Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[marketmaven]

SOS Alert: Internut Stocks OPEN at high tick of day as GOOG tries $185 again- up/down volume gonna be negative today IMTO (in edit, no, they're being pushed higher by MMs-GAG !)

Classic Ure: [Pinch me, please!] Manipulated to Extremes

I don't know if I have ever seen such a fine job of yanking the market's chain, and the public's in turn, as what happened on Con Street yesterday, but here are the high points:

Consumer Confidence has fallen on its ass - not a good thing, especially because Christmas is already looking about as reliable as a Yugo with 200,000 miles on it. http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/041026/economy_12.html This is the third month of declining confidence in a row. Am I a lone voice of reason on this?

The 10th biggest airline in the country, ATA, has filed for bankruptcy protection: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/041026/ata_bankruptcy_9.html

Oil prices are back over $55 http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3077781a13,00.html because of winter supply fears.

Now ask yourself, "Would anyone but a crack head buy equities in this kind of market? Even if an insurance company got a new CEO (big whoopee). Sure, if the money to buy them with was free...and it might well be. Check and see how much money the misnamed "Fed" and the plunge protection team will inject this week with just two goals in mind. First, to insure the reelection of Frat Brother #2 (Bush) over the Frat Brother #1 (Kerry) who swore him in at the Skull and Bones Club at Yale. The second reason was to screw over any analyst worth $0.31 who can read that the market should be short.

On a more rational planet, gold would not be dropping, the Dow would not have gained 139 points, and nothing but the XAU should have advanced under such weighty bummers.

Please, God, pinch me and tell me I'm asleep and the market is a bad dream. This is prexactly (an Elaine word) why I swore off day trading after losing a Lexus' worth - because as the people's economist, here's the real simple formula that explains yesterday's action:

Mm = Si -Cash

Here in simple economics land this is read: "Market Manipulation leaves Small investor minus his cash

There's another formula in play, too:

If Mm> Wl and Mh>10,000 then Mm=P (SSpL) = ~100%

If Market manipulation is greater than war losses, and Market hype keeps the Dow over 10,000 on the Dow, then Market Manipulation equals odds of Passing (Social Security Privatization Lie) at about 100%.

In other words, we're witnessing a frenzy to sell the idea that the market are a good place to park money. This feeds the cockamamie idea of privatizing Social Security which has has nothing to do with your money, but has everything to do with getting Chief Bankster Al Greenspan and his Knights of the Fed Table off the hook for the theft of America's Social Security investments in the misnamed "Social Security Trust Fund."



If you believe Social Security is a "Trust Fund", can I suggest a pee test and counseling?



"Trusting" politicians around money is like sending a couple of ewes into a sexual offenders ward. Although as Elaine notes, while the outcome may be similar, the ewes don't talk back like we do.



I have a statement (which you can request for your own account) about what Social Security will pay me when I retire. (They send it every 6-months or so.) The reason I have been saving statements is that I view it as a contract - and I would suggest that you get your earnings history and promises in writing from these folks. It will be important down the road. If the American economy really tanks, you'll something in writing from the government to argue when there's an attempt to cut benefits. They have in effect, given you a statement of account.



The reason why this aspect of the presidential contest is so important is that The Chairman told the Kings of the Fed Table earlier this year that:

"In 2008--just four years from now--the first cohort of the baby-boom generation will reach 62, the earliest age at which Social Security retirement benefits may be claimed and the age at which about half of prospective beneficiaries choose to retire; in 2011, these individuals will reach 65 and will thus be eligible for Medicare. At that time, under the intermediate assumptions of the OASDI trustees, there will still be more than three covered workers for each OASDI beneficiary; by 2025, this ratio is projected to be down to 2-1/4. This dramatic demographic change is certain to place enormous demands on our nation's resources--demands we almost surely will be unable to meet unless action is taken. For a variety of reasons, that action is better taken as soon as possible.

The budget scenarios considered by the CBO in its December (2003- g) assessment of the long-term budget outlook offer a vivid--and sobering--illustration of the challenges we face as we prepare for the retirement of the baby-boom generation. These scenarios suggest that, under a range of reasonably plausible assumptions about spending and taxes, we could be in a situation in the decades ahead in which rapid increases in the unified budget deficit set in motion a dynamic in which large deficits result in ever-growing interest payments that augment deficits in future years. The resulting rise in the federal debt could drain funds away from private capital formation and thus over time slow the growth of living standards." http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/testimony/2004/20040225/default.htm

This is the slow-motion politics behind how they are making plans now to steal your retirement from you. The choices include a) enticing you to put it into a roulette spin (the stock market where they are the "house" which is why I'm out) or b) steal it through inflation (my $1,800 a month doesn't mean a thing if bread is $6.00 a loaf and gas is $12 a gallon).

As usual, the election is not about the issues you hear about, but the ones you don't - and this is just the first of many. Elaine thinks we ought to ask about the minimum wage which hasn't moved in how many years? But I've got her chilled down - because I point out this is prexactly why the border with Mexico is now effectively 200 miles wide and why Bush and buddies are keeping their real estate crony contributors fat with slave labor from Mexico. But that's another rap. Let's move on to nepotism: