>>>No doubt in my mind that someone knew about Bear Stearns 3 days before and started buying the put options!<<<
At least 3 days .. big time spikes on that InsiderCow chart, almost looks like lightening bolts 8^) These powerful people; CEOs, CFOs, Board members, brokers, specialists, etc, etc had to know.
I recall doing a Market Trend Update back in June-July of '06 time-frame and warned that an RE top was close at hand. If I remember correctly -- supplies, materials and tooling started to take a beating (missed #'s, warned or something). BUT the clincher for me was that old and obscure indicator, the W.H.I. (Water Heater Indicator). When a major supplier of water heaters had warned or missed their #'s I knew at that very moment housing had topped. Everyone needs a water heater, that is if you like Hot Water.
These intelligent individuals are either shills or know nothing about Gov't, Fiscal responsibility and/or Economic sanity. It's a Ponzi Scheme and they are running out of new blood and while we are the pulse of this nation and if the establishment had not spent so much time looking down their noses at us, we would be better off today. First thing to be done; throw that Laffer curve out of the window.
Economists and analysts alike all have state of the art equipment, algorithms and much more at their disposal, yet they failed to see it? or did they think it would fix itself or just not pay attention to it and it will go away? Well somebody will pay now and most likely it won't be the perpetrators. It is kind of a "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it" mentality. It's like the handling of Iraq, Afghanistan, Homeland Security, Katrina & Wilma, FEMA, UAE, Dubai, China, need I go on? .. If I did not know any better I would say they make most if not all decisions "flying by the seat of their pants".
When all else fails, use baffle 'em with Bullshit or outright lie and deny.
These are the same people who get paid to downgrade a stock after it has already been taken out to the woodshed? I mean, C'mon, what extraordinary skills does it takes to make such an earth shattering call. I have been warning for years this would happen. Many of my long time lurking cyberpals can attest to that. Our officials are either a bunch of shills, spineless twits or they are censoring reports.
Freedom is not spelled F-E-A-R-D-O-M nor F-O-R-E-D-O-O-M, I just won't hear of that.
The best minds in the world do some of the stupidest things. Take Martha Stewart for example; I never really cared for her, but she built an empire worth billions and then gets caught for insider trading to save a mere ~$250K or 4,000 shares in ImClone Systems (IMCL). While $250K is a large sum of money for myself, it is small potatoes to her...
Hang in there people, only 9 months to go.
And this concludes another rant for the archives.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
