No Wonder It Was Dull

° The audience at Belmont University was trying not to doze off, so were the candidates.
° Why should Obama or McCain be enthusiastic? After all, neither will be President of the country that existed two or more years ago when the campaign began. That was a country whose economic system, though abused and weakened by years of drugging by the Federal Reserve and flogging by the Administration and Congress, was not known to be on its last legs.
° At least, Obama and McCain didn't know it.
° Cheers to Obama for showing the first signs of awareness, in his assertion that energy independence would take precedence over the other items on his wish list.--Giac.

It's the End of the World As We Know It, One Month Later

° As I said a month ago, not a forecast, just observation.
° The S & P 500 closed Friday (3 ottobre) exactly on the optimistic longterm trendline. (Today, 8% collapse in Milano, not so jolly 4% in New York.) What does breaking this trendline tell us? What we knew already, that the financial climate that has prevailed since the mid-nineties no longer obtains.
° What would it mean if the S & P retreats another 20% or so to the conservative longterm trendline in the 850ish area? (Well, it would mean some very very unhappy investors, that's for sure.) If the S & P reaches 850, and holds, it means that the secular bull market, that America's economy, can revive and grow from a lower level. If the S & P reaches 850, and falls through, it means . . . .
° I've about given up on that condo in Ecuador. Now I'm more thinking a trip to the Mexican Market and a Boone Pickenslike investment in dried beans.
° Though my friend at the Y is clearly wiser, he plans to fill his closets with nutritious and heartwarming scotch.--Giac

Chart drawn with software from Ultra Financial Services