the old established government.

This would fit the US civil war model of 1861.

Additionally, can you have a civil war while an occupation is going on...? I don't think so... Essentially the occupation force tries to impose it's government on the occupied nation...and some rebel against this... But is that a civil war...? Probably not because the occupation force is not really a part of the "civitas"...it's not "of the people."

So an insurgency against an occupation is not a civil war... Was France in a civil war after the 1944 occupation...? After all there was a "french" government in Vichy...imposed by the Germans and their French quislings...?

Obviously France was not in a civil war after 1944...

I would have to say that the French model should apply to Iraq... There is no real established government...there is only a government proposed by the occupation forces... Hence the insurgency against the occupation is not a "rebellion"... If you assume that you can't rebel against something that was never legimate in the first place...!

THE LACK OF AN ESTABLISHED GOVERNMENT TO REBEL AGAINST MAKES TRUE CIVIL WAR IMPOSSIBLE IN IRAQ... THIS IS AN INSURGENCY AGAINST AN OCCUPATION...AND AGAINST THE OCCUPATION'S "PLAN" FOR THE OCCUPIED TERRITORY...

The fact that various native groups are supporting various plans...does not make it a civil war... The best definition of Iraq presently is an insurgency boardering on anachy... Anarchy being the state of nature where there is no government...

Curiously, this notion of "territorial government" is rather new to human history...

In the old days...all government was tribal...that's to say based on "a people" or a race, not on a territorial peice of land. We had Kings of the English...not Kings of England...in the early days.

Iraq still has it's tribal affiliations intact...and perhaps ready to govern...

So maybe Iraq is not in a civil war...maybe Iraq is just "occupied" by a foreign military...?

BERENANKE SEES WEAK DOLLAR...NOT INFLATION.

The headline is Bernanke sees inflation...

But if it said Bernanke sees "weak dollar"... it would probably be more accurate...

Of course a weak dollar could cause an inflation... So it's six of one and half dozen of the other...

But still the weak dollar is "for sure" given the macroeconomic problems the US is having...these problems are totally unrelated to the current strengh of the economy...or wages...or even inflation.

THE WEAK DOLLAR IS STRUCTURAL...

BUT THE ECONOMY AND INFLATION ARE ALL ABOUT WHO'SE PRINTING MONEY AND WHY...

In other words if Bernanke quit printing money today:

THE DOLLAR MAY STILL BE WEAK BECAUSE OF OTHER "MACRO" FACTORS GOING AGAINST THE US ECONOMY...LIKE THE MASSIVE TRADE DEFICIT...THE HUGE WAR BUDGET...AND A DEBT BASED ECONOMY...OR THE LACK OF PRODUCTION CAPACITY IN THE US...

So call it inflation...or call it an attempt to address the weak dollar...

Perhaps the weak dollar would scare people too much...because it would put things on a higher intellectual level than Americans are used to in their public/economic dialogue...

Americans want to hear that inflation is a threat because workers are making too much money! Not because the FED and Washington and Wall Street have trashed our economy with corporate looting...and asset inflation that is now finally coming home to roost...

BYE BYE PILL PUSHIN' BABES...

Now maybe prescriptions will be written for the "right reason"...because the patient saw the pill advertised on TV...!

CARTER BASHES ISRAELI ULTRA RIGHT...

Jimmy Carters NEW BOOK gets down to business with the Israeli Ultra Right and their shills in the US media...

That kind of reality based thinking is going to be necessary if the US is ever to get out of the mess in the middle east...

HERE'S THE BERNANKE SPEECH...

THE SPEECH

BERNANKE'S CONCLUSION:

What implications does the pickup in labor costs have for price inflation? One possible outcome is that increases in labor costs will largely be absorbed by a narrowing of firms' profit margins and not be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. The fact that the average markup of prices over unit labor costs is currently high by historical standards suggests some scope for this outcome to occur. If higher labor costs are mostly absorbed by firms and not passed on, then workers will see the gains in their nominal compensation per hour of work translated into greater real compensation per hour; in the process, workers would capture a greater share of the fruits of the high rate of productivity growth seen in recent years. The more worrisome possibility is that tight product markets might allow firms to pass all or part of their higher labor costs through to prices, adding to inflation pressures. The data on costs, margins, and prices in coming months may shed some light on which of these two scenarios is likely to be the better description of events.
During the early part of this decade, the Federal Reserve sharply eased the stance of monetary policy to help bring the economy out of recession and to foster a durable economic expansion. Once the expansion had clearly gained firm footing, the FOMC began a process of normalizing interest rates that involved seventeen consecutive increases in overnight rates of 25 basis points each. In August of this year, and again in September and October, the Committee left interest rates unchanged so as to assess the effects of its previous policy actions, and because of indications that economic growth was moderating and that inflation pressures might be diminishing somewhat. At the same time, the Committee has continued to emphasize the upside risks to inflation and the high costs that would be associated with a failure of inflation to moderate gradually as expected. Needless to say, we will continue to monitor the inflation situation closely. Whether further policy action against inflation will be required depends on the incoming data and in particular on how these data affect the FOMC's medium-term forecasts of both inflation and output growth.

FOR SALE CHEAP...OR CHEAPER

Why buy now if house prices are going to continue falling...? By this spring you'll get REAL BARGAINS!

YOU TUBE ON YOUR CELL PHONE...?

Oh Goody....! The march of human progress continues...

LAME DUCK OR LAME BRAIN...?

Bush is starting to talk nonsense again... But this time it's in foreign capitals where everyone can hear it...close up.

Essentially the Bush/Neocon Mess will be left for the next President to solve... Very few foreign leaders will jump on the Bush "Bandwagon" now... Indeed, jumping off the American foreign policy bandwagon is probably the most logical outcome...

This means more low level fighting in all the hot spots for the foreseeable future...but even if the death and injury rates are low...the cost to the American taxpayer is huge! Hence the declining dollar...

BERNANKE SPEECH COMING SOON...

The text of the speech should be at this link this afternoon...

It would behoove Bernanke to talk about the dollar plunge...and how he can deal with it. If gold stays "healthy" and the dollar stays weak can an oil spike be far behind...?

DURABLES PLUNGE...

There is very little to be done about the US economy.

Any rate DECREASE will be seen as even more reason to flee the dollar... Most of the consumer numbers will be bad for a long time to come... The American consumer has been the punching bag of Wall Street and Washington for years...

Most Americans can't even "qualify" to file bankruptcy under the new bank favored rules that bar anyone making a "living wage" from filing for a Chapter 7 liquidation...rather persons with decent incomes are forced to pay back their debts in a long term recievership called Chapter 13...which is almost the same as being in Debtor's Prison...!

If the Democrats want to free up weak consumers they should immediately "liberalize" the access to Chapter 7 for many high income debtors...because the "debtors prison" approach is taking a lot of consumers out of the market place...and the banks and credit card companies are not exactly hurting...

This is all part of an ongoing program to push risk DOWN TO THE AMERICAN CONSUMER...

AND GUESS WHAT? IT'S WORKING...JUST LOOK AT THE WALMART SALES NUMBERS!

THE REGIONAL CONFAB MYTH...

The lastest Hokum and Bunkum on the Iraq Debacle is....THE REGIONAL CONFERENCE.

You know...all the "evil ones"...Syria, Iran, The House of Saud.... Hey they might as well invite Osama...he could use some time out of the cave!

But will Israel be invited...? Probably not. And will Israel even allow the US to negotation about the Palestinians and the West Bank...definitely not!

So how can you have a "regional conference" when Israel will have veto power over the result...and will not even honor the participants with their presence...? Or is the US really only in Iraq for the oil after all...

THE MIGHTY EURO...! THE DUMPSTER DOLLAR!

But don't forget gold...

WALL STREETS COLLAPSE

The customers still dont have any yachts...except of course for the brokers.

Click here for THE BOOK.

GOLD STOCKS BARELY MOVE...ON DOLLAR CRASH!

The rise in Gold and the plunge in the dollar bearly moved Gold Stocks today...

So the central bank "gnomes" where working after all!

Still gold stocks have got to be a buy at these levels...unless you see a recession in 2007. And a recession in 2007 is looking more likely everyday...!

POPE SHOULD STAY HOME...

Why is the Pope enflaming the Muslims with his visit to Turkey...just as things are spinning out of control in Iraq...?

What good will this do...? And what's risk of a bad outcome...?

I mean the crusades are over...and we can't change the Mosques back into churches even if we "win" in Iraq... The whole affair smacks of a "victory lap" by the Christians over the Muslims...considering the state of things in the Middle East...and in Iraq in particular...

LONG TERM GLOOM AND DOOM?

Probably... The market masters have to get busy if they want to avoid a panic...

This market and the US economy have absolutely nothing going for them right now...

It's all Gloom and Doom all the time these days... Make no mistake this is a crisis of the first magnitude... The entire US House of Cards is at stake...

Our asset inflation based economy may be ending...

FLIGHT TO METALS...

But will the FED step up and rise rates...as they must do sooner or later...?

The most accurate scenario for the next few years is...just think "70's!"

While the economy may have "changed" it's not clear that it was a change for the better...

Is Iraq "better than" Vietnam...? No! It's much much worse...

And the rules of macroeconomics, and monetary and fiscal policy have NOT changed... Despite efforts by the Greenspan FED to tout the "new economy" so it could be "different this time."

It ain't gonna be different,...but it aint' gonna be the same either...

In truth, it will probably be worse...! The US economy in the 70's was an industrial powerhouse...unlike today.

DOW DOOMED!

The rally about nuttin' is finally over...!

Dow 12,000...Oh Please! Based on what? The Devalued Dollar?

RETURN TO THE CD...

This link opines that CD rates may have "peaked..."

But my question is what planet are they talking about...?

With the dollar plunging... there is no way rates have "peaked."

Of course the "economic juveniles" who write this drivel still think that the FED can lower rates any time it wants "to stimulate" Wall Street and the American Consumer...

A little deeper reading of Macroeconomic History might be in order...!

DOLLAR BREAKS BELOW 131 ON EURO...!

Is the Euro that strong or is the dollar that weak...?

Clearly the Eurolanders have been keeping their houses in order...and have not been the victim of military adventurism and economic looting by the global capital elites as in the US...

I think that we can safely say that the Era of Globalism is over... Now who'se going to tell China the bad news...?! Curiously, the US economy will not benefit from the weaker dollar...because the US is not an "export economy" as in Asia and Europe... For the most part the US does not manufacture goods anymore...

And this notion that we are going to made it up on the financial services side is a bit nuts; because the US is totally dependant on foreigners for it's financial support now... China runs the US bond market these days...

Any threat to stop buying bonds could shut the American economy down...and force rates to over 10%++ again like in the late 70's...

ONLY GOLD BASHING WILL SAVE THE DOLLAR

Can the market masters pull off a Gold Bashing to save the dollar...?

We'll soon find out. But the notion that the dollar can only be saved by Gold Bashing is not a long term solution. Sooner or later Bernanke is going to have to raise rates to late 1970's levels...simply because we have a late 70's problem to deal with... And unfunded war, massive economic looting by international capital, and a populist Congress...

THIS IS ALL SO 1968 THAT IT'S AMAZING NO ONE HAS NOTICED!

The dollar is simply going "off gold" again like it did in 1971...and there will be consequences just as there was in the 70's and early 80's. Looting by the elites and bad fiscal and monetary policy in Washington can not go unpunished forever.

MICHIGAN: SETTLES FOR THE ROSE BOWL!

When did the Rose Bowl become the "Booby Prize" in College Football...?

BROWNBACK MUST BE DELUSIONAL...!

Brownback for President...?

Oh Pleaseeeee! That moron must be completely delusional...! Brownback is a sad joke...and a total insult to the voters of Kansas. He'll be very lucky if he doesn't end up like Santorum in the next election...

How totally pitiful and out of touch many of these God Squad types are...!!

WALMART IS STUCK IN FLY OVER COUNTRY...!

If Walmart were heavily located in Democratic "Blue States" they might be doing better... But they aren't! Walmart is mostly in "Red State" rural and exurban areas that have been devastated by the weak jobs market and low wages.

It's rather curious that the more likely you are to be impoverished by Republican Policies...the more likely you are to live in a Red State!

IN SHORT, THE REPUBLICAN BASE IS BEING IMPOVERISHED BY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!

AND THAT'S REALLY WHAT THE LAST ELECTION WAS ALL ABOUT...! THE PO'BOYS ARE COMING HOME TO THE LIBERAL, PRO-LABOR, PROGRESSIVE POLICIES OF THE DEMOCRATS... AND MANY RED STATERS HAVE REALIZED THAT WALL STEET IS A BIGGER THREAT TO THEM THAT "THE HOMOS"...ESPECIALLY THE EVANGELICAL HOMOS...

MEANWHILE WALL STREET, THE ELITES AND JESUS ARE BEING LEFT OUT OF THE CURRENT POLITICAL DEBATE...

IT'S MORE ABOUT JOBS THAN JESUS WITH THE TALKING HEADS THESE DAYS...

DADDY'S HOME...BIG GOLD PLUNGE ON MONDAY.

The "word" on the Street Friday was that the plunging weak dollar was because the real players were taking the day off...

So, when the big boys come back Monday...? We should expect a BIG GOLD BASH...ASAP! GOLD COULD LOSE $15 TO $20 ON MONDAY...IF THE "SAVE THE DOLLAR" MANTRA IS IN PLAY...

AND ALSO SOME KIND OF DOLLAR BUYING FRENZY...

PROBABLY THROUGH A BIG MARKET RALLY BASED ON PHONEY SHOPPING NUMBERS FOR BLACK FRIDAY... (BUT THAT ALWAYS HAPPENS).

SO MONDAY COULD BE VERY INTERESTING FOR THE DOLLAR...

A WEAKER DOLLAR IS SIMPLY NOT CONSISTANT WITH THE CURRENT STORY-LINE BEING TOUTED BY WALL STREET...

ISRAEL: THE BIGGEST LOSER IN IRAQ...

The recent and "sudden" ceasefire in Gaza smacks of someone getting instructions from Washington about what the coming weeks are going to look like...

The "big meeting" between Maliki and Bush in Jordan is happening under the watchful eye of a Jordanian monarch who blames Israel and the Zionists in America for the recent troubles in the region.

Now suddenly.... Israel pulls out of Gaza and doesn't "retaliate" when a few homemade "rockets" are sent over Israeli land by Palestinian radicals...! Wassup there...?

Why not butcher of few more Palestinian women and children just for the fun of it...just because you "can?"

Well, because Cheney is in Araby now begging for help from every Islamist who will talk to him! That's why...!

ISRAEL IS GOING TO BE THE BIGGEST LOSER OUT OF THIS DEBACLE IN IRAQ....THE ISLAMIC NATIONS WILL INSIST ON A PULL OUT OF THE WEST BANK AND GAZA AND A REAL TWO STATE SOLUTION...AS A QUID PRO QUO FOR ANY HELP TO THE NEOCONS ON GETTING OUT OF IRAQ...

TO REPUBLICANS: RE: DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE.

The best "Defense of Marriage" that Republicans could come up with is an economy where people make a living wage...!

A poor job market is the worst enemy of stable marriage...as many younger people simply can not afford to get married...or stay married...because of poor finances.

MALIKI'S BIG GAMBLE...

Having the Iraqi P.M. going to his Washington backers next week gives the appearance of a puppet being called in for his "MARCHING ORDERS...!"

Maliki is taking a huge risk by appearing to kow-tow to the American Occupation and Bush & Co.

The wheels are already coming off in Iraq...this visit by the Iraqi P.M. could be the straw that breaks the camels back... Sadr is already threatening to bolt the government if the visit takes place...

The coming weeks in Iraq will get curiouser and curiouser...as the trap tightens on the Neocons and the Washington Dupes of the Likud Party in Israel.

JUST LOOKING....?

Well the thrift shops are booming...as Americans stop spending money for any number of reasons. "Vin is In" for about 60% of the American consumers these days... Many people can't even afford Walmart these days...

WALMART SALES PLUNGE...

The notion that the American Consumer can spend indefinitely WITHOUT JOBS, WITHOUT WAGES, AND WITHOUT HEALTH CARE COVERAGE is starting to collapse...

There is a need for some kind of Progressive Agenda from the Democrats to restore the American Consumer...perhaps at the expense of the Wall Street elites and the off-shore rich who have been looting the US economy under Republican rule for literally decades...!

LET THE COLLAPSE COME...IT CAN NOT BE STOPPED NOW...

THE SOLUTION IS A MAJOR PROGRESSIVE, NEW DEAL STYLE, AGENDA IN WASHINGTON...AS IF...ORDINARY AMERICANS HAVE SOME ROLE TO PLAY IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY OTHER THAN AS VICTIMS WHO ARE LOSING THE JOBS, BENEFITS, RETIREMENTS, AND MEANS OF SUPPORT...

CAN THE MARKET MASTERS PULL A LATE DAY GOLD BASH...?

They did it Wednesday...but can they do it again...

And will it make any difference as long as the Bernanke FED remains oblivious to the marcroeconomic plight of the US economy...?

It's going to take a combination of higher rates AND major gold bashing to save the dollar this time...

And even then... there are forces that are acting as a "force of nature" against the dollar nowadays...

Dollar Hubris and the years of Asset Bubbles need to be resolved before the dollar can be restored to a healthy position.

But for now, simply another late day Gold Bash by the market masters might work...

Because the hot money plungers and hedge funds are a timid lot... It doesn't take much to send them scattering in all directions...

BERNANKE MUST SAVE THE DOLLAR!

All forces are starting to converge for "interesting times" ahead in 2007.

Just the usual "gold bashing" won't work anymore...

All four wheels are coming off now...!

The War, The Asset Bubbles, The Twin Deficits, Regime Change in Washington... It's a perfect storm of macroeconomic gloom and doom for the FED and the US Dollar...

The FED hawks were right...they saw this coming.

Bernanke must get on this dollar plunge ASAP. The US monetary house of cards is starting to fall apart...

And this time it may be very different from the 1970's...

The US economy and the dollar are now a manufacturing/production "back water"....unlike the last time we had these problems...say from 1968 to 1981...

DOLLAR PLUNGE! BERNANKE MUST RAISE RATES MORE!

The plunging dollar is going to force the hand of the Bernanke FED to raise rates EVEN MORE than they have been willing to do so far...

Simply put...this is 1968 all over again...there is a massive unwinnable and unfunded war that is being financed "off the books" by the Republican Kongress. The trade deficits is not even being addressed for the disaster it promises to the US economy... Greenspan would only tell us during his Bubble Daze...that "eventually" the dollar will fall and the situation will be "self corrected" in the marketplace...

Of course the untold secret is that Americans will have to accept a much lower standard of living...and the inflationary effects of a plunging dollar will cause inflation...first in commodities...then spreading to the rest of the economy.

But any increase in rates will ipso facto mean lower asset prices as real economic assets produce less cash...even as bank deposits grow and saving starts to pay again...! See the period from 1978 to 1981 for details...!

YES 16% CD's ARE POSSIBLE...INDEED THEY ARE COMING...AS IN THE LATE 1970's...

AND THAT IS WHY THE 1970's WERE A DOOMSDAY SCENARIO FOR THE STOCK MARKET...AND THE BROKERS WHERE "BROWN BAGGING " THEIR LUNCHES...NOT DRIVING AROUND IN LIMOS...

THE 1970's ARE COMING BACK... BUT, YOU KNOW SOMETHING....? THEY ALWAYS DO...

THE BOOMERS CAME INTO THE ECONOMY WITH AN INFLATIONARY RECESSION...AND NOW THEY WILL GO OUT WITH AN INFLATIONARY RECESSION...

CHARGE...!!!

Lest we forget the legacy of the Republican Kongress...to Black Friday...?

Click Here.

BUSH FACES TOTAL CHAOS IN IRAQ!!

The need for accountability by the occupation forces is essential!

CHELSEA BOOK FAIR EXHIBITORS LIST

Some interesting browsing of UK bookstore sites...after dinner perhaps. See the "Exhibitors List A-Z" on left margin in this link...

Or, here is the exhibitors list from the recently concluded Boston Book Fair...

GOBBLE GOBBLE...

IRAQ BEING ETHNICALLY CLEANSED

NYT: 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF THE YEAR

FED'S WARSH ON ASSET PRICES...

DOLLAR PLUNGE...! 130 EURO LOOMS...?

The Dollar Plunge could explain the BIG GOLD BASH late today... Simply put the global economy can't stand a 130 Euro...! And we are very very close to that magic number... A number when "stuff happens..."

And note well: A Dow at 12,300 with a weaker dollar does not look like to old Dow priced with a stronger dollar...

In short, you can have Dow 30,000 IF YOU DEVALUE THE DOLLAR TO 230 ON THE EURO...!!

GOLD STOCKS SUFFER LATE DAY PLUNGE!

Whoooa...! Can't have those evil gold stocks going up... LoL.

Maybe the post below caused concern...? Please note the post below was timed 10:50AM eastern...and the gold stock plunge happen immediately thereafter...?

But then...I am good a picking tops...particularly when buying...!

The Gold Chart today is odd...to see it...Click Here

But then Gold Stocks and Gold are always a bit odd...especially in these degenerate days of managed markets and Central Bank digital money...

BLACK FRIDAY...Oh PLEASE...

Not after what the Republicans and the oil companies put the American Consumer through this year...!

Maybe the thrift shops will be booming...? But regular retailers...? I doubt it...

Of course, there will be the pre-holiday hype, there ALWAYS is...

And the trampling mobs in a shopping frenzy---looking for the few loss leaders at that big box store...have in "limited supply."

But after that...? Not much I would assume...just the hype like last year...and the year before...and the year before...

THE DELL MIRACLE...? PROFIT WITHOUT INCOME GROWTH?

Something about the Dell numbers don't look right...or at least sustainable.

GOLD STOCKS HAVE PEP TODAY

My hunch is that the recent Internet Bubble Redux...is going to end soon.

The reality of 2007 is grim for the markets...the real estate crash is a long term work in progress. And the war spending and twin deficits are starting to bite like it's 1968!

Demand for commodities from the new economic powerhouses of China and India seems unstoppable.

And the Greenspan liquidity orgy is coming to an end in the US markets... Benanke has a full plate of macroeconomic gloom and doom going into the new year.

THE LIQUIDITY RALLY ON WALL STREET IS GOING TO END BEFORE THE END OF THIS YEAR...

IS LEBANON THE NEXT IRAQ WHICH WAS THE NEXT LEBANON.

When will the Zionists give up on annexing the West Bank...that is the real question that needs to be answer. And hopefully ASAP...

BACK SURGERY IS ONLY HELPING DOCTORS...

The human skeleton is designed to self adjust to most common injuries...like back injuries.

There's two million years of evolution going for those who do NOT opt for surgery...

And plenty of possible complications for those who do... Don't mess with the natural order of things...unless it's absolutely necessary...

IT ISN'T EASY BEING GREEN...OR READING TOM FRIEDMAN!

I mean...find someone with something relevant to say already... This guy is like an old broken record...! Borrrring!

TROOPS BUTCHER MORE PEOPLE IN IRAQ...

When will the Republicans admit their huge mistake...?

There will be no "victory" in Iraq...only more hatred for Americans...and their allies in Israel...

The phrase: OUT OF CONTROL is starting to seem apt...!

RARE GOLD STOCK RALLY TODAY...

There will be many more in 2007...

THE GOOGLE BUBBLE WILL BRING DOWN THE ECONOMY

There is a Second Coming of the 1999 Internet Bubble afoot...

And it's bursting will be the final blow to the Greenspan Era of Asset Bubbles...

Yes, this seems logical but remote... But so did the 2000 DotCom Crash...

THE SOCK PUPPET IS WATCHING FROM STOCK PLUNGER HEAVEN...!

STOP THE ZIONIST LAND GRAB ON THE WEST BANK...

And you will solve 90% of the World's terror problems...

And the other 10%...?

Those can be handled with good state-to-state police work...

The dirty little secret has always been that the War on Terror is not solvable by military power... God only knows that Iraq and Afhganistan have proven that!!

There is a growing sense that the Israeli and American OCCUPATIONS are the real source of MOST OF THE PROBLEMS WITH MUSLIMS AND ISLAMISTS...!

SETTLING IRAQ WITHOUT THE US...?

It could happen...! All Bush wants to do is bomb...not TALK!

MEXICO HAS TWO "GOVERNMENTS"...

The resurgent left is a global phenomenon...

The post-Soviet Era of Robber Baron Capitalism is ending... Free Trade is on the endangered species list... Call it "pitch fork populism" or the New Progressive Movement...but something is different now...the old Reagan/Thatcher Era has ended.

LEBANON ON VERGE OF ISLAMIST COUP...?

MORE TROOPS BUILD AN OCCUPATION...NOT A NATION!

Iraq is damaged goods... It's just too late for the US to "Do it right" the next time...

The best way to handle the current mess is simply let nature take it's course... Whatever the Iraqis "do" is what they will have to live with...

A better course would have been to "impose" a government on a western model by force with a large army of occupation...and with the help of at least some groups in Iraq... Sort of like the British did during their Empire Building phase...

You simply must have allies to impose a successful occupation... The reason Afhganistan is "going better," relatively speaking, is that the US had the help of the old anti-Soviet "Northern Alliance"...these are alas, a group of Drug Lords! But any port in a storm...!

EMPIRE BUILDING IS A RISKY BUSINESS...EVEN UNDER IDEAL CIRCUMSTANCES...AND WHAT IS HAPPENING IN IRAQ NOW...IS FAR FROM IDEAL.

FROM NOW ON BUSH & CO ARE GOING TO BE POUNDING SQUARE PEGS INTO ROUND HOLES IN IRAQ...

SIMPLY EXITING ASAP...IS LIKELY TO BE THE ONLY REAL OPTION NOW...

SINCE THE "MILLION MAN ARMY" IS PROBABLY A PENTAGON PIPE DREAM...

OR DO WE START UP A DRAFT AS SOME DEMOCRATIC "HUMORISTS" HAVE SUGGESTED...?

TO HAVE DEMOCRACY YOU NEED FIRST NEED A NATION

It's starting to be quite obvious that for democracy to work..you first need a sense of "nationhood."

There must be a unity of interests...at least temporarily...to establish a nation; as happen with the US in 1776.

But, with diversity of interests...democracy will fall apart....

Indeed, as the US democratic experiment almost did during the Civil War...

When diverse interests and groups are forced together; you get "bloc voting" as happened in Iraq...and, in truth, even happens in the US with the Red State/Blue State problem of late.

DEMOCRACY CAN NOT BE ESTABLISHED BY PROCLAIMATION...DEMOCRACY IS A PROCESS...NOT AN END IN ITSELF...

DEMOCRACY IS "TEACHABLE"....BUT ONLY AFTER THERE IS AN AGREEMENT THAT THERE IS A NATIONAL IDENTITY...WORTH HAVING...

WE NOW KNOW THAT THE US SHOULD HAVE IMPOSED A "JUST GOVERNMENT" ON IRAQIS BY FORCE IF NECESSARY....AND KEPT IT IN PLACE FOR MANY YEARS.

THUS...TO GIVE THE IRAQIS A CHANCE TO GET USED TO THE NEW ORDER OF THINGS...NAMELY...THEIR NEW NATION...

AND THE TOTALLY "FOREIGN PRINCIPLE" OF LIMITED GOVERNMENT WITH RESPECT FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS...ENFORCED PRIMARILY THROUGH A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND CONSTITUTION.... AND NOT BY THE TRIBE, SECT OR REGION....

BUSH WENT INTO IRAQ "ON THE CHEAP"

AND NOW IRAQ IS IN CHAOS...THIS CHAOS CAN ONLY BE DELT WITH BY THE IRAQIS THEMSELVES...

THE NEOCONS HAVE IMPOSED A DANGEROUS FRAGMENTATION ON IRAQ...

THE IRAQIS MUST DECIDE:

DO THEY HAVE...OR NOW EVEN WANT...A NATION...?

MERGER ORGY IS OUT OF CONTROL...

This M&A Orgy that the Bernanke FED has allowed to take place...is getting out of control.

Bernanke should have kept raising rates to AT LEAST 6%...just to take the froth out of the financial markets...which now seem to have a life of their own...TOTALLY DETACTED FROM THE REAL ECONOMY!!

TIME TO BURST THE "SECOND" INTERNET BUBBLE...?

Yahoo and Google are very, very overpriced stocks in the Internet sector...

I'd rather go with Amazon or Ebay...than either of these two big "search engines" at this point...

While search is important,...my hunch is that it is going to become increasingly less important as the Internet public becomes more set in their ways and has no need to search as much as they did when they first started using the net...

I mean...you don't need Google or Yahoo to tell you how to find Ebay or Amazon...once you've already bookmarked these sites as "favorites"...

And links to links on other pages can be a better way to search than resorting to a big search "engine" which is stuffed with "sponsered ads" and other such nonsense...

THE THREE "REAL" OPTIONS FOR IRAQ...

1. Impeach the President Now.

2. Impeach the President Later.

3. Or, charge the whole lot of them with War Crimes after they're out of office.

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HYPING THE HOLIDAYS...

It's time for the usual hype about Holiday Spending... But as usual spending will fall short.

With the likes of Walmart and Starbucks holding back on stellar predictions...the American consumer could be sobering up long before January 1st this year...

There will be some relief that the Democrats may stop the looting by Republican special interests...and that could cause a slightly better opinion about the future...

But my sense is that the election euphoria will be short lived... And other than the march of the Wall Street Bonus Army toward more end of year rallies...nothing has changed for ordinary people...more debt, more uncertainty about jobs and health care coverage, more confusion from government "numbers" that don't jibe with the reality on the ground...

WALL STREET'S BONUS ARMY MARCHES ON...

Even while the general economy collapses under foot...

TOM FRIEDMAN IS BORING...

Tom Friedman needs a new MoJo... AND QUICK!

His columns are not only wrong and nonsensical...they are starting to get very BORING! Even David Brooks is writing more interesting stuff now than Friedman!

IT IS ONE THING TO ENFLAME AND ANGER YOUR READERS...BUT TO BORE THEM TO DEATH TAKES IT TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL...!

THE TIMES SHOULD REALLY CONSIDER DUMPING FRIEDMAN IN FAVOR OF A WRITER WHO HAS SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF POST-ZIONIST, POST-NEOCON POLITICS IN WASHINGTON...

DUMPING DEAN WOULD BE A DEMOCRATIC DISASTER

If the Democrats think they can dump Howard Dean as party chair and go back to being Republican-Lite...they are saddly mistaken!

If Dean is dissed by the Democrats in Kongress... The Repubicans will take the Kongress and the Presidency in 2008...

DON'T PISS OFF YOUR BASE... JUST TO KEEP THE KORRUPTION GOING IN KONGRESS! IT WON'T WORK!

GOLD BASHING CONTINUES...

It's all thats left to protect the "system." That may seem simplistic...but it's also very true. Real Truths are often simple and elegant... If you want to see confused "nuance" in all of it's dismal glory ask a PhD...!

DELUSIONAL MARKET SEES GOLDILOCKS...

The markets are delusional again... Little can be done except to continue devaluation of the dollar to make the Dow "look good."

Foreigners are dumping bonds...and other US assets...as the FED seeks to provide liquidity for ever more asset inflation...even while the Toxic China Trade continues to deflate manufactured goods...

ONE BRIGHT SPOT...IF THE DOLLAR DEVALUES THE NOMINAL VALUE OF THE DOW; AND INDEED HOUSING MARKET PRICES MIGHT CONTINUE TO STABILIZE AT A VERY HIGH LEVEL...

BUT, THE WEAK CONSUMER IS HIDING IN THIS DATA...

STILL, THE XMAS SALES SEASON WILL BE HYPED AS USUAL...SO MORE HAPPY TALK SEEMS INEVITABLE.

AS LONG AS CHINA AND INDIA LIKE TO HOLD THE DOLLAR US DELUSIONAL THINKING CAN CONTINUE...BUT LET'S NOT CALL THIS A HEALTHY SITUATION...!

MORE DEVALUATION AHEAD...

A HIGHER DOW...AND PERHAPS ANOTHER DOUBLING OF THE GOLD PRICE LATER NEXT YEAR...

GOLD AT $800 HAS BEEN PREDICTED...BUT GOLD AT $1200 SEEMS DOABLE IN THE FACE OF MASSIVE DOLLAR LIQUIDITY...

THE DOLLAR BUBBLE IS ALL THATS HOLDING UP THE US ECONOMY NOW...AND OF COURSE THIS FEEDS THE RECENT TOTALLY STUPID M&A ACTIVITY...

EXPECT MORE MO-MO ACTION

This market will go up until it goes down...and only the market masters know when that will be...

The economy is slowing...the consumer numbers will deteriorate...but the year end bonus quest for the money managers trumps everything right now...

THIS MARKET WILL GO UP UNTIL THE MARKET MASTERS NEED TO REPLACE INVENTORY...THEN IT WILL GO DOWN FOR A DAY OR TWO ON "TECHNICAL" REASONS...THEN SLOWLY BACK UP AGAIN...

Bonds, oil and gold should start to kick in as negatives if things go too far to the up side...

So essentially a range bound market with little "real" happening...all resistance toward a soaring Dow has abated... Even the Iraq news today was all Happy Face...amid the death and destruction...!

FED FEARS INFLATION...IN MINUTES.

The Bernanke FED "minutes" are longish compared to Greenspan... A lot to read...and surely will take more than a minute... Here's a key part:

Although substantial uncertainty continued to attend that outlook, most members judged that the downside risks to economic activity had diminished a little, and likewise, some members felt that the upside risks to inflation had declined, albeit only slightly. All members agreed that the risks to achieving the anticipated reduction in inflation remained of greatest concern.

DEMOCRATS TAKE ON BIG BUSINESS AND WALL STREET...

Well that ought really to piss off the no brains, poverty stricken backwoods Hillbillies in the Red States...who are Soooo...."Republican!"

DOES MILITARY FEAR WAR CRIMES IF IRAQ WAR "ENDS?"

We seem to be in a state of Perma-War in the middle east... As long as the fighting continues the "post-war" blame game can be delayed...

Once the fight is over...all bets are off. And someone could be charged with war crimes...

Indeed, in Germany there is already a move by some to indict Rummy, et al...!

OUT OF TOUCH GENERAL WANTS WAR TO CONTINUE...

So let the dying continue...why should the Democrats care...it's all volunteers?

Democrats just need to back off on the war, and let this thing spiral out of control... Because the killing of Americans is surging in Iraq...

But this notion by the Generals that: We are going to "train them" is pure drivel...

WHO ARE WE GOING TO TRAIN...?

THE SHIA MILITIA...? SADR'S MILITIA...? THE GREEN ZONE PUPPETS DARE NOT VENTURE OUT OF THEIR AMERICAN PROVIDED BUBBLE FOR FEAR OF THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ.

AND, IF WE DO "TRAIN" THEM... WILL WE ACTUALLY HAVE THE GUTS TO GIVE THEM WEAPONS...?

WHO WILL THEY KILL WITH THOSE WEAPONS...?

THE INFIDELS WHO ARE OCCUPYING THEIR COUNTRY...! NAMELY THEIR AMERICAN "TRAINERS!"

IT IS TRULY AMAZING THAT THE MILITARY WOULD BE THIS "OUT OF TOUCH" ABOUT THE WAR...AFTER SO MANY YEARS!

I SAY LET THE "TRAINING" BEGIN...BECAUSE IT APPEARS THE AMERICAN MILITARY BRASS ARE VERY VERY SLOW LEARNERS... MY HUNCH IS THAT THE GENERALS ARE RELUCTANT TO HAVE A "DEFEAT" ON THEIR RESUMES....WITH THE NEW DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS COMING IN...WHICH COULD MEAN BIG CUTS IN DEFENSE SPENDING...

THE IRAQ WAR IS NOW ABOUT...THE CAREER OPTIONS FOR THE TOP BRASS; AND THE BUDGET OF THE PENTAGON IN THE NEW CONGRESS...

THE WAR ITSELF...IS NOT ONLY LOST...IT'S UNWINNABLE BY ANY DEFINITION OF VICTORY.

THE PRESENTATION BEFORE CONGRESS TODAY APPEARED TO BE MORE OF A "LAST STAND" THAN A RATIONAL REVIEW OF THE WAR AND IT'S AVAILABLE OPTIONS!

A VERY VERY SAD DAY INDEED...

OIL COULD SURGE ON MARKET HAPPY TALK!

Ya can't have one without the other...

THIS MARKET CAN'T LOSE...!

The run for year end bonuses is on...! This market can't go down until it stops going up...

And it will go up an anything and everything... Bad news is Good News... Good News is Good News... And No News is Good News...

The Gold Bash trade is active... And the FED is spreading Happy Talk at every opportunity...

Of course it's all fake because the economy is slowing and will slow markedly in 2007...

But it's not about 2007...it's about having big paper gains at the end of December 2006. Liquidity is the markets friend...and the FED has been printing money for years to "help" Wall Street..."

Even to the point of getting a massive gold and oil inflation earlier this year.

The collapse of the house bubble is still on-going...and should justify even more FED Happy Talk in the coming months...

Still, I doubt that retail investors are chasing this mini bubble market...but the money managers are...and they have ALL THE FREE CASH they need now thanks to decades of Republican Rule...and the Greenspanian BUBBLE FED...

Buying gold on the inevitable big dips...might work out in 2007...when reality comes back.

But reality could come back at anytime... The consumer is weak and getting weaker...everyone is using credit cards nowadays. Let's hope they remember that the Bankruptcy Law is no longer working for the debtor...but for the Banks!

FOR TODAY AND TOMORROW IT'S ALL HAPPY TALK...ALL THE TIME.

DOW TAKES A HAPPY PILL...

This market is such an inside game...it's ridiculous... To go from a flatline to an 80+ point gain in one hour is a little fishy... Everything is so "managed" these days...managed to maintain the paper wealth of the elites...and fleece the retail suckers everytime they take a plunge.

US WANTS A SECULAR "MODERN ISLAM"...IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Even while it tolerates Biblical Hocus-Pocus and Mumbo Jumbo from the Evangelicals and Zionists...in the US and Israel!

US AUTO COMPANIES BEG FOR HELP....

A speech by Jeff Immelt of GE recently enlightened me about what's really happening in American Industry...

Basically Immelt agreed that "de-industrialization" and going to a service economy would be bad for American wages long term...

But he said that the only way to restore manufacturing inside the US was to:

1. Improve education and produce more engineering grads...

2. Solve the health care mess...

But which comes first...the factory or the engieener? China is in a position to employ all of the engineers it produces. In the US a student going into engineering now does so "on spec" that there will still be factories in the US when they graduate...

Legacy companies like autos and GE are burdened with retirement and health care. Even while these same costs have been "socialized" in most of the developed world... Only the US does not have a health care, retirement and industrial policy toward it's citizens.

But why is this?

I've concluded that it is simply GREED IN THE BOARD ROOMS!

Most CEOs know that what they are doing to their companies is bad for the future of the nation and their companies....

But the short term goal in most board rooms is simply to make lots of money as quickly as possible...then get taxes lowered...and get out as soon as possible!

No one really wants to hang around too long and get caught holding the bag...

That's why the American auto companies are so pitiful... They are trapped by union contracts that they can't get rid of...outside of bankruptcy...

They can't join the LOOT AND SCOOT business plan that has been the name of the game on Wall Street for the last twenty years...

SIMPLY PUT CEOs are trapped between a CULTURE OF PERSONAL GREED...and the need to preserve their companies as viable businesses....

SO FAR THE CULTURE OF PERSONAL GREED HAS BEEN WINNING...

WALMART AND APPLE: TWO COMPANIES I DON'T TRUST.

BLAIR SPEECH: HELP US YOU FILTHY BASTARDS...!

But Blair did something that was very un-British...

He forgot to say: "Please...."

WEB HEADS ARE ADDICTS...!

Yet everyday more and more stuff is more easily accessible on the Internet...

Indeed, some people literally run their businesses on the Web...! The Internet is no longer merely a "data-telephone" as it was concieved in the 1970's...but rather a virtual marketplace and a storefront on the town square for the doing buisness... And as every shopkeeper knows...it's hard to leave the store early!

BUSH BABBLES ON ABOUT IRAQ...

When the "study group" reports...someone other than Bush should handle the White House response...which is liable to be just the same old babbling on...about "victory" and "winning" and other things that are no longer possible..except in the twisted mind of a White House Neocon...

Basically Bush is mentally blocked and frozen in place on Iraq... Nothing will happen in Iraq until Bush is out of office...Americans are just going to have to get used to one to five or more American deaths per day in Iraq and Afghanistan...for the duration of the Bush Presidency.

BLAIR CUTS AND RUNS FROM REPUBLICANS...

But it may be too little too late... It would not be a surprise if the whole lot of them ended up being charged with War Crimes at some point in the future...

And with Miss Nancy as Speaker and Mr Murtha as majority leader...that is starting to look more "doable" everyday...

FORCEFUL ECONOMY EVEN AS OIL FALLS...?

The economy might be growing forcefully...but only because the corporate sector is flush with newly printed FED cash... So, it's a booming economy for M&A, Off-shoring, and over-expansion in Asia and down-sizing in the US... But:

The American consumer is nearly busted...and this will keep showing up in the consumption numbers going forward... Walmart is all about Gloom and Doom now.

Perhaps that's why oil is falling...along with the retail numbers.

HAPPY TALK FOR EVERYONE ON WALL STREET

This is a market that just wants to stay happy! No matter what...

Indeed we seem to have entered a "crash proof"...albeit range bound phase.

Global markets are so managed, controlled and interconnected that they are in effect "self-sealing" for any ruptures that might occur...

The two biggest economies the US and China are so entangled that unpleaseantness will be avoided at all costs...!

The Democratic victory at the polls is probably reinforcing this idea; so that many feel the "grown ups" finally have some input on the process...

Still, all of the real underlying problems remain...but at last there will be input from the intelligensia in the US...

Finally, the horror of Republican corruption, looting, and their economy of "smash and grab" and greed is good is ending at last...and not a minute too soon.

REPUBLICAN DEFEAT WILL UNLEASH GLOBAL RATIONALITY!

Guess what?

The Bubba's of Kansas are no longer in control of the GLOBAL POLITICAL AGENDA...!

But, were they ever? Amazingly Yes!

During the Bush/Neocon---"Reign of Terror"--- small town religious Bubba Republicans were not just setting political policy in the US...BUT GLOBALLY!

THE POWER AND INFLUENCE OF THE US AND IT'S MILITARY MACHINE IS SO GREAT THAT...SMALL CHANGES IN ATTITUDES IN "FLY-OVER-COUNTRY" COULD COMPLETELY CHANGE THE GLOBAL POLITICAL AGENDA...!

SUDDENLY, RATIONALITY AND REASON ARE BACK IN FASHION...

JESUS IS NO LONGER A REASON FOR DOING THINGS IN WASHINGTON...!

This could be the biggest shift in the political dialogue in 20 years...

If the US abandons the "religious politics" of the last 10 years...the Social Democratic thinking of Euroland could come to the foreground again...

And dare we hope that the Islamic and Zionist world will follow the lead provided by the American electorate last week...?

I think it's very possible that the terms of the debate will change markedly in the coming months... No longer will the Neocon/Zionist veiwpoint be seen as unchallenged in the Halls of Power in Washington...

KEEP JESUS IN CHURCH...NOT IN THE CONGRESS!

COMMODITY DEMONS BANISHED FROM WALL STREET

The Street is celebrating the coming of lower earnings...

And perhaps a slower economy...and hoping that the liquidity holds up now that the FED is in retirement for the indefinite future...and as the real estate bubble continues to deflate for most of 2007.

NEW DEMOCRATS NEED TO GET TOUGH ON ISRAEL.

The US simply can not allow the Israeli ultra-right to dictate our foreign and mideast policy though the likes of the Neocons or any other crackpot political lobby in Washington...

Look at the disaster in Iraq...it was totally Israel-inspired with a little help from our dimwitted President... Iraq was a debacle that did not need to happen...

ANY considered analysis of the pre-war situation, outside of the crackpot Likudnic worldview, could have easily predicted what would happen!

BYE BYE BLUE CHIPS. HELLO GOLD!

MURTHA FOR MAJORITY LEADER...?

YES! YES! YES! A BRILLIANT CHOICE! MAKE THE NEOCONS AFRAID...VERY AFRAID!

DEMOCRATS WANT TO CUT AND RUN...

The notion that a US presence in Iraq will ever cause a stable government to form seems a total pipe dream now...

The US military should move to Kurdistan and let the Iraqis figure out what to do with Baghdad...but there should be clear instructions left that the oil money is to be used for all Iraqis...not just to enrich the dominant Kurd and Shia politicians and their parties.

The US military will have to stay in Kurdistan to protect Turkish interests in the region caused by the newly independant...and possibly now oil rich Kurdish parties... That inevitability is seldom even discussed in the media...but ultimately it will be...and it could provide the Exit Strategy that is now so highly sought after in Washington.

KRUGMAN CALLS "CONSERVATIVE" DEMOCRATS POPULISTS!

I agree with Krugman's assessment of the so called "conservative" Democrats recently elected to Congress...in the NYTs today.

These so called conservative Democrats could be more trouble for Wall Street Republicans than garden variety east coast liberals...

What the Republicans are facing is much much worst than merely a Democratic Congress...

The Republicans are facing a COLLAPSE OF THE WEDGE ISSUE POLITICS that has been the center peice of Rove's Republican Dynasty...

Many "ordinary Republicans"...the so called rural and exurban, non-rich Bubba Republians have finally wised up...!

Many Bubba Republicans now realize that the entire Gay/Feminist/Religious ploy by Republicans was a fake! And that they were taken for a ride by the Wall Street branch of the Republican Party...

These conservative Democrats are not big free traders...and are not for tax cuts for Billionaires and cutting back on Social Security and Medicare to pay for it...

AS LONG AS THE REPUBLICANS COULD CONVINCE THEIR "BASE" THAT POLITICS WAS ALL ABOUT HOMOS AND ABORTION...THE REPUBLICANS WERE IN POWER...

BUT NOW THERE IS A VERY REAL POSSIBILITY THAT THE TRUE NATURE OF THE POLITICAL PROCESS WILL BE REVEALED TO THE BUBBA REPUBLICANS... TO WIT: IT'S ALL ABOUT ECONOMICS AND CLASS!

JESUS DOESN'T TALK ABOUT SENDING JOBS TO CHINA AND GUTTING THE SOCIAL SAFETY NET...BUT THE REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP DOES...OR AT LEAST THEY USED TO...

REPUBLICANS SHOULD TAKE NO COMFORT IN THESE SO CALLED "CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRATS" NEWLY IN WASHINGTON... BECAUSE NOW THE JIG IS UP ON THEIR KEY "WEDGE ISSUES."

ROVE ON THE ISSUES...

Looks like the American electorate divided on "The Issues" versus Rove's "Wedge Issues" in this election...

But the very notion that you can build a political dynasty based solely on irrelevent Wedge Issues, Flim Flam, and Big Lies to people you hope stay stupid...seems incredible!

And it was...!

DOWD: IT'S CURTAINS FOR THE REPUBLICANS!

Where can Nancy buy Democrats' Their Drapes of Wrath...?

BUSH MOCKED BY Al Qaida in Iraq..!

HOW DARE THEY!!

Only Americans...and non-Muslims...are allowed to mock Bush!

Of course this comes from having someone in the office who is so completely "mockable..!"

BERNANKE SPEAKS...

FRIEDMAN ON STUPID PEOPLE...

To maintain free trade and globalism, as Friedman would like, in the face of middle class decline and discontent is going to require the Wisdom of Solomon for Democrats.

Should we rebuild the social safety net...simply to allow international capital to continue looting the cheap labor economies of the world...?

Or, is there another way to do this...?

I know of no economy in history wherein abandonment by capital resulted in prosperity. Protectionism may be bad...but what if we discover that everything else is worse...or unsustainable...

My hunch is that:

ALL ECONOMIES ARE LOCAL...AND THIS NOTION OF AN INEVITABLE "GLOBAL ECONOMY" IS A GROSS ECONOMIC HERESY...AS YET UNDISCOVERED...OR UN-EXPOSED...

KRUGMAN CHIMES IN...

Maybe the public isn't so stupid after all...?

Somehow 51% of the electorate came to realize that $50 million dollar per year CEOs are a bigger threat to the American economy than $50,000 dollar per year school teachers...at least the school teachers spend their money in the local economy!

And that Enron is a bigger threat than Gay Marriage...

The Republicans simply built their entire political house of cards on nonsensical "wedge issues" that were not sustainable in the face of gross incompetence and the recent "smash and grab" looting by Republican special interests...

Did they really think that Bubba would forget about the $3 gas for his F-150 last summer?

Did they really think that their sneak attack on Social Security could be trumped by Gay Bashing?

Did they really think the Iraq Debacle could be ignored by spreading fear and hate around the world?

SADDAM EXECUTION FEARED IN MIDEAST

The proposed execution of Saddam is not supported
around the middle east probably on the grounds that if you
can legally execute one Arab leader whom the US doesn't "like..."

What's to stop even more leaders from making it on the
American hit list...

Or, if insurgents and radicals feel that they "don't like" a certain
leader...then maybe they have the right of execution
against that leader too...

The point? Once you start executing the leadership you open
a Pandora's Box of possible Chaos...

Saddam will probably have one of those "Slobo Heart Attacks" soon...

Or maybe a Macho Suicide...?

Because a public hanging would not be a good result.

It would smack of a US supported Shia revenge killing...
And as they say the gates of Hell would
open and Chaos would engulf the entire region.
...No Arab leader would be safe.

Regicides are an extreme measure, and they usually have very bad endings...

JAPAN RATE HIKE PLANNED...

Will the Dollar Bubble be the next to burst...? After all the Republican/Greenspan Era is now officially over. And a trend toward reality seems inevitable.

MEHLMAN LEAVES....ROVE ON HIS OWN NOW.

It's time for a some "falling on the sword" action in Republican leadership ranks...

Now, Mehlman has left...too bad really.

Mehlman and Rove made such a nice couple...!

Rove's plans for a Republican "Thousand Year Reich" lasted almost six years...or about average for your garden variety Thousand Year Reich...historically speaking...

ELECTION RALLY: TIME FOR THE GIVE BACK.

The Election Rally failed on Wall Street... So now it's time to give back some of that run up.

Interestingly, the Street is not wasting any time on this...

Gold and Gold Stocks soared today...but why? Well, gold should have been soaring all year,...based on our macroeconomic situation...but there was a huge over-reach this spring...when gold became a "no brainer"...and the smart money "discovered" gold.

My hunch is that the "divided" Congress will cause the fundamentals to be more important now.

For a while there it looked like Dubya & Co should sell sand to Arabs and Ice to Eskimos...and Rove was the world's greatest political genius...

Well that ended on Tuesday!

WATCH FOR MORE EMPHASIS ON THE "REAL DEAL" AND THE MACROECONOMIC OF THE SITUATION... THE DAYS OF HYPE AND FLIM-FLAM ARE OVER....

PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW WHAT'S REALLY HAPPENING... NOT THE BULL SHIT COMING OUT OF WASHINGTON AND WALL STREET...

BUT CAN WE REALLY STAND A HARD LOOK AT THE FUNDAMENTALS...?

I DOUBT IT....

BIG GOLD RALLY...

Now we have:

Tax and spend in the Congress

and

Tax Cut and spend in the White House

No wonder gold stocks are soaring...!!

DEMOCRATS NEED TO TALK ABOUT THE "UNSUSTAINABLE" TRADE DEFICIT.

Protectionism...? Since when is protecting your homeland a bad thing?

So perhaps it's time to protect the dollar...and our HOMELAND ECONOMY!

Protecting America from Osama is needed... But protecting America from International Capital's greed and domestic Corporate Looting by the "Cult of the CEO" is ALSO NECESSARY!

DAVID BROOKS WANTS DEMOCRATIC BIG IDEAS. START HERE:

FIRST, start with single payer national health care...and stop the obscene subsidy from taxpayers to Walmart's "health care plan" (ie State Medicaide) for their low wage workers...

Find a way to get health care costs into line with other nations...so Granny doesn't have to sneak into Canada for her pills! At 15% of GDP the US is TRIPLE the global average on health spending...and no...the "results" are actually worse! If you want something done...go to Thailand!

SECOND, lets start talking about the Trade Deficit...and what it really means. If that means some "protectionism"...rather than the "eventual" collapse of the dollar... Maybe we should talk about that sooner rather than later...? So we don't have another "aftermath" problem...!

THIRD, lets means test Social Security and start funding it out of the general fund...and reduce the Battleship subsidy to the Pentagon...who are still fighting 20th Century Wars...and can't even control Baghdad... A sad condition for a "super-power." The current level of "war funding" is way out of line...and some of that could be cut with no decrease in security...indeed it might increase security since we'd still have the power to destroy the world several times over.

THE BEST THING DEMOCRATS CAN DO IS START DEFINING THE TERMS OF THE DEBATE...AND MOVE THE NATIONAL DEBATE TO REAL ISSUES...NOT THOSE SAD WEDGE ISSUES THAT FINALLY BROUGHT DOWN THE REPUBLICANS

DOWD ON DUBYA...

Dowd starts off:

Poppy Bush and James Baker gave Sonny the presidency to play with and he broke it. So now they’re taking it back....

WORLD WIDE JOY AT BUSH DEFEAT...

The entire world is celebrating the Republican defeat on Tuesday...

Indeed, today everyone seemed to be happy and smiling...at least around the university towns I know...no gloom and doom to be seen... It's like a great evil has been banished...and hope restored.

Hopefully those who have been trading in hate to mask their greed will come on board...

I'm referring to the CEOs, Evangelical Hucksters and all the other hatemongers who have trashed America during the last decade for personal greed.

The AM hate radio types are going to need extensive rehabilitation to get their thinking straight.