The Fannie and Freddie Show

Anyone who still believes that US equity markets are either safe, fair or honest, needs to take a look at today's charts. All of the major indices were down massively at 2:30 pm. The Dow was down 250, the NASDAQ, down 55, the S&P down 32. Just before 3:00 pm all of them turned positive.

Somehow, that kind of move does not make any sense. There are nefarious forces at work, and they are likely those of the government, in the form of the Plunge Protection Team (PPT), or the President's Working Group on Financial Markets.

Only they have the power to make markets move massive in one direction over very short periods of time. And by the way, they're the same group of people who are likely behind the current mess we're in, having stolen most of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae's assets years ago.

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Speaking of those two near-insolvent GSEs (Government Sponsored Entities), stocks were lower largely because most of the people who know a little about this stuff think they're going to go under, meaning that $5 Trillion worth of real estate loans will no longer be guaranteed by our wise and beneficent federal government. (It's probably for the best. They can't pay their bills as it is, so why not just default on everything?)

What will happen is a sharp rise in interest rates and a further deterioration of already seized up credit markets. The US economy is on the verge of complete catastrophic collapse, and those at the top of the heap - politicians, CEOs and mainstream news media - don't want us to panic. That's why the stock indices were only don their piddling amounts today, and not double or triple that.

But those losses are coming.

Sooner or later all manipulation schemes fail, and this one has run its course. Look for 10,000 on the Dow within 60 days and 8,500 or lower by year's end. There isn't enough good news around to save us. Even capturing Osama bin Laden (a good bet by November if the markets are down and the Republicans are down in the polls) will only boost stocks a little bit. Maybe 1000 points on the Dow, and even that won't last long.

Dow 11,100.54 -128.48; NASDAQ 2,239.08 -18.77; S&P 500 1,239.49 -13.90; NYSE Composite 8,347.24 -88.70

This is all about debt. Our banks are deeply in debt, to the point at which they have been selling off assets to raise capital. So are brokerages, investment banks, the Federal Reserve and the US government, and nobody has figured out a way out of debt.

Try reducing military spending by $500 billion a year, ending the war in Iraq and getting out of Afghanistan for starters. Too tough? Too bad, then. You lose all your assets.

Declining issues overwhelmed advancers again, 3793-2514. New lows beat new highs, 1210-77. Nearly 1 in 5 stocks on the NASDAQ and NYSE hit new lows today. No two ways about it, that's just plain ugly.

Oil finished up $3.33 at $145.66. Gold was up $18.60, to $960.60. Silver added 50 cents to $18.82. All of those prices are close to record - and unsustainable - highs.

Soon enough, everything is going to crash in price. Houses already have, and commercial real estate is beginning to crack. Stocks are down more than 20% from their year-ago highs. Commodities will be the last to go, but when they do, the losses on Wall Street will be enormous.

Remember Gordon Gecko, from the film Wall Street? He said, greed is good.. Well, allow me to paraphrase, as our so-called leaders try to avoid you and I panicking over our economic conditions. Panic is good.

Have a nice weekend. Enjoy it as best you can, because next week earnings reports begin flowing to market in earnest and they're going to be bad, very, very bad.

NYSE Volume 1,734,346,000
NASDAQ Volume 2,386,000,000