If you are one of the millions who expect to be alive and living in the good, old, USA from 2010 to 2030 and maybe beyond, you've got to see through all the phoniness of politicians, the corruption and collusion of the banks and major corporations, the concentration of wealth at the very, very top (not just the top 5%, but especially the top 1%) and on the other side the welfare state of outright welfare recipients, people on disability, veteran's benefits, social security and other similar entitlements and begin to believe that it's all going to end badly and the end is getting closer and closer every day.
The politicians and the fed and the completely corrupt, elite banksters will probably be able to keep the status quo for another six months or a year or maybe even two, but conditions are likely to deteriorate further. All attempts to sell "recovery" to the populace has failed. There's still some hope left in the people, but it's growing tired, especially since the "change" part of the equation promised by Mr. Obama and his Democratic party friends has failed to materialize in any meaningful way.
Upcoming are the mid-term elections, with Republicans blaring on about how the Democrats have failed and the Democrats attempting to vie for more time or alternatively scaring the voting public about what a Republican Tea Party takeover of congress will do to the country, not for the country. The worst part of it all is that the Republicans are likely to pick up some seats in the House and a few in Congress, but not enough to enable a majority large enough to overcome a presidential veto, while the Democrats will face the same kind of obstructionism that's been prevalent for the past four years.
In other words, the congress will be balkanized, stalemated and incapable of agreement on anything. It will be even worse in makeup than it is today, inept, powerless, clueless and incompetent, a recipe for economic disaster as sure as the sun rising in the East.
Today's action in stocks is significant, since the Democrats are making statements to the effect that they will not consider any kind of legislation concerning either the expiration or extension of the Bush-era tax cuts before the election, which was literally a sell signal to Wall Street, because getting a deal done after the election and before the tax cuts expire (December 31, 2010), will be next-to-impossible.
That's the main reason stocks ended today as they did, down for a second day in a row and this day's decline larger than yesterday's. Also, unlike recent days of gains, these last two declines were orderly, with each of the indices in somewhat of a lock-step with the others.
Stocks made a major near-term top on Tuesday, directly after the Fed announcement, and are aligned to head lower into the upcoming elections, just six weeks away. Prior to the elections, third quarter earnings report for most major publicly-traded firms are due out, which could provide some short term relief, but the direction is overall to the downside from here. After election day, who knows? With the Fed hell-bent on keeping the status quo, effectively debasing the currency with QE2, prospects for the remainder of 2010 are dicey at best.
Meanwhile, gold and silver have never looked better. Upon the release of the FOMC statement, both precious metals priced higher and have held or exceeded their new tops. Silver is at a 30-year high. Gold close to an all-time high, the record being set just yesterday.
Gold and silver will survive and prosper. They have been the best investments of the past 10 years and may have only begun an historic bull market. Precious metals prices could double, triple or go well beyond those levels within the next three to five years. Their charts show steady appreciation and interest in them is growing daily. All of this leads to the unmistakable conclusion that they are the only true store of value worth investing in today.
Advancing issues took a back seat to decliners on the day, 3897-1812. New highs continued to erode, but stayed well ahead of new lows, 249-57. Volume was not even worth mentioning, it was so shabby.
Latest gold bid: $1292.30; silver: $21.14 per ounce. Crude for November delivery rose 47 cents, to $75.18.
For more, read the latest musings of the Golden Jackass.
| Dow | 10,662.42 |  76.89 (0.72%) |
| NASDAQ | 2,327.08 | 7.47 (0.32%) |
| S&P 500 | 1,124.83 | 9.45 (0.83%) |
| NYSE Compos | 7,141.51 | 69.34 (0.96%) |
| NASDAQ Volume | 1,951,539,875.00 | |
| NYSE Volume | 3,999,012,250.00 | |
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment