• Home
• 2012
• Daily Commentary
• Election News
• Gold News
• Immigration

Subscribe

• More:
• How to Get Promoted!
• A 3rd Party in America?
• View Past Archives

THE POT & THE KETTLE

Our government has now passed more laws saying that corporations must use proper accounting. Hey, why should THEY when the government doesn’t? Year after year it gets reported that our government does not follow generally acceptable accounting proceedures (GAAP).

Throughout the year, the various government departments LIE to us about this number and that statistic. Then around this time of the year every administration RESTATES their numbers- always worse!

Today is to be the day that the government fesses up- as much as it ever will on a few of those areas. It’s been reported that there are massive differences in what the government has reported in GDP, personal income, productivity, and spending. We’ll know shortly.

You see, when a story hits the front page it is widely known. When a revision gets stuck on page 23 months later, no one notices. It’s old news. However, it is the TRUTH and the impact is real.

Wall Street analysts have questioned whether or not there really was a recession last year. Figures are now coming out showing that it WAS and probably still IS a serios one. Sadly, we’ve not beeen able to trust either Arthur Andersen or the government accountants. The economic house of cards has fallen down. Humpty Dumpty cannnot be put back together again.

Watch for the revisions beginning today. Watch and weep. And then wonder, why is the pot calling the kettle black? Maybe because it can?

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK?

Public relations difficulties set aside, and world-wide perceptions notwithstanding, America is NOT an empire. Thus sayeth the politicians. So then, we need to ask ourselves why do we have 708 small military installations strewn throughout the world? Why do we have seventeen major military bases throughout the world? Why do we have troops in more than 150 nations around the globe? Why are we giving financial aid to some 108 nations? What’s that all about?

Back here at home the Democrats are beginning to ask questions that I think Republicans should as well. Can we afford all of this. If this is not about imperialism then what’s up doc?

In June, our government ran up the biggest monthly deficit in 22 years! In May we were running a deficit of $147 billion compared to a year earlier when we were turning a surplus of $137 billion. For those with minimal math skills, you can easily figure out that this is a $284 billion turn-around in one year.

Then finally, I have to ask myself (again) just how wise it is to put ourselves in a position of fighting a war on terrorism. There are lots of things that bother me about that phrase but two stand out. First, Israel has been fighting a “war on terrorism” for decades now- and they’ve not been successful. In fact, it’s only gotten worse.

Second, I think it’s a short distance from, “If you’re a terrorist you’re against us” to the phrase, “If you’re not us, you’re a terrorist”. And, that surely smacks of “imperialism”. Maybe the Empire is alive after all. I do pray that the Emperor (we) has “clothes”.

ON OR OFF THE POT!

Talk, talk, talk!

There are all kinds of conclusions that one could draw from the Bush administration on it’s intents regarding Iraq. We’re going to just jaw-bone them to death. We’re going to just make threats. We’re going to strike by air. We will take 200,000 troops in and root them out. We’re going to topple Saddam by internal means. It will be this week and it will be next year.

I could list a dozen more scenarios that people have suggested. The central issue here though is that Bush has allowed himself to be painted into a corner. Is there anyway to get out without getting paint on the shoes?

The Democrats have been crafty in what I deem a concerted strategy. One day Gore comes out admonishing Bush not to attack without the entire global community agreeing (meaning don’t do it at all). The next day Joe (Al’s running bud) comes out saying that we’re already too late and we have to take Saddam out NOW. So, whatever he does one of the two previous running mates have fodder for their fall cannons.

Where I line up is ENOUGH TALK! From my days of growing up in rural America, where for five years the pot was outdoors, I go with the expression- “get on the pot or get off”! Nike would put it this way- JUST DO IT!

AND ALSO

In a world where we’re called to choose sides, in a culture that is decidedly more polarized, and in a society wherein everyone wants to know where you “stand” so they can label you as pro or con, it is refreshing see a change.

So much of the world is in to the Either-Or paradigm. Books have been written on this philosophy of life usually under the lead-line of Win-Lose. But there is a Win-Win approach to life or an And-Also mindset.

We saw this in operation this weekend with the “miner” miracle. Or was it a “minor” miracle? Was it an “e” or an “o”? Both!

What we also saw this weekend was teamwork. We saw the military battle cry of “not one man left behind” being lived out 240 feet under the earth. Nine men who tied themselves together and vowed that they would live as one or they die as one. Men with amazing courage udnerground and men with amazing determination to save them working feverishly above ground.

It’s an interesting fact that
we pay these kinds of men such little compensation while on the other hand we pay tens of millions to pro athletes who have not a clue about moral courage, know nothing about humility, nor understand the concept of teamwork. For me, it was more of a MAJOR miner MIRACLE!

WAG THE CAMEL?

The U.S. has been talking about the need to remove Saddam for years. Bush #41 couldn’t do it so now Bush #43 hs the job.

Ever since 9-11, Iraq has increasingly been showing up on the radar screen. It’s been highly rumored that Bush has given the CIA full authority to do whatever needs to be done to take him out. We were well on our way to making Bagdad our next step when Israel messed things up fighting wth the Palestinians. The whole war effort has been refocused to Jerusalem.

The economy here in America is now starting to erode the popularity numbers of the president and he’s not even running for office; however, what is at stake this November is the balance of the Bush presidency. If the House goes back to the Democrats, the Bush presidency is basically over. If it’s still a divided legislative branch litte gets done.

In order to set up the 2004 re-run of Bush-Gore and give Bush the decided advantage he needs, Bush needs a Congress that can dliver the “goods”. The economy isn’t cooperating, Ariel Sharon isn’t either, and so what’s a president to do?

It seems simple to me. It’s as simple as “wag the camel”, from the movie “wag the dog”. It’s more moral than “Monica Missles”. It’s simply a matter of planning the attack in the best possible situation before NOVEMBER! And, Saddam knows this as well so he’s going to lay low for the next few months even though the U.S. will do everything it can to encourage him to do something stupid so as to “justify” the timing of the attack. Sure seems like someboby’s camel is being wagged if not goaded!

HOME COOKING?

Many people are learning a whole new vocabulary in these interesting economic days. Where did proforma economic results come from? What’s a parabolic bubble? So many terms, so few clear answers. Well, let’s look at yet another term called “cooking” the books.

You add a pinch of truth, a pound of deception, a bowl of off-the-books debt, and then you shake-n-bake it until it comes out hard as a rock to break into and consume. If you cook it up on a barbee in your back yard, you can call it “home cooking.”

We’ve had a few people do just that. Everyone knows about Enron. They had some of the world’s best chefs- most of which are looking for new kitchens to work in these days. The jury is still out buy there have been a few confessions or leaks about the recipes of Reliant Energy, Dynergy, and HWP-Compaq. A judge found recently Carly innocent of manipulating the merger vote. And, the only thing that Dynery can’t be accused of that the other three can is that Dynergy didn’t have it’s name on a sports stadium.

Back to the kitchen where we find that Dynergy is under a new head chef but the consumer’s palate is still not satisfied with the new meal. Dynergy sold for $48 a share recently but you could sit down to a meal and consume one share of stock for less than $0.50 cents today. The stock dropped nearly 50% Thursday alone.

Then there’s Reliant Energy and their new football stadium that has yet to have a game played in it. They also own 83% of Reliant Resources but that’s another story. Reliant Energy had a massive 63% rise in stock yesterday and yet it still sells for less than $3.50 when it used to fetch near $33 a share.

Unfortunately, Houston is developing a very bad reputation for “home cooking”. But then so are a lot of other cities these days. In fact it seems that if you can get your corporate name put on a sports stadium it’s a kiss of death.

Did I mention that the Texans last game of the year is with the Titans, who make their home in Nashville, Tennessee at Adelphia Coliseum? Maybe you saw their most recent past executive staff carted off in handcuffs Wednesday.

WHAT ECONOMIC DIVIDE?

There are a couple of phrases that seem to follow humanity through the ages: the rich get richer and the poor will always be with us. Ahh, but the times they are a changing!

In the last two weeks the markets have lost more than a TRILLION- even after today’s turn-around. Some $7 TRILLION has evaporated in just over a year here in America, and over $35 TRILLION has been lost world-wide. So, it appears that the economic divide is getting smaller. The poor, they are still with us but it appears that the rich are getting poorer!

One thing that is causing the narrowing of the divide is the switch from “pro forma BS” to “GAAP Reality”. Let me give you an example. Tuesday Amazon.com reported that they lost only one cent a share in the latest reporting period. Of course that was based on pro forma reporting that takes out equity losses, stock options, and just about anything that can be defined as a debit!

Had they used the GAAP (General Acceptable Accounting Proceedures) approach, they would have lost 25 cents a share. A BIG difference. IF, and I repeat IF, corporations would use realisitc accounting instead of hiding debt on offshore banks with the aid of bankers, the public wouldn’t be so duped. But then, maybe the economic divide would get wider. And, that’s bad, isn’t it?

PS. Don’t get too carried away with the one day phenomenon on Wall Street Wednesday. Seeing the Rigas family being carted off to jail in hand cuffs had to put an even more significant seriousness to the August 14th “certification” day. Otherwise known as “Truth-in-Wall Street” day. The big corporate CEO’s have only three weeks left to verify that their books are accurate. How many corporations do you think might “re-state” their earnings between now and then?

THE BLAME GAME!

The Democrats think that they have the ammunition that they need to put away the Republicans this year: the tanking stock market that is wiping out millions of retirement plans. The rhetoric is increasiing. It’s George Bush’s fault. After all didn’t he and his VP come from the corporate culture that is so rotten?

Let me say that it’s not George’s fault, it’s not any ONE person’s fault. It’s a systemic problem that has been leavening the culture for a decade! I believe that there is plenty of BLAME to go around. And, here’s my list of the evil, economic-doers.

A Fed that would not allow for normal business cycles and tried to manipulate a never-ending era of prosperity. A folk-hero status given to Alan Greenspan that idolized even his dumbest of moves. The acceptance of “pro-forma” earnings instead of generally accepted accounting principles. Non-expensed stock options that caused corporate insiders to do whatever it took to “back-in” a PENNY BETTER lunacy.

A no-risk mentality in stocks. Hyped ideas of a 35,000 and 100,000 Dow. P/E earnings that shot over 1,000! IPO’s from corporations that had no business plan beyond raising the initial money. A stupid division between the so-called “new” and the old economy. The productivity nonsense. A buy and hold mentality even in the face of incredibly adverse factors. CNBC hype that resembled more of a cheer leading format than objective news reporting. Pollyanna speak. Conflict of interest, cooking the books, and outright fraud on behalf of analysts, brokers, CEO’s, CFO’s, banks, and Wall Street. Thinking that mutual funds were savings accounts.

So there’s a start! And, it’s just that: fifteen REAL places to place the blame. Did I mention a gullible public who bought into something too good to be true? And, isn’t that what it’s turned out to be?

SPEAKING WITH FORKED TONGUE?

Of course all the Wall Street hawkers of stock were telling YOU to buy last week. Take advantage of the great bargains they say. Then Dow dropped 734 points last week.

Monday you were told the same thing- buy now. The market has hit the bottom and there are some great bargains to go “bottom-fishing”. Had you bought Monday morning you would have gotten to take advantage of the Dow’s 235 point loss. Doesn’t the last six days add up to a near 1,000 point drop on the Dow? Aren’t you sorry you didn’t buy- or did you?

That was one side of Wall Street’s mouth. On the other side, several analysts appeared on CNBC Monday hoping that we’d see the long awaited “capitulation”: a day when 90% of the stocks go down. They want to wash out the nervous or the “overhang of supply” (namely YOU) so that the market can snap-back.

So, let me summarize. They want you IN so that they can wash you OUT- so that they can make commissions coming and going. They rail on the investors as being timid and lacking confidence for getting out but they really want you out.

Could it be that investors are getting out not for lack of confidence but because they’ve run out of money? And, could it be that the Wall Street “hawks” are speaking out of both sides of their mouths or what some call “speaking with a forked tongue”? You judge!

PS. Could any of the Wall Street “blues” be blamed on the nut-case prognosticators and authors who lured people into believing in a Dow 35,000 or Dow 100,000? Did they not set FALSE expectations?

PSS. If you think this BEAR market will be over quickly, think again. The normal BEAR market is 1/3rd the length of the BULL. The BULL ran from 1982 to 2000 or 18 years. The BEAR began in 2000 and therefore should last until 2006.

DOUBLING DOWN?

The investment community was aghast when a few months ago Enron filed the largest ever bankruptcy in history. Few could believe that the corporation with $63.4 BILLION in assets could be bankrupt. How could a corporation that was being touted by several Wall Street analysts four days before it filed for bankruptcy be in that mess?

Well, that was THEN and this is NOW. Worldcom (the second largest long distance carrier) has just filed for bankruptcy with assets of some $103.8 BILLION or nearly double the Enron filing. But then, when a corporation misappropriates some $3.9 BILLION in expenses how can anyone be sure what they are worth, how many liabilities they have, or if Chapter 11 can salvage the ship. The bottom line is that this is just the latest stab in Wall Street’s back.

But guess what. Abbey Joseph Cohen of Goldman-Sachs land was trotted out to declare that NOW is the time to buy stocks. When has she EVER said it wasn’t a good time to buy stocks? Let me remind you of her record.

In January of 2001 she proclaimed a 13,500 Dow and 1,600 S&P500 by year end. That didn’t work, so she revised downward. That didn’t work so on April of this year she revised downward again to a 11,300 Dow and 1,300 S&P500. Isn’t she aware that the Dow is at 7,784 and the S&P500 at 819 and heading South?

Wall Street wants you to “double down” and save their hide while risking yours. Doubling down is a Vegas term and well, just right for Wall Street. Don’t fall for it!

TELLING IT LIKE IT IS!

Okay, tell me how many times in the last year that you’ve heard something like this. I think we’ve found the bottom so now’s the time to buy. Buy now before the train leaves the station. Now is the best time to buy stocks. Stocks are way below what they should be selling for so snap them up while you can. And, then there’s this one: If there was a recession it was the shortest lived one ever.

You’ve heard all that BULL from CNBC and all the other Wall Street analysts for nearly two years now. So, let me give you the FACTS. Let me tell you what EXACTLY has happened since all the above BULL has been sold to the public. Ready? Let’s tell it like it really IS!

The Dow dropped 734 points last week and it is at 4+ year old lows. The Nasdog Index has dropped 80% from it’s highs. The Nasdog 100 has dropped from a high of 4,816 to 983. The Transportation Index has fallen to near cyclical lows. The Utility Index has dropped nearly 50% (from 416 Dec. 26, 2000 to 214 today). The U.S. stock market has lost over $6 TRILLION in the past two years while the world stocks markets as a whole have lost over $35 TRILLION.

Fact: we’ve just seen the largest wipeout (exceeding 1929) in securities values ever in the history of mankind.

Friday we saw 751 stocks advance and 2,495 decline. We saw 28 hit new highs and 423 hit new lows. We’re seeing the Dow (just 30 stocks) trade more in a day than the entire Nasdog market meaning people are getting scared. Friday it was 2.47B for the Dow and 2.35B for the “dog”. Mutual fund redemptions (people getting out and wanting their 20 cents on the dollar back) are forcing the mutuals to sell at the worst time.

PS. Award for “scandal de jour” Friday went to Johnson and Johnson who’s stock dropped 16% when the authorities said they were looking into some possible “accounting problems”.

I fly back from California Sunday evening and I look forward to getting back to a T1 line!

THE EDGE OF PANIC?

For three years I have been sounding the alarm. For three years the markets have been tanking and yet people continue to listen to the BULL of CNBC and the “experts” on Wall Street say that the turn-around is here. Three years ago I was looked upon a a “head-case” for saying Dow 5,000 and Nasdoq 1,000. Now, it seems as though those two markers could be a reality: fancy that! Of course it’s after TRILLIONS of dollars have been lost in the markets.

The prolonged truth is about to step on to the stage. The King has no clothes and the U.S. corporations have no profits. Wall Street is blaming a lack of confidence and anything you can think of- all symptoms. The truth is that there have been no REAL PROFITS!

When you use pro-forma results, drop out all normal expenses, capitalize normal “expense items”, not count stock options, and play a dozen other games, you can always wind up “beating the street by a penny.”

The pro’s, otherwise known as the commercials, have been bailing out of the market for months. Charts show their steady getting out of stocks. At the same time, the small guy- the public, is increasing their stocks. Sheep lked to the salughter. More fodder for a corrupt system.

Richard Russell had this to say in his daily Dow Theory Letter, “We just might be on the verge of panic. I feel that IF the Dow breaks below 8,235 we will see a panic to get out. And, by December of this year, you will not recognize the U.S. economy.” These are powerful words from a man who is usually conservative. And, let me also mention a man who’s been more right about the overall market than anyone, anyone knows.

The edge of panic? Just could be. I said last month that I was sensing an ominous stench in the air. The Dow has been down 8 of the last 9 days and 6 of those 8 have been triple digit down days. If we’re not on the edge, why’s my feet feel like they’re standing on razor blades?

LITTLE FUSE LEFT!

The tinder box known as Israel is about to use up the last of the wick or fuse. So many matches have been struck, so many fuses have been lit and then blown out, so many lives have been snuffed out. Any day now a match will be struck, a fuse will be lit, and there won’t be enough time to back away before it all explodes in out collective faces.

Tuesday it was seven dead in the city of Emmanuel from Palestinian suicide bombers. Wednesday it was a back-to-back in Tel Aviv when two men blew themselves up and killed at least five (so far).

Isreal has shown real patience but it’s about over. I believe that Arafat is well aware of the moment and as a result he’s been moving his millions out of the country or so says USA Today.

Any day we could wake up and read about a massive attack by Israel (and I mean really massive) and who knows what the next domino to fall would be. It’s become all too common now and familiarity does more than breed contempt.

In America we’ve moved from irrational exuberance to irrational greed. In Israel, it could very well be just irrationalism!

7 Come 11

This does not have enything to do with the fact that I was in Las Vegas last week. I am referring to the amazing fact that the Dow has been DOWN SEVEN days in a row. It has NEVER been down SEVEN in a row this year before, but who knows- seven come eleven.

The Dow has now dropped not just 7 of 11 but 5 of the 7 have been of the triple-digit ilk. The Dow has now dropped nearly 900 points in 7 days. And, there are THREE really, really bad facts out to make the markets jittery Wednesday.

First CBS MarketWatch has lauded Richard Russell for his accurate projections. And, he’s been talking 5,000 Dow with the bear market just getting started. Hmmm.

Second, after the Greenman spoke Tuesday, it appears that his “irrational exuberance” of 1996 has been replaced by “irrational gloom”. The pros are fleeing the market like crazy (commercials) while the individual lambs are being led to slaughter.

Thirdly, after the bell, Intel did a hat trick by announcing that it had missed it’s already lowered projections (9 cents instead of 11), they would need to cut some 4,000 jobs, and they would be lowering capital expenditures. Oppps!

Upcoming Seminar...

Visit Our Sponsors...

© 2008 Transformed Consciousness · Revolution News theme customized by LeftLane Designs · Admin Area · Visitors