<<The solution to too much debt is not more debt>>

True enough, but it will kick the can for a while longer. We all pretend to care what will happen to the future generations who ultimately will have to pay for this but, in reality, it's an every man for himself world.

Love it. Now if only it were to actually happen. It does seem as though the bankers hate the government, except, of course, when they need it.

Reminds me of the time a couple of years ago, albeit on a much smaller scale, when I heard a guy railing at one of the anti-Obamacare rallies that he didn't want anybody in the government messing around with his Medicare.

Just got in. So what is the market so worried about this morning that it wasn't concerned about yesterday.

Yes, and did you watch the play at the end. The last minute, the B/A was changing 15 - 20 cents every couple of seconds.

Yep, the shorts had a field day with this one today. Don't really know what brought them out with such avengence, but ....

Yea, this stock does seem to love falling off the cliff.

ARCO: after that opening bell spike, they sure decided to take it out to the woodpile for a whoopin'

zab, my son has some of it. He's read some good things and thinks, like you, that it might make a good long term play. He bought it recently for somewhere around 18.50. He asked me what I thought of it, but since I have no knowledge of it, and I saw your post, I thought I'd ask what you knew about it.

Maybe not. They might start rotating some money out of AAPL and into the rest of the stock market. Who knows, we might actually have a market of stocks again.

zab, do you follow ARCO? What was their IPO price? $18 ? Is that what it came out trading, or was it higher? Was it oversubscribed or not? So many questions? So few answers

I guess it's that age old question that if a tin whistle is made out of tin, then what is a fog horn made of ? I think it had something to do with leaving your chewing gum on your bed post overnight :)

Gee, I always thought Alcoa specialized in Aluminum :)

It sure is. It's just incredible to me that Apple's daily increase in market cap is roughly equal to, oh say, the total market cap of a company like Alcoa.

I can feel it comin' in the air tonight, oh Lord.
And I've been waiting for this moment all my life, oh Lord.
Can you feel it comin' in the air tonight, oh Lord, oh Lord.

- - Phil Collins

Yes, but there is Bernanke and there is Apple.

Australia files a suit against Apple for misleading consumers about iPad 3 and 4G LTE. Apple agrees to refunds. It's revealed that the iPad will not work with 4G networks outside the US. That includes Europe.

Result: Apple up 5.15 as I type.

Edit: make that 6.43 now

Yes, zab, I agree that existing conditions can be bad. And they needn't be as devastating as lung cancer. I have a nuisance arthritis condition called Reiter's Syndrome. It makes my hands hurt (sometimes quite badly) and the balls of my feet. I occasionally get flares to the point of requiring NSAIDs to treat it. Once every 5 years, perhaps Prednisone.

As you may know, arthritis is one of the 3 A's that insurance companies don't want to touch since they think you are a great candidate for knee/hip replacement. I started a small software company in 1995 and tried desparately to get health insurance for the 18 months of my Cobra coverage (which cost me a bundle). Finally, I just threw up my hands and went back into the big corporate workforce to regain insurance. Like you, I couldn't even get a quote.

Better than me, Lee. I was HUNG OVER.

After it goes up another 1000 first, then drops 300.

Okay, I'm done. Went 100% cash. I'm not going to fight the short side anymore. But I am prepared to sit and wait until hell freezes over for a correction before I commit any money to the long side. I accept that I may have to wait til the aforementioned cataclysmic event before I ever re-eneter the market again. So be it.

Perhaps someday, but not anytime soon, I'm afraid. The giddy, buy, buy ,buy mentality is alive and well.

Well, here comes Apple. The Fed had the market propped even when AAPL was down or flat. Now that AAPL has come alive, look out above.

But it is all falling on deaf ears. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of fighting these clowns. The next down day we get (should that ever happen), I'm closing all my short positions.

Yea, your right. Not bureaucrats. Highly motivated skilled government professionals. But I bet they'll still call me "Hun".

No, you're right. But it would be an alternative. But why do that? What are we all worried about? Inflation? Oh, that's right. There's no inflation. That's why every restaurant I go to has an "Exciting New Menu". The only thing that's exciting about it is the new prices.

I just see all that I worked for my whole life melting away. And one day I'll probably wind up in a government run, rat trap, rest home staffed by bureaucrats who call me "Hun", but who could give a shite about me because there are plenty more where I came from

To stop printing, maybe?

Imagine that. That's something you don't see everyday.

It would be interesting to have a new exchange set up that only traded one stock (AAPL) and all the rest of the Naz companies stayed with the NASDAQ, and then the indexes wouldn't be completely driven by the performance of one single company.

Just blew back through 605 like the proverbial hot knife through butter. You can almost hear the auctioneer yelling, "605, I've got 605, do I hear 606." Come on, boys. Every point's a billion in market cap. Step right up.

There was your 605 print. Top tick of the day so far. But as far as AAPL is concerned, the day is still young. There's 45 minutes left. It could move another 10 points before the bell.

Not exactly "in denial", canny. More like indifference. Earnings don't really matter when there is loads of money sloshing around and nowhere to stuff it except in the market.

So true, but you can't trade against it. It just keeps coming back and climbing up, no matter what. Every 60 points down is met with 120 points up. "Corrections" last a couple of hours at the most. Corrections on the Nazpple don't happen at all.

I think your right. Nothing can stop this market. The easy money from the Fed just flows straight into equities.

OMG AAPL is printing red. Only a couple of bucks but, still, it's like a knife to the heart.

Think of it this way, Joe

MSFT(275B) + INTC(137B) + DELL(31B) + VZ(112B) = 555B

AAPL = 550B

The faithful better buy the Bejeebies out of those iPad3s

Yea, ECYT is in Phase III for an ovarian cancer drug, but the question is "Do that have an app for it on the Apple Store?"

One of these days we are going to wake up and Apple will be down a dollar and we'll all hop back into bed thinking we must still be dreaming.

"And your little dog. HAHAHAHAHA'

It just won't die, Lee. Maybe tomorrow. Or next week. Or next year.

The Big A. You can smack it, but you can't hurt it.

But, don't you think that they will be able to maintain that margin as long as the telecon service providers continue to basically finance the purchase of their iPhones? Let' face it, if people had to actually walk up to a counter and plunk $650 down to buy an iPhone (the way things work in Europe), they would be hestiatant to do so. But, since it's only $200 or less, depending on how long it's been since you "upgraded" the last time, everybody goes for it.

The service providers just bump their monthly charge to the end user over the next 24 months to get back the discount they paid to Apple. And Mr. Average Consumer drives away happy thinking that his new iPhone only cost him $200. And, until Mr. Average Consumer changes his way of thinking, people will continue to "upgrade" every 2 years and the profits will continue to roll into Cupertino.

Edit: Looks like they're gonna go for $600 today