It's Official!
Donald J. Trump is the 45th president of the United States of America.
And the markets apparently loved it. The Dow was up. The NASDAQ was up. The S&P 500 was up. So was the Composite, the Nikkei, Gold, Silver, Oil, the dollar. Call it a relief rally. Market participants were relieved that the uncertainties of the past two years of electioneering, mudslinging, maligning, and campaigning were at long last, over. At least now some people can get to work, least of all the new president, like him, loathe him, or feign indifference, he's safely ensconced within the White House walls, with nary a cut, scrape, bruise, or wound.
At least that's what we're seeing through the prism of the news media. There were more than a few bruised egos at the swearing in ceremony on the West steps of the Capitol, facing the Washington and Lincoln monuments, but, some of the more expansive egos were soon swept off the stage and sent packing. The Clintons and the Obamas were whisked into obscurity by the forces of change.
As for our new president, Mr. Trump promises to be, at the very least, entertaining, if not outrageous. While such antics as late-night tweeting and calling people names may not sit well with his establishment critics, the American public will likely relish the shift from the obfuscation, misinformation, and underhandedness which typified the last 16 years of presidential conduct to a more - on the surface - open, progressive (that's a real word, meaning a real effort toward getting things done, not the fancy adversarial adjective applied over the last two decades by liberals), and positive approach to government policy.
It is obviously too early to tell whether President Trump will usher in a new age of American exceptionalism, but there is little doubt that he will try his best to keep his promises and work untiringly toward restoration of traditional American vales. There's also little doubt that he will face significant opposition from the left, the right, his own party, the Democrat party, liberal wingnuts who will protest anything at the drop of a hat, foreign leaders, the Twitterati, Facebook foes, and just about anybody who has an opinion on anything, many of whom will appear regularly on the vicious, unencumbered media whores doing their dirty work for the forces of their paymasters.
That's just how it goes when you rise to the top of the heap as Donald Trump has done. There's always somebody looking to knock you off your mighty throne, literally or figuratively. As for our sentiments here at the Money Daily headquarters, we wish him all the best and will continue to support him - as we did throughout the election process - as best we can. If he can deliver on even half of his campaign promises that would be quite an accomplishment, but we'll settle for three big items:
1. Build the damn wall.
2. Repeal the Affordable Care Act (it does not have to be replaced; we already have too many insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and government involved in health care and would like to see much of that overhead removed)
3. Send education back to the states. The nation is too large and diverse (sorry, but the word does have its place) for a "one-size-fits-all" approach. Besides, the federal intrusion into education has been about as successful as the war on drugs or the war on poverty. Cut the Department of Education in half, or by two thirds, or, preferably, obliterate it.
In the meantime, Money Daily will try to stay out of politics and into money and economics, but, seeing the President and his staffers occasionally and regularly knee-cap the media whores wouldn't meet with any resistance from these parts.
Let the politicians do the dirty work. We'll aim to interpret the effects.
Let's start with a look down below at the weekly results. All four of the major indices were lower on the week, and that may be significant, but will be more so if that becomes a trend. The next two weeks are almost certain to be wild ones in terms of politicking and figurative bomb-throwing from the left, the right, and everywhere in between, but, if stocks continue to deteriorate (which happens to be our best guess for now), it's going to put more pressure on the new president. Not that he should do anything about it since he has no control of financial markets, but the media will crow endlessly about how the economy is going into the tank under the Trump administration.
We'll leave it there, for now. It's going to get a whole lot more interesting in coming weeks and months.
At The Close 1.20.17:
Dow: 19,827.25, +94.85 (0.48%)
NASDAQ: 5,555.33, +15.25 (0.28%)
S&P 500: 2,271.31, +7.62 (0.34%)
NYSE Composite: 11,192.79, +43.94 (0.39%)
For the Week Ended 1.20.17:
Dow: -58.48 (-0.29%)
NASDAQ: -18.78 (-0.34%)
S&P 500: -3.33 (-0.15%)
NYSE Composite: -34.38 (-0.31)
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Sunday, January 22, 2017
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
No Shortage Of Stupidity In The New USA
While many Americans are happy or relieved that the incoming president is going to be one Donald J.Trump rather than a Hillary R. Clinton, the level of stupidity and derision following the November 8 election cannot be underestimated nor easily dismissed.
Within hours of the election results being boomed around the world and drummed into the heads of the mainstream media (TV) pundits and nitwits, protests sprang forth in some large cities.The usual suspects were the main venues for these particular acts of organized convulsion. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Portland, Philadelphia and New York City - all bastions of sanctuary for liberal mind-numbness and “gimme” passions - were singed with the callous chanting and protesting of the election results. Ostensibly, the protesters were recruited, rounded up and bussed into the streets by the monied interest of George Soros, the criminal billionaire who has helped fund the destruction of Europe and was intent on bringing the philosophical wrecking ball to the United States.
Additionally, spontaneous demonstrations of grief, loathing, fear, and discontent erupted upon college campuses, those former institutions learning which have devolved into self-pitying, protected safe spaces for all manner of moronic manifestations.
These protests and demonstrations lasted about a week and died a slow, painful death, the adherents of liberal ideology apparently content to wreak havoc for a little while, collect their pay and slide back into the slimy holes from which they came.
Of course, their positions atop the “we’re all gonna die” narrative were quickly taken up by far more qualified idiots in the television and newspaper media and their lap-dog, sound-horn political hacks, who commandeered the airwaves with threats to undo or, at least, minimize the Trump victory, making various noises and guttural moaning about the rights of illegal immigrants, women, minorities and whatever other simple-minded antithetical nonsense they could foist upon the not-so-unsuspecting viewing and reading public.
Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, issued a proclamation and a new law (heaped upon the hundreds of other laws which are not enforceable and cannot and will not be enforced) guaranteeing that any illegal threatened with deportation by the federal government will have his or her or its legal bills attended to by the overtly generous and sublimely stupid state of New York.
Mayors across the country insisted that their little fiefdoms would remain sanctuary cities, in direct conflict with the laws of the federal government. Legislation was introduced in the congress to abolish the electoral college. And finally, the left, left, left hop-skip march of the Green Party - which is nothing more than an unofficial subsidiary of the now-defunct and discredited Democrat party - sauntered into the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, promising a full investigation and recount of the vote that went narrowly to Trump and bumped him over the electoral college hump.
And then, Hillary’s people chimed in, on queue, just in time for the Sunday political talk shows, saying snidely that they owed it to the people who voted for Hillary (note: no respect for those who voted for the actual winner, Trump) to ensure that the vote tally was accurate.
But, the public had been heard. Trump had won and the millions who voted for him and the millions who quietly supported him refused to listen, refused to be deterred, refused to be fooled again. No, governor Cuomo, we’re not paying our taxes so that you can appear the savior of the downtrodden at our expense. No, Hillary, your vote recount won’t amount to anything. No, George Soros. Go back to Hungary, you cretin.
It seemed that some sanity had finally emerged, until I ran across this little oddity on a Facebook page. The person upon whose page it was posted (and whose face I have conveniently erased at left) went to a Catholic grammar school, a Catholic high school and eventually went to work in the Human Resources department of a public school district. For the record, there's really no position more loathsome than one in Human Resources, aka HR. It's about as low on the job totem pole one can smoke and doing this kind of work for a public school system is like smoking dirt through a straw pipe. Anyhow, this is why the education system should be scrapped: because people like this are hauling down enormous salaries and pensions while inflicting the youth under their care to ill-informed, nonsensical, downright bad advice.
This woman is no more a Muslim than I am a green-eyed Martian. She was brought up in a middle class American home, schooled privately during her formative years and had all the privilege and pampering that suburban life for young, white girls offered. Apparently, college and a lifetime of servitude to a corrupt, derelict education system which favors mediocrity over success, conformity over individuality, and the dishonesty of the diversity chorus over actual learning, turned a normal American woman into a screeching, tongue-twisted, limpid half-wit with no more original thinking than the average 30-second TV commercial. And the woman next to her in the photo (whose face I also have blotted out... to protect the guilty, as it is) is likely thinking of how she’ll cut out the heart of this insipid infidel when the time is ripe.
Such is the level of stupidity in America.
H. L. Mencken, who coined the phrase, “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public,” is having convulsions in his grave.
While we’re on the subject of stupid, let’s look at solar technology. I recently had the opportunity to state my concerns and throw out some ideas about solar power on a local radio show (this part is for you, Bob).
Western states, especially those blessed with abundant sunshine, have built enormous solar farms which feed electricity into the grid and eventually into people’s homes. Some such plans have recently come to the attention to our local mob boss or governor, who wishes to have the state of New York take lands (probably under eminent domain) and turn them over to giant utility corporations in order to bring the solar energy collective to New York.
This is a canard designed to fool stupid people, of which there is no shortage in New York or anywhere else in this country. New York’s taxpayers are not as gullible or deep-pocketed as our countrymen out West. We’re tired of paying taxes and then paying again for subsidies to giant corporations. My advice on this radio show was for people to construct their own off-the-grid solar systems, at least partially offsetting the costs of centrally-distributed power.
Here’s how it goes. In most of New York, utility companies are allowed to assess a “customer charge,” a monthly stipend to the utility for the individual privilege of being a customer. There’s nothing more to it. It’s just an additional cost on your bill, sanctioned by our genius legislators, amounting to roughly $35 a month.
Considering that you’re going to stay on the gird for a number of years, that $35 a month becomes $420 a year and eventually, $4200 in ten years. Yes, $4200 just to be a sheep being sheared by the power company. If you took just that $4200 could easily purchase eight 250-watt solar panels at a cost of roughly $250 each (so, there’s $2000). An inverter, a voltage regulator, and a bank of four deep cycle batteries (which last 5-7 years, so they would have to be replaced at some point) should cost about $600-700. The solar panels have a useful life of twenty years, so, do the math (I know, it’s hard) and you’ll see how far ahead you could be.
Such a system can produce two kilowatts (that’s 2000 watts, son) of energy per hour on a sunny day. On average, upstate New Yorkers get about five hours of sun per day. On average. That’s important, because the sun doesn’t always shine (though modern solar panels can get some power from moonlight - it’s a modern marvel of technology). So, this setup will, on average, produce 10 kilowatt hours per day, or 300 Kwh per month. The average household uses somewhere between 400 and 800, but, being stupid, we waste a lot of that energy. Conservation (which is a derivative of conserve, just like conservative politics) is an important element in the quest to be not stupid, otherwise known as “smart.”
And because the sun doesn’t always shine, that’s why you’ll want four deep cycle batteries. They store the power you’re not using when the sun is shining. If the sun doesn’t shine for a few days, your batteries should have enough power to get you through, and then, when the sun shines again, they’ll recharge and store more power.
Thus, for the money most people are spending on just being a customer of a utility in New York, they could have their own electricity supplied from rooftop or ground installed solar panels and still have money to spare. About $1500 over ten years. That’s not even taking into account the money these same people will be spending on electricity from the grid.
My advice is to forget the tax credits, the subsidies and tying into the grid. Construct your own solar system and keep it off the grid. The utilities don’t pay you nearly what they’re charging you for energy that you contribute back to the grid. Give the state of New York, the Public Service Commission, and the big utility company a robust middle finger, every month, month after month after month.
For those of you intimidated by electricity or solar technology or, for that matter, any technology, try it out for much less than the $2700 example cited above. Go to Harbor Freight and find the coupon or the monthly ad for the 45-watt solar panel kit. It should run between $129 and $179. It comes with all the wires, a voltage regulator, a couple of 12-volt lights (very cool), and instructions. You’ll also need at least one battery and an inverter (this turns DC electricity into AC). Those can be purchased at the same store. Anything from 400 watts to 1000 watts should work just fine.
The process is pretty simple and straightforward. A friend and I set this up and had power in under 20 minutes. It’s a plug-and-play system that probably any 15-year-old could set up and power up in the back yard. Use it in your garage, on your back porch or patio, for your camper, or for your shed. It’s fun, educational and a good first step before venturing into full-blown, off-the-grid freedom.
Oh, you say you need heat? Look into wood stoves, propane-powered or gas-powered generators and open up that little, collectivist mind for a bit.
Stupidity is one commodity that is free in America. That doesn’t mean you have to take the samples offered.
Within hours of the election results being boomed around the world and drummed into the heads of the mainstream media (TV) pundits and nitwits, protests sprang forth in some large cities.The usual suspects were the main venues for these particular acts of organized convulsion. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Portland, Philadelphia and New York City - all bastions of sanctuary for liberal mind-numbness and “gimme” passions - were singed with the callous chanting and protesting of the election results. Ostensibly, the protesters were recruited, rounded up and bussed into the streets by the monied interest of George Soros, the criminal billionaire who has helped fund the destruction of Europe and was intent on bringing the philosophical wrecking ball to the United States.
Additionally, spontaneous demonstrations of grief, loathing, fear, and discontent erupted upon college campuses, those former institutions learning which have devolved into self-pitying, protected safe spaces for all manner of moronic manifestations.
These protests and demonstrations lasted about a week and died a slow, painful death, the adherents of liberal ideology apparently content to wreak havoc for a little while, collect their pay and slide back into the slimy holes from which they came.
Of course, their positions atop the “we’re all gonna die” narrative were quickly taken up by far more qualified idiots in the television and newspaper media and their lap-dog, sound-horn political hacks, who commandeered the airwaves with threats to undo or, at least, minimize the Trump victory, making various noises and guttural moaning about the rights of illegal immigrants, women, minorities and whatever other simple-minded antithetical nonsense they could foist upon the not-so-unsuspecting viewing and reading public.
Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, issued a proclamation and a new law (heaped upon the hundreds of other laws which are not enforceable and cannot and will not be enforced) guaranteeing that any illegal threatened with deportation by the federal government will have his or her or its legal bills attended to by the overtly generous and sublimely stupid state of New York.
Mayors across the country insisted that their little fiefdoms would remain sanctuary cities, in direct conflict with the laws of the federal government. Legislation was introduced in the congress to abolish the electoral college. And finally, the left, left, left hop-skip march of the Green Party - which is nothing more than an unofficial subsidiary of the now-defunct and discredited Democrat party - sauntered into the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, promising a full investigation and recount of the vote that went narrowly to Trump and bumped him over the electoral college hump.
And then, Hillary’s people chimed in, on queue, just in time for the Sunday political talk shows, saying snidely that they owed it to the people who voted for Hillary (note: no respect for those who voted for the actual winner, Trump) to ensure that the vote tally was accurate.
But, the public had been heard. Trump had won and the millions who voted for him and the millions who quietly supported him refused to listen, refused to be deterred, refused to be fooled again. No, governor Cuomo, we’re not paying our taxes so that you can appear the savior of the downtrodden at our expense. No, Hillary, your vote recount won’t amount to anything. No, George Soros. Go back to Hungary, you cretin.
It seemed that some sanity had finally emerged, until I ran across this little oddity on a Facebook page. The person upon whose page it was posted (and whose face I have conveniently erased at left) went to a Catholic grammar school, a Catholic high school and eventually went to work in the Human Resources department of a public school district. For the record, there's really no position more loathsome than one in Human Resources, aka HR. It's about as low on the job totem pole one can smoke and doing this kind of work for a public school system is like smoking dirt through a straw pipe. Anyhow, this is why the education system should be scrapped: because people like this are hauling down enormous salaries and pensions while inflicting the youth under their care to ill-informed, nonsensical, downright bad advice.
This woman is no more a Muslim than I am a green-eyed Martian. She was brought up in a middle class American home, schooled privately during her formative years and had all the privilege and pampering that suburban life for young, white girls offered. Apparently, college and a lifetime of servitude to a corrupt, derelict education system which favors mediocrity over success, conformity over individuality, and the dishonesty of the diversity chorus over actual learning, turned a normal American woman into a screeching, tongue-twisted, limpid half-wit with no more original thinking than the average 30-second TV commercial. And the woman next to her in the photo (whose face I also have blotted out... to protect the guilty, as it is) is likely thinking of how she’ll cut out the heart of this insipid infidel when the time is ripe.
Such is the level of stupidity in America.
H. L. Mencken, who coined the phrase, “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public,” is having convulsions in his grave.
While we’re on the subject of stupid, let’s look at solar technology. I recently had the opportunity to state my concerns and throw out some ideas about solar power on a local radio show (this part is for you, Bob).
Western states, especially those blessed with abundant sunshine, have built enormous solar farms which feed electricity into the grid and eventually into people’s homes. Some such plans have recently come to the attention to our local mob boss or governor, who wishes to have the state of New York take lands (probably under eminent domain) and turn them over to giant utility corporations in order to bring the solar energy collective to New York.
This is a canard designed to fool stupid people, of which there is no shortage in New York or anywhere else in this country. New York’s taxpayers are not as gullible or deep-pocketed as our countrymen out West. We’re tired of paying taxes and then paying again for subsidies to giant corporations. My advice on this radio show was for people to construct their own off-the-grid solar systems, at least partially offsetting the costs of centrally-distributed power.
Here’s how it goes. In most of New York, utility companies are allowed to assess a “customer charge,” a monthly stipend to the utility for the individual privilege of being a customer. There’s nothing more to it. It’s just an additional cost on your bill, sanctioned by our genius legislators, amounting to roughly $35 a month.
Considering that you’re going to stay on the gird for a number of years, that $35 a month becomes $420 a year and eventually, $4200 in ten years. Yes, $4200 just to be a sheep being sheared by the power company. If you took just that $4200 could easily purchase eight 250-watt solar panels at a cost of roughly $250 each (so, there’s $2000). An inverter, a voltage regulator, and a bank of four deep cycle batteries (which last 5-7 years, so they would have to be replaced at some point) should cost about $600-700. The solar panels have a useful life of twenty years, so, do the math (I know, it’s hard) and you’ll see how far ahead you could be.
Such a system can produce two kilowatts (that’s 2000 watts, son) of energy per hour on a sunny day. On average, upstate New Yorkers get about five hours of sun per day. On average. That’s important, because the sun doesn’t always shine (though modern solar panels can get some power from moonlight - it’s a modern marvel of technology). So, this setup will, on average, produce 10 kilowatt hours per day, or 300 Kwh per month. The average household uses somewhere between 400 and 800, but, being stupid, we waste a lot of that energy. Conservation (which is a derivative of conserve, just like conservative politics) is an important element in the quest to be not stupid, otherwise known as “smart.”
And because the sun doesn’t always shine, that’s why you’ll want four deep cycle batteries. They store the power you’re not using when the sun is shining. If the sun doesn’t shine for a few days, your batteries should have enough power to get you through, and then, when the sun shines again, they’ll recharge and store more power.
Thus, for the money most people are spending on just being a customer of a utility in New York, they could have their own electricity supplied from rooftop or ground installed solar panels and still have money to spare. About $1500 over ten years. That’s not even taking into account the money these same people will be spending on electricity from the grid.
My advice is to forget the tax credits, the subsidies and tying into the grid. Construct your own solar system and keep it off the grid. The utilities don’t pay you nearly what they’re charging you for energy that you contribute back to the grid. Give the state of New York, the Public Service Commission, and the big utility company a robust middle finger, every month, month after month after month.
For those of you intimidated by electricity or solar technology or, for that matter, any technology, try it out for much less than the $2700 example cited above. Go to Harbor Freight and find the coupon or the monthly ad for the 45-watt solar panel kit. It should run between $129 and $179. It comes with all the wires, a voltage regulator, a couple of 12-volt lights (very cool), and instructions. You’ll also need at least one battery and an inverter (this turns DC electricity into AC). Those can be purchased at the same store. Anything from 400 watts to 1000 watts should work just fine.
The process is pretty simple and straightforward. A friend and I set this up and had power in under 20 minutes. It’s a plug-and-play system that probably any 15-year-old could set up and power up in the back yard. Use it in your garage, on your back porch or patio, for your camper, or for your shed. It’s fun, educational and a good first step before venturing into full-blown, off-the-grid freedom.
Oh, you say you need heat? Look into wood stoves, propane-powered or gas-powered generators and open up that little, collectivist mind for a bit.
Stupidity is one commodity that is free in America. That doesn’t mean you have to take the samples offered.
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Millenials May Be The Last Free Americans
On this day, a conversation was had with a couple of millennials, roughly in their mid-20s, working (or acting like they were working) in a smoke shop.
The conversation - following them chiding a senior citizen for talking about rolling your own and growing your own tobacco while he was buying rolling papers - was inferior, not even worth mentioning, which is why it is being mentioned.
At issue is the future, and the current youth... or, at least a sizable portion of them, want to vote for Bernie Sanders, who promises a $15/hour minimum wage, free college for everybody, and a host of other liberal-ideological non sequiturs that would essentially turn a once-prosperous free-market country (USA) into another stinking hell-hole like much of Europe, or the Middle East, or perhaps, Japan.
The problem lies not with the millennials. They don't know any better. Most of them haven't been around for more than 25 years, meaning that scads of them were in high school during 9-11, and those images are burnt into their psyches, as too the neo-liberal education they've been given, in which they know little about history, economics, language, culture or just about anything that would promote a thriving, free nation.
No, to blame are largely baby boomers, who foisted upon their youth such undistinguished values as participation trophies, non-judgemental attitudes, video games, addiction to cell phones, social media and other claptrap that promotes laziness, sloth, stupidity, class hatred, and decline.
Between the educational system run from afar in Washington, D.C., the Federal Reserve (also a D.C. inhabitant), and a mainstream media intent on propaganda du jour rather than objective journalism, the millennials may just be the last generation of Americans who can claim any level of freedom.
Americans are being taxed, silenced, tabooed, and numbed into a state of slavish devotion to media and government.
As a nation, America is pretty much doomed unless radical changes in the culture are made, and soon. Traditional values would be a welcome relief, but, whenever they are proposed, millennials scoff and pay, and continue down the path to self-destruction.
Thank you, Janet:
S&P 500: 2,068.46, +13.45 (0.65%)
Dow: 17,748.61, +115.50 (0.66%)
NASDAQ: 4,881.76, +35.14 (0.73%)
Crude Oil 38.38 +0.26% Gold 1,229.00 -0.69% EUR/USD 1.1335 +0.36% 10-Yr Bond 1.83 +0.88% Corn 369.25 -1.01% Copper 2.19 -1.02% Silver 15.25 +0.11% Natural Gas 1.99 +0.66% Russell 2000 1,113.52 +0.40% VIX 13.40 -3.04% BATS 1000 20,682.61 0.00% GBP/USD 1.4378 -0.06% USD/JPY 112.4500 -0.22%
The conversation - following them chiding a senior citizen for talking about rolling your own and growing your own tobacco while he was buying rolling papers - was inferior, not even worth mentioning, which is why it is being mentioned.
At issue is the future, and the current youth... or, at least a sizable portion of them, want to vote for Bernie Sanders, who promises a $15/hour minimum wage, free college for everybody, and a host of other liberal-ideological non sequiturs that would essentially turn a once-prosperous free-market country (USA) into another stinking hell-hole like much of Europe, or the Middle East, or perhaps, Japan.
The problem lies not with the millennials. They don't know any better. Most of them haven't been around for more than 25 years, meaning that scads of them were in high school during 9-11, and those images are burnt into their psyches, as too the neo-liberal education they've been given, in which they know little about history, economics, language, culture or just about anything that would promote a thriving, free nation.
No, to blame are largely baby boomers, who foisted upon their youth such undistinguished values as participation trophies, non-judgemental attitudes, video games, addiction to cell phones, social media and other claptrap that promotes laziness, sloth, stupidity, class hatred, and decline.
Between the educational system run from afar in Washington, D.C., the Federal Reserve (also a D.C. inhabitant), and a mainstream media intent on propaganda du jour rather than objective journalism, the millennials may just be the last generation of Americans who can claim any level of freedom.
Americans are being taxed, silenced, tabooed, and numbed into a state of slavish devotion to media and government.
As a nation, America is pretty much doomed unless radical changes in the culture are made, and soon. Traditional values would be a welcome relief, but, whenever they are proposed, millennials scoff and pay, and continue down the path to self-destruction.
Thank you, Janet:
S&P 500: 2,068.46, +13.45 (0.65%)
Dow: 17,748.61, +115.50 (0.66%)
NASDAQ: 4,881.76, +35.14 (0.73%)
Crude Oil 38.38 +0.26% Gold 1,229.00 -0.69% EUR/USD 1.1335 +0.36% 10-Yr Bond 1.83 +0.88% Corn 369.25 -1.01% Copper 2.19 -1.02% Silver 15.25 +0.11% Natural Gas 1.99 +0.66% Russell 2000 1,113.52 +0.40% VIX 13.40 -3.04% BATS 1000 20,682.61 0.00% GBP/USD 1.4378 -0.06% USD/JPY 112.4500 -0.22%
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Stocks Massacred Again; S&P Below 1900; Dow Sheds Over 1200 Points in 2016
Another day, another 350+ point loss on the Dow.
There isn't much to say about this kind of result except that it isn't showing any sign of abating. It's what happens when you throw trillions of dollars for speculators to over-leverage on risk assets of all manner and then shut off the free money supply tap.
That's exactly what the Fed did on December 16, when they decided that the economy was strong enough - and gaining momentum - to withstand a rate hike. Dismissing the fact that it was only 25 basis points, the Fed, which has been wrong on everything from the effects of QE and ZIRP to employment, housing and growth, moved at the wrong time. The business cycle had already turned negative; it was exhausted and the consumer had been tapped out.
Not that the consequent decline in stocks was solely the fault of the Federal Reserve, no, the government, spending and taxing and taxing and spending the United States into 19 trillion dollars of unpayable debt, has had an equal hand in the destruction of American business enterprise.
Of course, the demise of the industrial giant wasn't all done overnight. It's taken decades of mismanagement to destroy the American dream and the destroyers aren't done yet. Stock market declines aren't the end of the road, either. Rather, they're just a symptom of the underlying malaise that will be unleashed full force as this election year unwinds.
Stocks are just the visible part of the credit bubble. The other parts consist of moving parts of underfunded pensions, bankrupt trust funds, the fraud of Obamacare, the welfare system, the education complex, military overspending, and a plethora of other wasteful programs funded by the unaware, eyes-shut, American public.
So, the start of 2016 isn't going to be anything monumental, despite the Dow losing 1273.62 in just the first eight trading sessions of the year. Bear in mind that the Dow has to lose roughly another 1500 points (to 14,679) before it's officially a bear market, and there's little doubt that this decline will eventually become a bear market with further downside from there.
No, the first few weeks of January, 2016 will likely be referred to as the "good old days," before the tsunami of deflation finally took hold of the global economy and would not let go. These will be recalled as the time before government fraud and waste was still acceptable, before we realized that unemployment wasn't really five percent, but 15%, or 20%, or more.
Today's trading was nothing short of a waterfall event. The main indices were up at the open, and in a classic bear market pattern, sold off and were negative within the first hour of the session. The Dow, which lost nearly 365 points, wasn't even the worst of it. In fact, on a percentage basis, it was the best of the three. The S&P lopped off 2.5%, the NASDAQ withstood a whopping 3.41% decline.
The 10-year note traded down to 2.05% and will be sporting a one-handle soon, possibly by the end of this week.
This isn't pretty. If you haven't gotten out of the way and out of stocks by now, and into cash or gold or silver, you have nobody to blame but your own greedy self.
Good luck winning the lottery, because your equity holdings are about to be wiped from the face of the earth.
Today's Sad Story
S&P 500: 1,890.28, -48.40 (2.50%)
Dow: 16,151.41, -364.81 (2.21%)
NASDAQ: 4,526.06, -159.85 (3.41%)
Crude Oil 30.40 -0.13% Gold 1,093.80 +0.79% EUR/USD 1.0881 +0.30% 10-Yr Bond 2.0660 -1.71% Corn 358.75 +0.56% Copper 1.95 -0.26% Silver 14.15 +2.90% Natural Gas 2.28 +1.20% Russell 2000 1,010.19 -3.30% VIX 25.22 +12.24% BATS 1000 20,143.62 -2.36% GBP/USD 1.4413 -0.15% USD/JPY 117.7130
1273.62
There isn't much to say about this kind of result except that it isn't showing any sign of abating. It's what happens when you throw trillions of dollars for speculators to over-leverage on risk assets of all manner and then shut off the free money supply tap.
That's exactly what the Fed did on December 16, when they decided that the economy was strong enough - and gaining momentum - to withstand a rate hike. Dismissing the fact that it was only 25 basis points, the Fed, which has been wrong on everything from the effects of QE and ZIRP to employment, housing and growth, moved at the wrong time. The business cycle had already turned negative; it was exhausted and the consumer had been tapped out.
Not that the consequent decline in stocks was solely the fault of the Federal Reserve, no, the government, spending and taxing and taxing and spending the United States into 19 trillion dollars of unpayable debt, has had an equal hand in the destruction of American business enterprise.
Of course, the demise of the industrial giant wasn't all done overnight. It's taken decades of mismanagement to destroy the American dream and the destroyers aren't done yet. Stock market declines aren't the end of the road, either. Rather, they're just a symptom of the underlying malaise that will be unleashed full force as this election year unwinds.
Stocks are just the visible part of the credit bubble. The other parts consist of moving parts of underfunded pensions, bankrupt trust funds, the fraud of Obamacare, the welfare system, the education complex, military overspending, and a plethora of other wasteful programs funded by the unaware, eyes-shut, American public.
So, the start of 2016 isn't going to be anything monumental, despite the Dow losing 1273.62 in just the first eight trading sessions of the year. Bear in mind that the Dow has to lose roughly another 1500 points (to 14,679) before it's officially a bear market, and there's little doubt that this decline will eventually become a bear market with further downside from there.
No, the first few weeks of January, 2016 will likely be referred to as the "good old days," before the tsunami of deflation finally took hold of the global economy and would not let go. These will be recalled as the time before government fraud and waste was still acceptable, before we realized that unemployment wasn't really five percent, but 15%, or 20%, or more.
Today's trading was nothing short of a waterfall event. The main indices were up at the open, and in a classic bear market pattern, sold off and were negative within the first hour of the session. The Dow, which lost nearly 365 points, wasn't even the worst of it. In fact, on a percentage basis, it was the best of the three. The S&P lopped off 2.5%, the NASDAQ withstood a whopping 3.41% decline.
The 10-year note traded down to 2.05% and will be sporting a one-handle soon, possibly by the end of this week.
This isn't pretty. If you haven't gotten out of the way and out of stocks by now, and into cash or gold or silver, you have nobody to blame but your own greedy self.
Good luck winning the lottery, because your equity holdings are about to be wiped from the face of the earth.
Today's Sad Story
S&P 500: 1,890.28, -48.40 (2.50%)
Dow: 16,151.41, -364.81 (2.21%)
NASDAQ: 4,526.06, -159.85 (3.41%)
Crude Oil 30.40 -0.13% Gold 1,093.80 +0.79% EUR/USD 1.0881 +0.30% 10-Yr Bond 2.0660 -1.71% Corn 358.75 +0.56% Copper 1.95 -0.26% Silver 14.15 +2.90% Natural Gas 2.28 +1.20% Russell 2000 1,010.19 -3.30% VIX 25.22 +12.24% BATS 1000 20,143.62 -2.36% GBP/USD 1.4413 -0.15% USD/JPY 117.7130
1273.62
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