Week In Review: Roadblocks or Flagmen? Dow Rocks Higher 7th Straight Session

Finishing out the week with a lackluster session that had the Dw up nearly another 100 points, the rally that began on May 26 - and which Money Daily then predicted would run 1000 points - is, as of Friday, good for a cool 747 points, rising, with a few bumps and grinds along the way, from 24,083.83 (April 25 close), to the current closing price of 24,831.17.

Unlike the NASDAQ (which finished lower on Friday), the S&P (which has seen two down days in the past seven), and the NYSE Composite (up six straight days) the Dow has risen each of the past seven sessions, although two of those sessions - the first and the fourth, which respectively saw gains of just five, and two points - have not been considered very inspirational nor insightful.

Still, stocks continue to ramp higher. They'll keep doing this until the herd of traders, lemming-like, will turn away for a few days or decide that they'd rather hold onto art or comic books or Beanie Babies or baseball cards, vintage cars, or oil futures while their favored pieces of dingy, junky corporate paper wither away over a longer period of time and get revalued at more appropriate prices.

That's the way Wall Street has always worked, and, despite all the howling from pundits, idiots and idiosyncratic voices one may value or disavow, it is the way it will always work.

Until it changes, the world is stuck with Wall Street and its various iterations in London, Berlin, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai and the various bourses of the civilized world, trading in debt and equity instruments of which the average investor knows little, expects much, and is happy to pump money into over vast swatches of time.

This kind of activity, viewed from an outside perspective, might seem odd. People make money from their various endeavors, only to pay bills, build up debt (mortgages, college funds, credit cards), and give the rest to some known or unknown entity to purchase partial shares of megalithic international corporations, giving said corporations vast amounts of money and power to invest, divest, spend, grow, or waste.

How much money is eventually a waste by corporations never enters the equation, though it's likely to be an enormous sum of money, which is probably why it's never mentioned.

For certain, some corporations do some good, but others are merely there for the taking, the tops of them skimmed by the ubermeisters of the investing world, the whales, the one-percenters, the government and probably some reckless speculators. The rest is left to the proletariat, the pensioners, the poor people.

A good question to ask a professional financial advisor is whether it would be wise to sell off a large portion of one's money in stocks and pay off all of one's debt, including the voracious eater of happiness, the 30-year mortgage. The stock answer is "no," followed by "no," and "oh, no."

Paying off one's mortgage would put banks out of business (it wouldn't really), and without banks, well, we wouldn't have, um, well... you see where this is going.

A long, long time ago, men and women owned land, raised their own crops, husbanded their own animals, taught their own children and bore whatever good or evil the earth, sun, and nature would bestow upon them. That was before the rise of the predator class of bankers, insurers, financiers, and governments. Now we outsource everything, starting with our own existence, the food we eat, to our children, which we send to schools where they are taught shoddily the ways of good citizenship and nothing about good survival and the difference between existence and prolonged suicide.

Your 401k or pension plan may give you comfort, but only indirectly. It's a promise to pay, over time. And promises are often broken. Just look at the divorce rate in developed countries or listen to a politician over a period longer than two years and you might detect that promises and words do not necessitate a brighter future.

Being bound to the whims and fantasies of corporate CEOs, government officials and generally, people whose wealth and power far exceeds your own may be some consolation that you have done well, but, in the end, all you really have is yourself and the land on which you stand, and some of you don't even own that.

Some things to think about, brought to you by music from the 60s.



Bear in mind: 26,616.71.

Dow Jones Industrial Average May Scorecard:

Date	Close	Gain/Loss	Cum. G/L
5/1/18	24,099.05	-64.10	-64.10
5/2/18	23,924.98	-174.07	-238.17
5/3/18	23,930.15	+5.17	-233.00
5/4/18	24,262.51	+332.36	+99.36
5/7/18	24,357.32	+94.81	+194.17
5/8/18	24,360.21	+2.89	+197.06
5/9/18	24,542.54	+182.33	+379.39
5/10/18	24,739.53	+196.99	+576.38
5/11/18	24,831.17	+91.64	+668.02

At the Close, Friday, May 11, 2018:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 24,831.17, +91.64 (+0.37%)
NASDAQ: 7,402.88, -2.0913 (-0.03%)
S&P 500: 2,727.72, +4.65 (+0.17%)
NYSE Composite: 12,761.82, +30.18 (+0.24%)

For the Week:
Dow: +568.66 (+2.34%)
NASDAQ: +193.27 (+2.68%)
S&P 500: +64.30 (+2.41%)
NYSE Composite: +268.47 (+2.15%)

Banker Cartel Exercising Control Post-Brexit

Editor's Note: Summer is in full swing, and publisher, Fearless Rick, is busy working on his tan, among other various duties, so Money Daily may not be quite so daily for the next six to eight weeks. We urge all readers to get out and enjoy the good weather.

Markets have calmed considerably since the craziness of the past two weeks. Over the past two trading sessions (Wednesday and Thursday), US exchanges were very slightly elevated, but still stuck in the range they've been assigned by the banking cartel since mid-March.

Friday's non-farm payroll report for June is due out at 8:30 am EDT, though it will likely have little effect on trading as Wall Street generally slumbers through summer.

Gold and silver received their usual smack-downs, but there's little doubt that more and more people are looking for safety in precious metals and other non-financial assets.

Thursday's Tremblings:
S&P 500: 2,097.90, -1.83 (0.09%)
Dow: 17,895.88, -22.74 (0.13%)
NASDAQ: 4,876.81, +17.65 (0.36%)

Crude Oil 45.19 -4.72% Gold 1,361.00 -0.45% EUR/USD 1.1064 -0.27% 10-Yr Bond 1.39 +0.14% Corn 348.50 +0.07% Copper 2.12 -1.44% Silver 19.72 -2.39% Natural Gas 2.76 -0.83% Russell 2000 1,149.76 +0.21% VIX 14.76 -1.34% BATS 1000 20,677.17 0.00% GBP/USD 1.2910 -0.13% USD/JPY 100.7710 -0.60%

According to Wall Street, Humans are Fodder

As I was watching CNBC just minutes ago, as reporter Mary Thompson ticked off details of American Express' (AXP) 4th quarter earnings report, a chart beside her showed the sock gaining in after hour trading just as she announced that the firm would initiate a restructuring involving 5400 job cuts.

The image of the stock going up while people were about to lose their jobs brought home (once again, because this is not the first time) the tragic nature of Wall Street and their glorified love of profits at any cost, even human cost.

Living through the past four years of abject financial repression, first, by banks, then by government, now, by multi-national corporations, the level of moral bankruptcy by the very people who should be exemplars of good behavior is appalling and completely unacceptable.

When people lose jobs and stocks increase in value, it displays not only a shallow disregard for humanity, but almost a depraved indifference to human suffering. Handing out pink slips at corporations has become a routine carried out by more underlings, those "investor types" never having to face a wife or husband who has lost a job when prospects for finding another are so slim.

Of course, from a purely financial perspective, cutting labor costs is wise, but, in the end, elimination of productive labor is wanton, greedy, selfish and eventually self-defeating.

To the corporations and to government, people (mostly working people) are expendable, fodder, chattel, just random numbers to add or eliminate from spreadsheets, profit and loss statements and earnings reports. Rewarding corporations for shedding employees is so distasteful on the surface that one wonders just what parallel universe it is in which those of the rentier class reside.

For every dollar they make in profits, another human being is degraded, shunned, discarded, and, what the investors fail to realize is that without the fruits of human labor - and their spending - the corporations would have no customers. None. Zero. They would be bankrupt and cease to exist and this is exactly the path we have embarked upon though the insanity of centrally-planned money and interest rate policy, banking without rules, corporations with enormous advantages over all competitors and a world reduced to ones and zeroes in a computational fantasy land.

And what a fantasy world it is. Money is created out of thin air, shoveled directly to 10 or 12 money center banks and put to work hiking up prices of stocks. Yes, Virginia, the rich do get richer and the poor poorer, but it is the middle class, like those 5400 American Express employees who are about to lose their jobs who suffer the worst.

Loss of income, self-esteem and personal worth are immeasurable and difficult to replace. The unemployment statistics cited by the government, and ignored by Wall Street, paint a very bleak picture of America in the 21st century. While we are the most technologically-advanced nation in the history of the world, nearly half the population is either collecting some form of government assistance or is about to.

Our business and political leaders have led us down a primrose path to destruction, one upon which they profit every step of the way, but, if there is any justice in the world left, it is the hope that when all the employees are laid off, when all the factories and store fronts and job sites are empty, idle and wasted, that the market will crash, taking down the entire apparatus of Wall Street, the oligarchs and politicians and bankers with it.

Maybe then, finally, people will understand human beings are not fodder, that labor, as defined by none other than Adam Smith, the great economist upon which all of economics is based, is the basis of all wealth, of all money, of all that can be achieved.

Maybe. But it will take a catastrophe - or maybe a hundred thousand catastrophes - for the knowledge to find a home.

Dow 13,471.22, +80.71(0.60%)
NASDAQ 3,121.76, +15.95(0.51%)
S&P 500 1,472.12, +11.10(0.76%)
NYSE Composite 8,713.75, +77.66(0.90%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,753,614,375
NYSE Volume 4,318,613,000
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 4102-2323
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 458-15
WTI crude oil: 94.00, +0.90
Gold: 1,678.00, +22.50
Silver: 30.92, +0.669

Why Stocks Were Down Today and Other Ramblings... and Links

Getting right to the point, stocks slipped a little bit more today, oddly enough, right around another 50 points were knocked off the Dow. why is that odd, you ask?

Well, if you were going to dismantle something and didn't want anyone to take notice, you'd do it a little bit at a time, right? So, after a 50-point drop yesterday, another 55 points today receives little fanfare. Anything over 100 on the Dow, in either direction, gets the attention of Bob Pisani and the other market-watching noobs on CNBC and Bloomberg, and you don't want them going around shouting, "hey, look at this!" but 50 points, not so much.

The point is that stocks went down today (and yesterday) because that's the way the Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch's roll. If there were any good reason to bid stocks up, they certainly would have, but, that all got taken care of on January 2nd, to the tune of a 300-point rally. Now it's profit-taking harvest time for the quick-traders out there making all the loot, but, you know, they don't want anyone thinking it's time to head for the hills because there's a flood of bad stuff coming our way.

Uh-uh. Can't have that. The muppets must not be allowed to understand anything that is really happening. Only the global elitists are privy to the inside baseball stuff.

So, what's that bad stuff heading our way? How about a nasty, well-orchestrated fight over the debt ceiling that leads directly to a government shutdown? It has been mentioned only a few dozen times just this week, though every political empty hat says they want to avoid that at all costs. (Rubbish: we all know how loathe the pols in Washington are to actually do any work and how much they relish leisure time.)

So, yes, get ready for that, and that would precipitate some selling of stocks. Once the big guys get their profits, then the little people can take losses, all the while the talking head analysts saying things like, "this is just a little correction," or "stocks will rebound in the second half" (like Notre Dame did last night? Let's hope not).

It's been almost two weeks since the latest market moving event - the fiscal cliff miasma - so, a new crisis can't really be far off. Things should start getting heated up in a few more days or maybe around the end of January, once the new members of congress are all schooled up on their new roles and understand the rules of the game.

Yep, the debt ceiling showdown should prove to be some of the best political theatre of the year, and maybe the most disruptive. The Republicans keep threatening it, and they don't want to look like the boy who cried wolf, so, this time, they'll probably do it, and it will last maybe two or three weeks before a compromise is reached. Naturally, such a compromise will solve nothing except to get most of the furloughed federal employees back on the job, slow down the "recovery" a little and provice cover for Wall Street's anticipated lousy earnings.

So, that's why stocks were down today, but they'll be up sooner or later, and trade sideways a bit before the real deal comes down. Then, they'll drop like rocks from a tower, and it will be YOUR MONEY losing value, not THEIRS.

BTW: Alcoa (AA) kicked off earnings season after the bell, posting in-line earnings per share of six cents, which says plenty about the health of this global giant and the world economy in general. Their outlook is for aluminum demand to increase seven percent this year, due to, get this, increased demand from the aerospace industry (read: defense contractors). Whether or not that hike in demand ever materializes, well, we will just have to stay tuned. In the meantime, Alcoa is still a sub-$10 stock, which it's been for close to a year now. There's a reason for that.

---

Yesterday, I (that being me, Fearless Rick) opined on these pages that something was broken, though I could not quite put my finger on exactly what "it" was that had gone amiss, ending with the gloomy prospect that maybe everything was broken.

Of course, there are innumerable things broken in America and around the world, but there are many more that work, like the Internet, for instance. You're reading this, after all, on the internet. That works.

What's not working, and hasn't been for a long time is the media, but the internet is beginning to take care of that. Most people under the age of 30 get the majority of their news and opinion-making articles from the internet, not mainstream TV, newspapers or (heaven forbid!) the radio, so there's hope on that front.

So, thinking that I must find out just what it is that's broken, research ensued, which consisted of a couple of adult beverages and some internet surfing.

Well, I was right. The entire global economic system is broken, and has been broken for a long time, but I already knew that. I just didn't know exactly how badly broken it was until I came across this exceptional piece of video (8 parts) by one Ann Barnhardt, and her aptly-titled dissertation, The Economy Is Going To Implode...And You Deserve to now Why.

Ms. Barnhardt breaks the complexities of the modern global economy down to a very understandable, though frighteningly-real level that just about everyone (including politicians and tin-horn local office-holders) can understand. One may or may not agree with her approach or her views, but nobody can argue with the math, which presents an unshakable case for economic calamity. This is must viewing for anyone who wishes to understand why everything seems to be heading downhill in America or to relieve - at least for a short time - that nagging feeling that something is broken. Here's part one of the video series.



Just in case you were busy watching the disgrace of Notre Dame at the hands of Alabama last night, and missed this, here's Alex Jones going ballistic over gun control on the Piers Morgan Show. And, in case you don't know who Alex Jones is, well, you're probably just another sheeple, or maybe a sleeple (that's people who appear awake but are actually sleeping). So, here's a link to infowars.com. Enjoy the video rant.



Dow 13,328.85, -55.44 (0.41%)
NASDAQ 3,091.81, -7.00 (0.23%)
S&P 500 1,457.15, -4.74 (0.32%)
NYSE Composite 8,604.38, -32.53 (0.38%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,743,272,375
NYSE Volume 3,757,457,750
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 3003-3411
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 302-13
WTI crude oil: 93.15, -0.04
Gold: 1,662.20, +15.90
Silver: 30.46, +0.383

Stocks Take Another Beating; Dow Off 185, NASDAQ in Correction

All the issues and problems facing the US and global economies are coming home to roost in a perfect storm of excessive debt, fiscal intransigence, monetary experimentation, overpriced equities, general distrust of leadership, lack of growth, geopolitical tension and poor earnings prospects for corporations.

The selloff today was a continuation of what's been occurring since before the election, but has accelerated dramatically since. Wall Street is quite unhappy with prospects that President Obama will not budge from his position to eliminate the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest two percent of Americans, as emphatically spelled out in an early afternoon press conference.

The president was cool, calm and collected, fielding questions on a variety of topics, but, even though he mentioned compromise frequently, he did not waver in his commitment to tax the wealthy at more than their current rates, including gains on investments, particularly - Wall Street fears - regular income and dividends.

Taking their cue from the president's message, stocks, which opened briefly higher, but quickly fell deep into the red, made new lows nearing the end of his remarks and continued lower into the close, the Dow suffering a 185-point loss and the NASDAQ reaching levels 10% below their recent highs, crashing into correction territory.

With all of the major indices, including even the Russell 2000 of mostly small cap stocks, continuing their descent below their respective 200-day moving averages, bottoms were sought out, though none could be found.

The massive run-up which began in March of 2009 is being unwound, with most of the blame being laid upon the politicians in Washington, DC, though there are more than a few more scapegoats, notably the greed and feed crowd that started the entire mess - the irresponsible banking community and their masters of control, the Federal Reserve.

With the dual policies of ZIRP and massive monetization, the Fed enabled much of Wall Street's excess and continues to do so even today. The neo-Keynesian policies of Ben Bernanke and his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, has spawned a debt bubble deflation crisis that they cannot - as much as they try - spend their way out of.

Most individual investors have been fleeing the market or have already taken their seats on the sidelines, so the damage being done to stocks is going to impact the middle and upper classes the most, with 401k, investment and pension plans taking the brunt of the declines.

In particular, Dow stocks, seen by many as representing the core of American industrialism, have lost more than 1100 points since their highs in early October, erasing most of the gains made throughout the year.

While Washington politicians dither over negotiations to avoid massive tax increases and huge budget cuts (which some say are needed), investors are worried that whatever solution they arrive at will be too little, too late and more of a can-kicking exercise than real reform.

With the holidays fast approaching, Americans are not in a mood for more business as usual from either Wall Street or Washington, and the anger is growing, even on Main Street, where small businesses continue to suffer or skirt taxation completely.

The next few days and weeks could easily turn into a crisis more severe than that of 2008, since none of the improprieties produced by that financial peer into the abyss have yet to be resolved, and now there are fewer measures the Fed or the Treasury can employ to keep the economy afloat.

If anyone thought that the crisis in America was over - to say nothing of the even worse conditions in Europe - they should pay close attention to what happens over the next sixty to ninety days, because they will surely be replete with wild market swings, irony and recriminations from all sides against each other.

Surviving into and beyond 2013 will be a major test of not only the American spirit but of Americans' willingness to accept leadership. President Obama's election to a second term was probably the correct choice, but he alone cannot fix the mess others created.

After today, the bankers and the wizard genii of Wall Street should be running for cover they should have sought out years ago.

Today was a truly dark day, though, from the looks of things, there are many more to come.

Grow some crops if you can, stay close to home and loved ones, and remember our motto: FREE HOUSES FOR EVERYONE!

Dow 12,570.95, -185.23 (1.45%)
NASDAQ 2,846.81, -37.08 (1.29%)
S&P 500 1,355.49, -19.04 (1.39%)
NYSE Composite 7,903.42, -119.81 (1.49%)
NASDAQ Volume 2,103,531,000
NYSE Volume 4,062,878,250
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 822-4741
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 39-333 (WoW!)
WTI crude oil: 86.32, +0.94
Gold: 1,730.10, +5.30
Silver: 32.88, +0.393

Greece in Tatters, US Still in Denial

As Greece burns, global stock markets reel in terror.

It's really about time that the oligarchs running the show down on Wall Street come to the realization the most of the rest of the world isn't buying their load of bull hockey any more and investors are making their displeasure known by their feet, fleeing overpriced, overhyped, intangible assets as quickly as they can.

If the shakeout of small investors wasn't complete in the Fall of 2008 and the Winter of 2009, then this is to be expected. There are a myriad of reasons stocks should be sold off. Here's a small ticking off of the major bullet points:

• Incomes haven't risen in years, though the price of everything from food to rent to heating fuel has doubled in some cases.
• Maybe Americans are a little bit tired of killing themselves at low-wage jobs just to buy gas at upwards of $3.50 a gallon.
• Speaking of jobs, there aren't any.
• Americans are sick of bailouts of the banks which caused this crisis.
• Americans are sick of bankers getting enormous bonuses for abject failure.
• Americans are sick of a federal government that keeps putting us deeper and deeper in debt.
• Americans are sick and tired of the Fed devaluing the currency and causing global inflation.
• Americans are sick and tired of the casino-like atmosphere on Wall Street, controlled by a very few insiders with guarantees of non-failure, not to mention the insider trading, HFTs, front-running, bond-flipping and all the rest of the improper accounting tricks and bogus schemes.
• Americans would like to see Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfien, Angelo Mozillo and many others prosecuted for their crimes, but the US Justice Department has been bought off.
• Iceland defaulted, Ireland is a basket case, Greece is going to default and then Portugal and Spain and Italy should, if only to express outrage at the corrupt Berlusconi government.
• The US government is horribly corrupt as well and default is headed for our shores as well, since all the Treasury Secretary and Federal Reserve Chairman know how to do is further impoverish the people of the United States, and, to a lesser degree, the rest of the population of the world.
• Americans are sick of rules, taxes, regulations, heavy-handedness at all levels of government, the continued deprecation of civil liberties, the lies, obfuscation and treachery at the highest levels of government and finance. Americans want the truth, but the politicians and bankers know that they would all be behind bars, or worse, should the truth be known.
• Americans want the government out of their lives, decent jobs, no more wars, no more lying, nothing more.

Is that enough? Because there is more.

Granted the oligarchs of Wall Street and Washington will not listen. They will pose and posture and make statements about what America wants and needs and do nothing of the kind. And the media will bombard us with non-stop presidential politics for the next 18 months, even though half of the population could care less.

While Greece has surely lost the control of the public and all confidence, just as has Ireland and Iceland, and Egypt and Syria and many other countries, the American "establishment" has lost the confidence of its people. It's really that simple. Nobody approves of what goes in on Washington, and thus, nobody abides by them. The US political structure is such a laughing stock that serious people simply ignore it. Add on to that the massive numbers of people who have seen the political and economic systems for what they are and are opting out, dropping out, refusing to comply and bend to the will of the small, wealthy minority who wants to make all the rules, and you have a perfect condition for collapse, the collapse that should have happened three years and $20 trillion of wasted stimulus ago.

The desperation of the elitists is evident from the sour expressions of the paid monkeys on CNBC, who keep insisting that this downturn is temporary or transitory or a "soft patch" in the "recovery." It's hilarious to watch, especially if one is invested in hard goods, precious metals and/or commodities. To put it simply, stocks are for suckers, and the number of suckers still at the table is dwindling, fast.

Dow 11,897.27, -178.84 (1.48%)
NASDAQ 2,631.46, -47.26 (1.76%)
S&P 500 1,265.42, -22.45 (1.74%)
NYSE Composite 7,967.81, -164.96 (2.03%)

The internals told the true story of the devastation. Declining issues outpaced advancers by the largest margin in almost than a year, 5379-1270. NASDAQ recorded 11 new highs and 114 new lows, while the NYSE saw 23 new highs and 79 new lows. The combined total has the new lows ahead for the ninth consecutive session, at just 34 new highs and 193 new lows, with surely more to come.

Volume was actually a little bit perky, especially tantalizing for short sellers and bears.

NASDAQ Volume 1,993,706,125
NYSE Volume 4,653,039,000

As the Greek situation broke down and out, into street protests and young men attacking riot police with sticks, bats and rocks, the dollar became the safe haven currency, smashing crude oil down by $4.68, to $94.81. Oil still has a long way to come down before any kind of supply-demand equilibrium can be maintained. $70 or $60 or even less per barrel are no longer outside targets.

Gold rose modestly as as store of value, up $6.70, to $1530.80. Silver tagged along, gaining 41 cents, to $35.80, though, if stocks continue to slide, they may take other asset classes along with them in a deflationary episode, despite the ongoing efforts by the central banks and the Fed to inflate.

Today's declines took out all of yesterday's gains. Stocks are on track to record their first seven-week losing streak since early 2001, predating 9/11.

Just for fun, tomorrow's traders will have to deal with this week's initial unemployment claims, which will be released an hour prior to the opening bell. It ought to be a doozy.

Massive Disconnect in Markets

Apologies for the tardiness of this posting. At press time, Blogger - the system we love and use for posting this blog - was down for unexpected maintenance, at 3:30 pm EDT, on Thursday, May 12. We also note that Blogger lost our post from May 11, 2011, and, since it was created completely upon their system, cannot say with any level of assuredness whether or not it will be restored. At this point, it is permanently gone. Our regular post for Friday, May 13, will (God and Blogger willing) be posted shortly after close of trading, about 4:45 pm EDT.

More of the same from the people who brought you "Financial Suicide 101" (2008) and "How to Jack Economies Worldwide" (2009-11), the genii of Wall Street and their willing government henchmen today took a look at unmistakenly miserable data from fresh unemployment claims filings (434,000) and turned a market that was selling off into another miracle rally.

On top of that April PPI came in at 0.8%, highly inflationary and retail sales disappointed, registering a gain of 0.5% when the estimate was for 0.6%, revised lower from 0.7%. Truthfully, most of the 1/2 per cent of retail gains were due to nothing more than higher prices. There is no growth in the US economy and hasn't been for a while.

The games and maneuvers of these criminal elite which operate on Wall Street are truly breath-taking and never ending. When the Dow was down 90 points and the NASDAQ off 27, shortly after the opening bell, these guileless bastards just began pumping fresh POMO money into the dead carcass that is the US stock market, as though the economy were performing just dandily and those new jobless claims were merely a tick to be brushed aside with a swat of the hand.

What we have here is a massive disconnect which has prevailed since well before the financial catastrophe of 2008 between Wall Street and the rest of the world. In reality, the world would have been a far better place had Osoma bin Laden done a better job and eradicated more of the sniveling, greedy, sociopathic slime that has infested our markets and destroyed not only the US economy, but that of Europe and a handful of other nations.

The egregious crimes committed before during and after the sub-prime meltdown that exploded into a full blown $700 billion heist known as TARP still have not been addressed, no one has answered for this disaster, and to this day, banks such as Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Wells-Fargo have continued to conceal their losses behind corrupt, dubious accounting rules, off-balance sheet transactions and trillions of Fed-pumped dollars to boost their bottom lines and hike up momentum stocks to unbelievable, unsustainable valuations.

The biggest banks still cannot lend, cannot process foreclosures without falsifying documents and are routinely charging credit-worthy customers usury rates on credit cards. Even still, they whine and complain after having been bailed out by the government (read: taxpayers) about every little detail that might make their miserable existence even the tiniest bit more fair toward consumers.

Make no doubt about it. These cretins who sit in the executive suites atop the largest financial institutions in the world are still in the process of raping and pillaging one "investor", one "consumer" at a time. If they had it their way, they'd just have their flunkies in congress pass new laws that mandate that all Americans submit all of their money to them, while in many ways, they already have, through control of investment trusts, pension and retirement funds, municipal bonds and a variety of other means - like JP Morgan Chase's easy money scam for administering the SNAP (food stamp) program nationwide.

Today's market action and many other days before it - and surely more to come - is just another example of how ludicrous is their game of "chicken" with markets that are essentially dead and have been for nearly three years. If there was a way to remove the parasitical banks, insurance companies, and other so-called "facilitators" from the scene, our markets would once again return to health and there is a small chance that we might even survive the long-term, generational damage they have bestowed on us and citizens across the globe.

Continual goosing of the stock markets with funny money from the Fed will no doubt leave a legacy of destruction in its aftermath. Because the American economy is so tightly wound around the major financial institutions, extrication from the iron fist of Wall Street and Washington is going to be a painful and unsteady process, but it begins with Americans who have stopped believing and are getting out of stocks, 401k plans, college funds, retirement funds, and all manner of paper investments. Sadly, there is fresh money from new sheep to be sheared, so the game continues and we sink, as a society and as a nation, further and further down the past to insolvency, destitution and eventual destruction of all the principles, laws and common decency that made us a great nation.

America is either already dead or dying a slow, agonizing death. Indictments and criminal prosecutions should have happened two or three years ago, but they can still happen, if people demand that they do.

Write to your congressman or woman. Take your money out of the big, national banks. Liquidate your IRAs, 401ks and other investment vehicles. Leave them for dead, because, in reality, they already are.

Dow 12,695.92, +65.89 (0.52%)
NASDAQ 2,863.04, +17.98 (0.63%)
S&P 500 1,348.65, +6.57 (0.49%)
NYSE Composite 8,456.18, +28.09 (0.33%)

Advancing issues swamped decliners, 4199-2408. NASDAQ new highs: 113; new lows: 55. NYSE new highs: 172; new lows: 36. Make note that new lows have been rising or steady in recent weeks. There are fewer than 30 trading days remaining before the planned end of QE2 and the rats are jumping off the stock market ship. Volume was higher today as it takes more stock trades to save a market from imminent collapse.

NASDAQ Volume 2,233,589,000
NYSE Volume 4,241,912,500

Commodities were whipsawed once again. Crude oil futures finished up 78 cents, at $98.97, but not before some uncertainty in the morning which had futures down 10 cents.

Gold finished up $6.00, at $1506.90 and silver lost 45 cents, to $34.62, but was down briefly below $33 per ounce.

Thankfully, tomorrow ends another week, and the University of Michigan presents its monthly consumer sentiment survey, plus April CPI. It is Friday the 13th, however, so expect more than the usual wild swings, lies and obfuscation.