Replaying 1929: Business, Financial, and earth change news

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Nosebleed for the Markets

When we were chatting last Saturday morning, the Dow had just closed out the week at 12,307.35.  This morning, I can't help but notice that the Dow has closed at 11,842.69 for the week and if you're awake enough to handle a calculator, pencil, of still have enough mental acuity to do it in your head, that's a little more than a 464 point drop for the week.

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If you're wondering why the market took a dive, there were plenty of 'reasons' proposed on MSM outlets.  One of the reasons cited was Israel's Iran War dry run, which in turn caused a bump up in oil prices, leading to headlines like "Crude oil jumps on Israel-Iran bomb talk."

 

That in turn led to the Russian foreign minister warning against an attack, but the price of oil paid no mind and went up anyway.

 

A second factor in oil's rise was the continuing deterioration of the domestic situation in Nigeria, where rebels are suggesting that foreign workers exit while they can.

 

And all those headlines were extra-bad for the automakers, especially when mixed in with a Standard and Poor's plan to cut the credit/debt ratings of GM, Ford, and Chrysler.

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All of which gets us around to the question "What's next?"

 

In a mid-session chat Friday, Robin Landry made an interesting suggestions.  "George, in one of your Peoplenomics reports, maybe you should lay out what life would be like with $500 oil, $25 gas, and all the rest of what could be coming..." 

 

He then went on to explain how the next couple of weeks will be pivotal.  One wave count would have us spent a little more time at these levels, but above 11,700, and then take off with a final moonshot of the Dow to well over 14,700 - maybe even as high as 16,000 or greater, before getting to the massive collapse that will come as the world's greatest-ever paper bubble collapses.

 

On the other hand, if we sink through the 11,700 level, and then under 10,000, we can pretty much expect the conclusion of the decline to take us down to the 2001-2002 kind of lows (with 7,400 as a target) and perhaps even below that.

 

So we'll just bide our time and see what comes next.  The Big Players are winding up Q2 and balancing their books.

 

The specific problem is that Q1 ended with the Dow at 12,262.89 and the year began from a 2007 close of 13,264.82.

 

Not counting dividends, the Dow has lost 10.7% of its value in the first six months of the year, something that is not being widely reported in mainstream media.

 

To be sure, there aren't many mutual funds that invest as the Dow, so a look at the S&P is a little more fair.  It ended 2007 at 1468.36 and closed Friday at 1,317.93.  So excluding dividends and the hidden fees (which Bloomberg's Mike Schneider did a fine job of reporting on this week - click for short video) the year to date decline has only been 10.2%

 

Not that people will be able to do anything about it, as the PowersThatBe are still firmly in control.  Expect to hear the term "buy and hold" all over mainstream media in the coming few weeks.

 

The Runs: Kissy, Kissy, Make Up

As though we need one more data point to solidify the view that there's really not much choice in the election this fall, we have to note that after calling each other everything in the book, it's nice to know that "Obama, Hillary Clinton to campaign together" next week.

 

"Am I the only one who sees this as peculiar?" wondered Elaine.

 

Nope.  It's the neocon/PTB version of 'buy and hold'.  You buy the White House and then hold it.

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And speaking of buying it, the latest money moves of the Oil Party and War President Lite is summarized as "McCain may lag in money, but RNC outraises the DNC by 5 times" says an LA Times Blog.  Quick - act surprised.

 

Mars: There's just one thing...

I don't want to go sounding Colombo, but since the maximum temp on Mars gets up to 68F, how long before things get warm enough to melt the Martian ice we're reading so much about.

 

Since we already knew Mars was cold, you'd think we'd land in a hot spot and look for water, not ice...but I guess that shows you why I'm not a NASA consultant.

 

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Coping: The Time Before This

Nicholas Montserrat's book, "The Time Before This" was one of the best books I read when young, although I disagree with the authors view that "We have no rights, only responsibilities."

 

Nevertheless, the issue of whether Life and Civilization has been here before is a persistent Big Question.

 

Here's a head-stretcher article from 2007 that gets into some of the archeological evidence that that researchers like Graham Hancock have been pointing to: 'The History Before History".\

 

Your homework assignment for the balance of the weekend is write a 200 word summary of why these facts are conveniently ignored by modern religions.  Due Monday at 6AM.

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Send your essays (or other snip and save goodies) to george@ure.net

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Around the Ranch:  Missing Time?

OK, how does this happen?  I wake up in the middle of the night and notice I have a full kidney to offload.  I casually notice the beside clock says 1:47 AM.  I toddle off to the bathroom, unload the kidney and wander to the kitchen for a glass of ice water.

 

There, the clock on the stove says 3:33 AM.
 

I go back to bed, thinking the beside clock is wrong.  It now says 3:35 AM.

 

Curious, huh?

 

Even stranger was the vivid dream that followed immediately:

 

I was taken on a trip to an Area-51 kind of place on some kind of aircraft, facing backwards  safety reasons.  I could see the two pilots by looking over my left shoulder.  We arrived and then attended a briefing at this military base where a Disney-owned outfit provided security and specially logoed white jump suits for this group of six I was with were briefed on some kind of nuclear something or other somewhere else in this facility which we were told was supposed to be closed.

 

A further oddity, like this wasn't enough strangeness: There was a television playing on the left side of the room with the high level military guy doing the briefing - who explained it was to provide noise to cover up any listening devices as well as distract people who were not ready for the knowledge about to be imparted..  Then, my alarm clock went off - it was 5 AM and time to roll out

 

Heck of a dream - real as hell and in color, too, as most of my dreams are.  I'm pretty sure I must have read the clock wrong when I got up in the middle of the night...but then again, am I supposed to forget something?

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See you Monday - unless you're a subscriber, in which case Sunday afternoon, then.,..

 

Peoplenomics.com 

Getting Pumped: Change of Status

It happened again on Saturday night when I was chatting with a group of folks around the Southwest on ham radio. The future tapped me on the shoulder. One of the hams in the QSO (conversation) said that although he loved his older Porsche (928), it was getting to be a real pain to drive because it isn't easy on the gas.  Now that gas is nearing $4 a gallon even here in the "Land of Oil Rigs" (Texas), this reminded me how things presently held in high regard for their "status" value may be changing in tradable ways over the coming few years.  Not that the meek shall necessarily inherit the earth maybe, but at least if they drive a high mileage diesel Jetta with a 25-gallon tank, they might at least be able to raise a down payment in the future.  Anyone want to sell a good Honda Insight which a CNN-Money page listed as turning in 60 MPG city and 66 MPG highway?     More For Subscribers    

 

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UrbanSurvival has a very interesting business model - one that depends on growth.  This busin4ess model is a lot like capitalism in that growth is required, but of course we won't ever get to cutting down the rainforests. So even if you don't subscribe to our premium newsletter at www.peoplenomics.com, please tell everyone you know about this site.  The more this site grows, the more time and content will show up on the free site...  Click here to send 'em an invite...  Thank you!

 

"Live on $10,000" Updated

There's now a single-page website devoted to my little ebook "How to Live on $10,000 a year (or less) at www.liveontenthousand.com.  Yep - still possible.  I also took a bit of additional material that was pertinent from recent issues of Peoplenomics and included them.  The whole thing runs about 65 pages, but it gives you a vision of how to not only live on the aforementioned dollar amount, but also how to migrate up the economic foodchain if you make a little more than that and do some active savings...  Click here for the page with more details on it.

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Last week's report is here.    For back issues of this site, click here.  (Goes back to 1997!)

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I promised Elaine that I would unload some of my equipment, so if you're looking for ham gear, especially the older tube-type (EMP resistant) type, send me a note and I will send out the list of what I'm selling off when I get it together.    Click here to  Put Me On Ham Gear List.

 

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Friday June 20, 2008

Democorp's Dodd Sneaks in Government Money Spy Plan

This is mindboggling - the headline from www.FreedomWorks.org that "Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and all Credit Card companies to Report Transactions to the Government".  The sad details:

"Washington, DC - Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America’s small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.

FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey commented: "This is a provision with astonishing reach, and it was slipped into the bill just this week. Not only does it affect nearly every credit card transaction in America, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express, but the bill specifically targets payment systems like eBay's PayPal, Amazon, and Google Checkout that are used by many small online businesses. The privacy implications for America's small businesses are breathtaking."

"Privacy groups like the Center for Democracy and Technology and small business organizations like the NFIB sharply criticized this idea when it first appeared earlier this year. What is the federal government's purpose with this kind of detailed data? How will this database be secured, and who will have access? Many small proprietors use their Social Security number as their tax ID. How will their privacy be protected? What compliance costs will this impose on businesses? Why is Sen. Chris Dodd putting this provision in a housing bailout bill? The bill also includes the creation of a new national fingerprint registry for mortgage brokers.

"At a time when concerns about both identity theft and government spying are paramount, Congress wants to create a new honey pot of private data that includes Social Security numbers. This bill reduces privacy across America's payment processing systems and treats every American small business or eBay power seller like a criminal on parole by requiring an unprecedented level of reporting to the federal government. This outrageous idea is another reason to delay the housing bailout legislation so that Senators and the public at large have time to examine its full implications."

From the Senate Bill Summary:

Payment Card and Third Party Network Information Reporting. The proposal requires information reporting on payment card and third party network transactions. Payment settlement entities, including merchant acquiring banks and third party settlement organizations, or third party payment facilitators acting on their behalf, will be required to report the annual gross amount of reportable transactions to the IRS and to the participating payee. Reportable transactions include any payment card transaction and any third party network transaction. Participating payees include persons who accept a payment card as payment and third party networks who accept payment from a third party settlement organization in settlement of transactions. A payment card means any card issued pursuant to an agreement or arrangement which provides for standards and mechanisms for settling the transactions. Use of an account number or other indicia associated with a payment card will be treated in the same manner as a payment card. A de minimis exception for transactions of $10,000 or less and 200 transactions or less applies to payments by third party settlement organizations. The proposal applies to returns for calendar years beginning after December 31, 2010. Back-up withholding provisions apply to amounts paid after December 31, 2011. This proposal is estimated to raise $9.802 billion over ten years.

FreedomWorks calls this what it is: "Broad, invasive provisions [that] touches every aspect of American commerce."

 

What's going on?  An attack on small cash transactions is one way to read it.  Wholesale government spying on  private citizens and a presumption of guilt is another. 

 

And why do you think this might be?  Could it be Dodd is a puppet of the power-mongers and banking industry which needs digidollars to replace traditional cash and require submission to the mark-of-the-beast financial system?

 

Reports that aren't making MSM are that "Sen. Chris Dodd tied to Countrywide Mortgages" and "Dodd admits to VIP Loan Club".  Dodd tops lender's contributions list.  This last report reveals, for example, that in his career, Dodd's contributions from Citigroup have totaled more than $439-thousand.  Not a bad gig, being a powerful senator, huh?

 

As the headlines distract with an Israeli dry run attack exercise, the battle for control of the nation's money is being waged by banksters dropping in digidollar laws while no one is looking.  Or, so they hope...

 

Thanks to the cozy relationships at the top of the corporate world, "Major Networks Avoid Dem Senator's Countrywide Loan Scandals" reports NewsBusters.  So, is this Dodd's payback to the PowersThatBe for keeping him around?

 

One More War for Bush?

There are two stories making headlines this morning that