Read an excerpt from
Al Martin's book about
Bush's Harken Energy
Fraud --



"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

-- George W. Bush (August 5, 2004)

Al Martin Raw.com:
The Power of Truth

Political, Economic
& Financial Intelligence
(By Subscription Only)

(Subscribe Now Online & Save..)

by Al Martin

World Economic Forum in Davos: World Bankers Agree on New Ways to Rape & Pillage the World
(2-1-10) New pronouncements are coming out of Davos and these are not the usual cheerleading and Bullish Shillism regarding the future of global markets, which is what Davos has been all about in the past. The World Economic Forum is composed of bankers, corporate chieftains and politicians, and it meets once a year in January in Davos. They all go there at the expense of shareholders and taxpayers in their private jets and limos and typically have filet mignon and lobster lunches. Usually not much is said and nothing is really accomplished, except to come out with a glowing statement about the planet’s economic prospects in the future. We are seeing that this year’s meeting was substantially different. The tone was much more somber, and there were many more so-called secret meetings at Davos regarding global financial regulations.

Global Governments Begin to Unravel, as Planet’s Economy Teeters on the Brink
(1-25-10) Last week we saw that global governments led by Washington are in a state of complete turmoil. There is now a general recognition that any so-called early “exit strategy” from fiscal stimulus is impossible and that more fiscal stimulus will be necessary for an indeterminate amount of time. Washington and London are seeing that the effort to gradually unwind speculative bubbles, provide the liquidity, and create jobs is failing. In fact, the planet’s economy is continuing to deteriorate. This is creating dynamic political stress within governments. The problem is that everybody in government wants to politicize the situation and play the blame game by pointing fingers so their party stays in power. This is particularly noticeable in Washington where we saw the Obama Regime last week attack investment banking houses with a vigor not before seen.

Dazed & Confused in the Heartland: A Tale of Two Generations in Post-Cookie Cutter Society America
(1-18-10) Is Vulture Capitalism the Future of America?

    The world has been turned upside-down for millions of Americans and the story of Bob (not his real name), one of our 30-something subscribers and his 60-something parents illustrates this point quite well. Bob was one of the success stories I had when I was doing this market trading service. The story of Bob and his parents is a prime example of how America has changed. The America that people above the age of 50 or 55 knew is really gone now. What they believed in is all gone. What Bob, who’s now 33, and his parents have gone through in the last 10 years is a story that I think will resonate with millions because it tells you how the country has changed and the planet has changed as well.

The Crumbling of Cookie-Cutter America & The Speculative Real Estate Bubble in China: What’s Next?
(1-11-10) The fact that the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) recently stated that consumption will never be restored to 2006 levels bespeaks of the end of the Cookie Cutter Society in America. In the post WWII Cookie Cutter Society model, governments encouraged marriage and the production of rug-rats so as to endure the next generation of debt-financed consumption. Since a married couple with rug rats will ultimately consume more than two single people together, they will ensure that the next generation will go into debt in order to finance consumption to maintain economic growth. That is all beginning to break down and the BIS is saying that without the maintenance of the post-war Cookie Cutter Society (the post-war economic model of, not savings-generated, but consumption-generated economic growth), can not be maintained. So what is the agenda of the BIS in publicizing this information?

Global Foreclosure? BIS Reports Global Currency Devaluation Is Done Deal
(1-4-10) A newly released report by the Bank of International Settlement (BIS), which is the bank for the world’s central bankers, states that the unraveling of the global economy is now beyond the point of no return. There was little mention of it in the media because nobody really had a vested interest in talking about it. This report was the most comprehensive study of the global economy and its likely outcome between now and the end of the new decade. The BIS noted that in an effort to provide a global synthetic economic recovery, the G-20 nation-states have expanded their total governmental debt by 30% in 2009. What does this mean?

2010: Geopolitical, Economic & Military Forecast for Planet Earth; Where the Smartest Money on the Planet Is Investing
(12-21-09) You may have heard about “Smart Money.” What about the “Smartest Money”? When you take a look at that in conjunction with what markets are telling us now, you can draw a picture of what 2010 on Planet Earth will look like…

The Problem of Sovereign Debt & the Credit Rating Agency Scam
(12-14-09) The deteriorated credit ratings of sovereign debt, especially as we see it in Dubai, Greece and Ukraine, etc., has rankled global equity markets. This has also driven money into the US Dollar and is primarily responsible for the recent rally we’ve seen in the Dollar.

    Sovereign debt is the debt of foreign nations, Second and Third World governments, denominated in a currency other than its own, to wit US Dollars, Yen, Pounds or Euros. This sovereign debt has been sold and is payable in a currency other than that of the issuing country. Usually the largest amount of sovereign debt outstanding is denominated in US Dollars and Japanese Yen. So what does the credit rating downgrade of the government debt of Greece and Dubai debt really mean?

Dubai Debt Debacle Roils Market: Force Majeure. Or Another Bailout?
(11-30-09) The marketplace knew this Dubai problem was coming when the Dubai government said it would seek to renegotiate the loans of Nakheel, the defacto real estate development arm of the Dubai government, which would be unable to continue to service its debt. The Dubai government is behind this and it owns the project. Also it is guaranteeing the loans. Prior to that, the Dubai government said that it would try to renegotiate about $40billion worth of loans regarding this Dubai World project which the Dubai government is responsible for. That did not initially roil markets because people knew there was a problem, that Dubai had overbuilt and that they were about to go through problems that other countries have had with high-end residential real estate. The implication was that Dubai would simply have to bite the bullet and renegotiate loans. It hardly caused a ripple. But what did cause a ripple came Wednesday night last week when the Dubai government asked for a 6 months extension in servicing the debt. No country has ever been able to get away with it without being declared to be in default. In other words, this is a defacto force majeure on the debt. What does this mean?

The Obama Regime’s Financial Regulatory Changes Threaten Speculative Bubbles
(11-23-09) Last week Secretary of Debt Tim Geithner appeared before the House financial regulatory reform subcommittee, and not surprisingly, he was attacked by all the right-wing Republicans, since they love to attack him and Obama saying – it’s your recovery and it’s your problem and it’s all your fault. Then we saw that even the moderate Republicans came to his defense and clearly said that this was George Bush’s mess. The right-wing Republicans then got red in the face, when their fellow Republicans pointed that out. But what was interesting and telling about his congressional testimony was the detail he provided on the Obama Regime’s ongoing financial regulatory reform initiative, particularly as it relates to limiting leveraged trading by the investment banks and brokerage houses. Geithner was unusually detailed, and he said that the CFTC under new management has now been given much more authority than before to regulate commodity markets so that the CFTC would move to re-impose daily trading limits in all trading contracts. This is the way it was years ago. Daily trading limits and contracts were first imposed in order to provide some stability in markets and to prevent calamities from occurring. The rules, however, for daily trading limits and maximum contract sizes that any one firm could hold were done away with under the Reagan-Bush Regime. It was necessary to do away with these rules since their intent was to build a gigantic speculative bubble, which, of course, is what the Reagan-Bush Regime did. Now what?

Overnight Trading: How to Make Your Money Make Money
(11-16-09) Real Trading isn’t trading using charts, fancy graphics and colored lights. Those infomercials advertising trading services are mostly financed by the brokerage industry, and they are responsible for consistently diminishing the so-called “burn rate,” which is the average number of days that a $10,000 trading account will last. Now it’s about down to 5 days – thanks mostly to the trading chart and colored light services. In other words, don’t be seduced by the infomercials. Please try to understand that the $5000 commodity trading seminars that teach you how to trade off charts and graphs are a complete waste of time. They aren’t even using real technicals. They’re using faux technicals which don’t even correspond to any reality. Why? Because they’re easier to understand…

Big Changes in Global Economic Policy: Oil Scam 101 & Other Speculative Bubbles
(11-9-09) It’s been another week in the decline of America, the Once Great Nation and former leader of the so-called Free World. And this bespeaks of the problem with newly created speculative bubbles – the same phenomenon in oil which we saw in 2005 and 2006. Oil is so overvalued now in terms of its supply’ demand fundamentals that global storage of crude product is at an all-time high and the number of ships that are off-shore which are being used as storage facilities has also grown to a record high. According to recent reports, there are 758 Class-1 tanker ships which are being used around this planet as de facto storage for crude petroleum. And where are the ships being kept?

The Evolution of Bushonian Fraud
(11-2-09) The most recent consolidation of wealth was dynamically advanced under the Bush-Cheney Regime, which depleted all of the fiscal surpluses it inherited from the fiscally prudent Clinton-Gore Regime and then accrued enormous fiscal deficits. Thus an enormous speculative bubble was created through a cheap and easy money policy that was kept too long, on purpose, and which then collapsed, leading to enormous wealth generation for those who were effectively short assets after the collapse. You could call this the "wealth multiplier effect" of collapse.

(FREE SAMPLE COLUMN)
From US Bank Failures to Civil Unrest: How Soon? How Bad?
(10-26-09) According to Bloomberg, the FDIC said 416 banks with combined assets of $299.8 billion were on its list of “problem” lenders at mid year. Meanwhile 106 banks have been closed by regulators this year to date. This compares with 179 banks which were shut down during the Savings and Loan Fiasco of 1992. Last week FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair told a Senate subcommittee on financial institutions -- “The most prominent area of risk for rising credit losses at FDIC-insured institutions during the next several quarters is in Commercial Real Estate lending.” What does it mean?

The Legacy of Bushonomics: The Creation of a Permanent & Growing Underclass
(10-19-09) FDIC Director Sheila Baird is becoming one of the most plain-spoken members of the Obama Regime. She’s been saying that the Obama Regime’s programs to initiate financial regulatory reform, in order to prevent the formation of another speculative bubble and another disastrous collapse, is frankly in trouble. The Regime is now backing away from doing what is necessary in the realm of fiscal regulatory reform. Why? Because the Republicans are dead-set against it, and the Obama Regime has come to understand that if it doesn’t give in to Republican demands, there will be a case of Government-By-Gridlock again.

Fed Governors Invoke the Dreaded D-Word (Deflation)
(10-12-09) There has been an unusual amount of Fed Speak last week, as many of the Fed Governors have been stumping in various venues. This is usually done only when the Fed is trying to send a signal. Then it becomes important to pay attention to what the Fed is saying. The signal they were sending was twofold. For the first time they used the D-Word -- Deflation. They said that deflation is now the problem. It is no longer inflation, but deflation will become more of a problem in 2010 -- as prices continue to deflate. The second message they’re trying to send is that although they’re prepared with an exit strategy to withdraw liquidity, they will not do so at this time – and indeed can not do so because the economy is in a “synthetic” recovery. By using the word “synthetic” in this context, they’re attempting to engineer economic growth on the back of deficit-financed government spending, aware of the fact that consumption is going to fall even as it is now falling – and will continue to fall in the future. This can be seen in declining retail sales numbers and the dramatic increase in the personal savings rate over the last 2 quarters. What does this really mean?

New Global Economic Forecast: “Grey Skies” Forever
(10-05-09) Governments globally are increasingly adopting “grey skies” economic policies – in recognition of coming deflation. In other words, governments are becoming more and more “Japanized”. This means that all G-20 nation-states are moving in the same direction as Japan has done. This will be a permanent substitution for “retail consumption” by government spending. A recent example of this is the Government of Ireland’s decision to effectively bail out and refinance (and ultimately own) all private real estate in Ireland. This would require the Irish government to issue 90 Billions Euros (equivalent to about USD 130 Billion) which happens to be 2 years of Ireland’s GDP. This is an enormous gamble. They are trying to take Social Welfare-ism to its ultimate conclusion – in order to save an economy which is the furthest-out, so to speak, in the Socialist Welfare economic model. This is because of Ireland’s state payments and state guarantees, i.e. a state-controlled economy. They are attempting to prevent a collapse of the Irish economy by effectively playing the end-game of Social Welfare-ism, making government now the largest owner of assets in the economy.

G-20 Pittsburgh: The Obama Regime Leads the World… Against Financial Regulation
(9-28-09) These G-20 meetings are usually considered nothing but a “photo opp,” but this time the G-20 leaders wanted to use it as a platform to prove that they are doing something to attack the global economic crisis. So they came up with a plan to coordinate financial regulatory reform. Now it was actually Obama who was the one that had to argue against caps on bankers’ salaries. Britain, Germany and France all wanted strict limits on bankers’ pay – but of course it goes beyond bankers. It’s the entire so-called financial community who want no pay caps imposed on themselves. Obama knew that this would create a problem with Republicans, and that the Republicans would use that as an issue. The Obama Regime was prepared to relent some in that they’ve toned down the rhetoric on this idea of Banker, Broker and Trader (BBT) pay caps. It’s a contentious issue with the Republicans, who keep using it as a distraction.

Smart Republican Money Gets Short -- Again
(9-21-09) The bleeding of air in the new speculative bubbles should begin this week.

Gold Rises. Dollar Falls. Why? (How To Make Money Whether Gold Moves Up or Down)
(9-14-09) Gold continues marching up the “technical ladder,” as traders say, so the Gold Shill is still alive. And now we are beginning to see the steady decline of the Dollar. This is what has been supporting Gold and Silver, but what Joe Six Packers need to understand is that a declining Dollar does not support all commodities. What does that mean?

Anatomy of a New Gold and Silver Sucker Rally
(9-07-09) Be careful of recent rallies in gold and silver. They are unsustainable... What does that mean?

In Bernanke We Trust: Global Leaders Still Addicted to Cheap Money & Speculative Bubbles as “Economic Policy”
(8-24-09) As the old saying goes, global leaders are trying to have their cake and eat it too. What does this mean? There were two good examples last week. One was the Bernanke speech on Friday, where he was commenting on the Kansas City sponsored Annual Jackson Hole Fed Symposium. Once again he tried to tell us how wonderful things are and that recovery is at hand – but the recovery will be slow and there are so many pitfalls yet to come. He intimated that the Fed was concerned about domestic equity markets and global commodity markets being overheated. Yet on the other hand, he said that there is no policy change on interest rates and that we will keep money cheap and liquid, which is fueling the very same speculative bubbles that I, Ben Bernanke, am concerned about.

    Then there was the China’s premier Wen Jen Bao, who did the same thing Wednesday in a major economic address, when he said that the Chinese government is concerned about the speculative bubbles, which have been created in the Chinese equity market and global commodity prices – using almost the same words as Bernanke. But then he said we’re concerned, it’s overbought and there’s going to be a crash of the markets. We are going to take urgent measures to curtail speculation in Chinese marketplaces. Then he finishes up saying – however we will still continue to provide Trillions of Yuan in economic stimulus and we will keep money cheap and liquid that is fueling those very same speculative bubbles that I am telling you I’m concerned about.

(FREE SAMPLE COLUMN)
Obama’s Tax Bomb: Coming Soon to Your Neighborhood
(8-17-09) Obamanomics is an economic recovery plan that, simply put, will raise consumer prices. Meanwhile AP is reporting that “consumer prices have fallen more in the past year than in any 12 month period in nearly six decades.” And therein lies the irony -- how the Obama Regime is able to hide increased consumer prices. Even Joe Six Pack knows this isn’t true. Anyone who goes to a gas pump or a grocery store or purchases tobacco and liquor or any hardware items knows what’s happening to prices. This is very disingenuous, since they’re comparing prices to a year ago -- and not to 2 or 3 months ago. It should be remembered that in the first quarter of 2009, gas prices fell to less than $1.50 a gallon. Now, according to Lundberg this week, the median price at the pump is $2.63 a gallon. So what does Joe Six Pack get out of this?

Anatomy of a Bear Market Rally; How the Grand Market Conspiracy Works; Expatriation Update
(8-10-09) Joe Six Pack investors have been baffled at last week’s market action. Friday’s unemployment report got an awful lot of play, particularly in mainstream media, since it was better than expected. Nobody is saying, however, how deceptive that is. What is going on in the markets is increasingly becoming more “populist” so to speak because so much of this market action is bleeding into the mainstream.

    On Friday (August 7, 2009), for instance, the release of the monthly unemployment report for July showed that the unemployment rate declined from 9.6% to 9.4%. Expectations for job losses were at 350,000, and they came in at 247,000. This then caused a continuation of the rally in what is already an overbought market -- despite widespread expectations that the market was going to come down, particularly since the market had begun to soften midweek. So who’s doing all the buying?

America’s Health Care Crisis: Looking for Solutions in Moscow; Response to Detroit City Boosters
(7-27-09) The health care policies of the Obama Regime have been the big issue of the week. It’s time for the United States to recognize, as increasingly other G-8 Nations (First World Countries) are recognizing that state-funded health care can not be maintained and it’s time to look at the issue practically. It’s time for the United States to adopt the Russian Solution to the health care crisis.

Obamanomics Means Speculative Bubbles-R-Us -- Just Like Bushonomics
(7-20-09) The Obama Regime is playing a dangerous game, relying on the creation of new speculative bubbles to prevent further economic deterioration. Even the Bullish Shills you hear every day in financial media are asking why the Fed won’t reduce liquidity or soak up the enormous amount of money it’s plugged into the system, which, by the way, is no longer doing any good. There are economists who say it’s time to soak that liquidity up because it’s inherently dangerous to have so much money sloshing around the planet’s system at a time when retail demand for that money continues to fall. Even China is exerting more pressure against the Obama Regime because it understands the danger of allowing too much liquidity as an economic policy, i.e. maintaining trillions of dollars of unused capital in the planet’s economic system. So what is the Obama Regme trying to do?
American Labor Camps? Thank You, General Primakov!
(7-13-09) In this economic environment, work camps in America may ultimately be “necessary.” What’s the one area where the Obama Regime has not fulfilled its campaign promises? Reversing US PATRIOT Act powers and dismantling the CILF (Civilian Inmate Labor Facility) program. Indeed they’re spending more money on CILFs because they understand the need for it, and they understand the need for the President to have PATRIOT Act powers in an economic environment wherein civil unrest is growing and will be growing even more...

(FREE SAMPLE COLUMN)
Detroit: The Post-Apocalyptic Future of American Cities?
(7-6-09) Here’s a glimpse of a Turn Key Approach to Urban Wasteland Management ™. Last week I had a chance to talk to a friend who just got back from Detroit and boy did he get an eyeful of America’s Future. After listening to him describe Detroit , it’s obvious that it has all fallen apart. First of all, there’s very little civil authority or regular civil government remaining and in operation. Almost everything has been turned over to these so-called Private Management Companies. And this is how it’s being done. They block out areas, in which 80% or more of the houses have been foreclosed on, which happens to be almost the entire city and county. They have selectively begun to bulldoze the properties which have been foreclosed on. The rest have been boarded up. Then they have turned over management of these 100 block area to private companies which have become defacto governments. They have the literal authority of “governments” and they’re paid a flat fee from the city, county or state to “manage,” as they say, a square block of this urban wasteland.

The Obama Regime: Floundering As a Policy of State
(6-29-09) You may have noticed that Secretary of Debt Timothy Geithner is being kept out of sight, as is Economic Non-Advisor Larry Summers, because they have both stuck their foot in their mouths so many times that they don’t want to keep putting them out up front. I think what they’re doing is that they’re protecting the “home team,” like Geithner and Summers who are part of Obama’s inner circle. They are being protected against themselves by keeping them away from the media. Now Fed Chairman Bernanke is increasingly being stuck out front on purpose because they view him as an outsider and they don’t know how much political support they want to put behind him for another term.

The New “Double-Dip” Economy -- It Ain’t Gonna Be An Ice Cream Sundae; Joe Six Pack America: Sheared Again
(6-22-09) Are you prepared for the coming “double-dip” economy? It is becoming increasingly clear that what I call the Endlessly Bullish Shills have lost the battle of promoting the Lie of a “V-Shaped Recovery,” and that in fact, even a “U-Shaped Recovery” is not likely either. What is much more likely is a so-called “W-Bottom.” In other words, we have reached the “peak” of the first so-called recovery and we are in the apex of the bottom of the W. What does that mean?

Real World Economics: The Global Bailout Bubble - Is the Planet Drowning in Liquidity?
(6-15-09) Yes, the planet is drowning in money. That’s literally what’s happening. Governments are printing money as fast as they can. Corporations are issuing new equities and bonds. These events have had the odd effect of simultaneously creating both deflation and inflationary pressures. What does it all mean?

The Market Confidence Game; Time for Sec. of Debt Tim “Let’s Print Some More Money” Geithner & Fed Chairman Ben “Bail Em All Out” Bernanke to Go
(6-8-09) Market gyrations have been ruling the day, and more importantly, even though the equities closed with very little change, after a pretty wild ride, the equities moved up after a sharply better than expected unemployment report. They were looking for job losses of 525,000 and came up with a loss of 345,000. However the unemployment number is one of those statistics that is very much a double-edged sword because Joe SixPack, who looks at the evening news doesn’t know what the sub-components of the report are, from a hole in the wall. Nor would he understand. He’s just told what the unemployment rate is, which is almost meaningless. The sub-components (how many payroll jobs were gained or lost, the month-over-month hourly wage figures, the average hourly work week, is what’s really important. The unemployment number itself really isn’t. But back to the gyrations… What the market didn’t like was the big jump in the unemployment rate, wherein the rate jumped from 8.9% to 9.4%, which was much higher than what they were looking for.

The Coming Debacle in Commercial Real Estate
(6-1-09) Speculative bubbles continue to balloon, as housing data shows home prices continue to collapse. So the economic absurdities continue unabated. We are now completely immersed in the Obama FantasyLand Economy where everything is supposed to be “wonderful.” It’s like Wall Street Journal’s Andrew Ross Sorkin just said – Look at what equity prices are doing. There aren’t any problems. GDP isn’t falling. Everything’s just great. Meanwhile, last Thursday night (May 28), the Fed actually came out with a statement which in essence said – we do not understand what is happening. That certainly inspired confidence. Cue up the laugh track…

The Obama Regime Creates a Financial Frankenstein with Trillions of Borrowed Money
(5-25-09) Readers have asked why we don’t write about “political” topics, as we have done in the past. Unfortunately there is nothing “political” anymore. That has all taken a back seat now, even in the general media. Nobody cares about anything “political” anymore. Now it’s all “economic.” Why? Because the governments understand that the planet’s economy continues to teeter as it were on the brink. Every week they are faced with a new problem. Certainly the news of the week last week was the credit rating agencies and the attack they made on the U.K. Gilts (government bonds) and the second warning they made about U.S. Treasuries on Friday (May 22) that roiled the planet’s bond and currency markets.

Understanding Economics 101 (Part 2) -- The Market Correction: Coming Soon? Or Has It Arrived?
(5-18-09) In recent news, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has had some success in dealing with the Carlyle Group kickback scheme. In fact he is one of the few regulators in the United States who has had success in getting settlements out of people. He got $20 million out of them which is really just nickels and dimes in the greater scheme of things.

Banks “Pass” Phony Stress Test & Enter New Fantasyland Economics (Son of BFLAP)
(5-11-09) The Geithner “bailout,” including the bogus so-called “Stress Test” for banks, as well as the so-called Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP) which allows financial institutions to trade their “trash” for cash, has thus far been a dismal failure. Essentially the Obama Regime is using US taxpayers as the new dumping ground for every worthless asset imaginable. You may have heard about the Fed’s new equation for economic recovery -- Absurd Divided by Bogus Equals Cockamamie...

Lying with Statistics: The Reflation Trade Hoax & Avoiding the D-Word -- Deflation
(5-4-09) We are now witnessing history in the making. Domestic equity prices have generated a 4th sell signal in as many weeks last Friday - May 1, 2009, with the completion of the so-called Dow Theory Indicator. The first part of the Indicator which many people are familiar with is the Dow Industrials divided by the Dow Transports. This already generated a sell signal 4 weeks ago, but we now have the other half of that index, namely the Dow Industrials divided by the Dow Utility Index, also flashing a sell signal. Historically this has always been a danger sign, when the Dow Utility Index rises proportionately more than does the Industrials or Transports. This has happened only 4 times in the 113 year history of the Dow Jones indices. What does this mean?

The Conspiracy Against Joe SixPack; The Fed’s Bogus Stress Test Scam
(4-27-09) The Obama Regime is lying. The banks lie, and people don’t understand why. What is the motivation? The motivation is that the Obama Regime is scared shitless of telling the truth because if the people knew just how close the United States, and by extension the rest of the planet, is to utter economic collapse, their fear would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Now they’re effectively sacrificing Joe SixPack. How? Because the Obama Regime’s lies, complicit with the lies of financial media’s Great Market Shill Machine brought in a record number of Joe SixPack 300 Share Buyers. This has taken place within the last 3 months, from February to April 2009. They’ve brought in Joe SixPack buying, and this has been done in concert with the complicity of the investment banks which are not selling stock. There’s the key. Joe alone can’t hold up the equity market. He can only do so -- if selling is withheld. So what exactly is the conspiracy?

Understanding Economics 101: Tricks of the Trade & Understanding P/E Ratios
(April 20, 2009) Over the years, I’ve had many questions from people who don’t understand economics. People hear the terms “fiscal stimulus” or “monetary stimulus” but they don’t have a clue. Or they hear “Price/Earnings (P/E) Ratio,” which is how do you value markets, and they don’t know what this means. Or they hear the term “economic fundamentals” and it doesn’t mean anything to them. The ignorance is enormous. People don’t even understand what “supply” and “demand” means and how that affects price expectation. One of the most common questions I have been asked – why do all markets seem to be in a continuous state of overvaluation? And then there’s the story of the Market Fundamentalist vs. the Market Shill, and it is the ongoing battle… This is very relevant now because the equity markets are dangerously overbought – and even the Shills admit that now, saying that the market needs some sort of a pullback. Even the Shills know that the further you stretch the rubber band, the harder it snaps back…

Dumb Money: Failing to Learn the Lessons of History
(4-13-09) The dumb money pouring into the equity markets should take a look at history, specifically what happened after 1933, to see how equity and real estate prices declined, What caused those declines is the same problem we’re having now. The similarities are such that they are simply amazing. There’s credit quality downgrade, increasing corporate and governmental defaults and increased write-downs. That’s exactly what took markets lower in the second half of 1933 and into 1934.

    Now we see the new asset bubble being created in the markets by a confederation of the Obama Regime and a constant Bullish Shillism by the media with conveniently timed press releases. They have asked banks to pre-release their first quarter earnings if they are better than expected, such as Wells Fargo did on Thursday. This then prompted another rally in a significantly overbought market.

Reflation? No Bottom in Sight…
(4-6-09) The Global Financial Crisis and the G-20 Meeting in London have highlighted the ongoing battle between the Reflationists, who believe that government fiscal stimulus will reinflate (or reflate) the world economy Versus the Supply/Demand Fundamentalists, who think that commodity and equity prices are still overvalued.

    Reuters has reported that “G20 leaders have endorsed a strategy that will transfer loan losses from banks and creditors to taxpayers (via government debt guarantees) and savers (via money creation and inflation). In their summit communique, they committed themselves to a strategy of reflation and moderate inflation in the medium term. While this is plausible and consistent, it has profound implications for asset allocation. It favors borrowers and owners of equities, commodities and other real assets, at the expense of savers and those holding cash balances and government debt. “(See G20 agrees inflation is solution to crisis)

    The reflation trade is a bet that a rebound in the global economy will reflate the value of all assets, and drive up interest rates, as well as commodity prices. So what’s wrong with this “theory”?

Expatriation Update: What’s Hot & What’s Not
(3-30-09) It’s time once again for an expatriation destination update. So here’s the latest…

The Obama Regime Prepares for Civil Unrest; 1930-1940: Is It a Portent of 2009-2019?
(3-23-09) Economic history in the United States today parallels 1930-1940. Therefore if you want to see what 2009 to 2019 will look like, just look at what happened from 1930-1940. Gold confiscation. Gun confiscation. Property confiscation…

Unveiled: The Great Bullish Market Conspiracy; CNBC Market Shills Jim Cramer & Larry Kudlow -- One Down, One To Go
(3-16-09) Is this the end of CNBC, the Financial Entertainment Network, and its domination of what’s been called the “financial porn” market on TV?

    CNBC is another part of the government-media conspiracy, which manipulates the markets through fear, greed and ignorance. Last week the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart castigated and in fact eviscerated CNBC Market Shill Jim Cramer for his disingenuous if not criminal so-called “investment advice.” Earlier that day Cramer appeared on the Martha Stewart Show, where she had him pounding dough, quipping that he was practicing on Jon Stewart’s head. After playing that clip, Jon Stewart said that Cramer doesn’t work dough; Cramer loses it for other people. Now CNBC has gone so over the top that their slogan for the show is “In Cramer We Trust” replacing God with a TV huckster named Jim Cramer. So what exactly is the Great Bullish Conspiracy with all of its interlocking components that work in tandem every single day?

Global Power Shift: What’s America’s New Role?
(3-9-09) The consequences of Bushonomics I and II and the enormous build-up of debt at all levels of American society, which caused debt-financed consumption to maintain artificially high Gross Domestic Product (GDP) far exceeding what has been America’s traditional 2-1/2% annual growth r has accelerated what was an ongoing change in power structures on the planet by causing the US economy to be “Japanized.”

Wall Street vs. Herbert (Hoover) Obama
(3-2-09) The war between Wall Street and the Obama Regime was played out last Friday as traders pounded the bank stocks lower after the release of more details of the so-called Geithner Bank Rescue Plan. What’s interesting is they’re not calling it Obama’s Plan. Now they’re lining up the potential sacrificial lambs, so now it’s called the Geithner Plan. The Obama Regime is smart enough to know that everything they’ve proposed so far has not worked -- and will not work. Therefore, the first thing you do, if you’re in the business of politics, is you set up a scapegoat. And between Gethner and Bernanke, guess who’s getting set up? Who could it be that will end up as “the fall guy”?

(FREE SAMPLE COLUMN)
What Hath Bushonomics Wrought? The Financial Exhaustion of the United States (And Planet Earth)
(2-23-09) There is a financial exhaustion of the United States and indeed of Planet Earth that has occurred during the first decade of the 21st century because of Bushonomics, a “school” of economic thought, which was adopted not only in the United States but globally. In short, Bushonomics is negative debt-financed consumption. So what hath Bushonomics wrought around the world?

Obama’s Bogus Housing Rescue Plan: A Darker Shade of Pink
(2-16-09) Last Thursday was the unveiling of the Obama Housing Rescue Plan. This was supposed to have been released with great fanfare, but they learned from last week’s release of the Banking Rescue Program when the markets got hit due to the lack of specificity not to expect anything. The New Housing Rescue Plan, however, also contains few specifics. So we have seen further confirmation of what we’ve been saying before -- every rally that has been created through the announcement of another Obama Financial Rescue Cum Bailout Program is nothing more than a fresh short-selling opportunity. It’s apparent that the plans that they have are unworkable and they are coming up against the same “brick wall” the Bush Regime came up against. The “brick wall” is that you can’t untie bundled mortgages that have been resold 64 times. So even though the market lifted substantially, the so-called New Housing Rescue Program does not apply to any existing mortgages. So what good is it?

Obamanomics: Post-Bushonian Bi-Partisan Fantasyland Economics
(2-9-09) What we have seen in market reactions is that Obama has everyone pumped up into believing that he can fix everything and mitigate the effects of the current recession. Obama is now being billed by the Democrats as some sort of a miracle worker, even though he’s promising things he can’t deliver, namely mortgage relief that is unworkable and tax relief that isn’t going to happen. He keeps saying that we’re going to be able to create 4 million new jobs. That’s nonsense because he’s fighting a recession in which there are already 500,000 layoffs a month. The recession is sapping the value of the fiscal stimulus, even though this is being promoted to the unwashed, so that the unwashed have piled into the markets. The tone of the news broadcasts is that Obama is the savior -- that the markets can sustain levels of overvaluation for years to come, that there will be no more foreclosures, that he will create 4 million new jobs, and that he can prevent the current recession from deepening. The way this is being billed to the public is false, but the unwashed are lapping it up. They’re buying equities willy-nilly, and they’re buying real estate again under the premise that if they can’t make the payments, Obama will…

False Hope: Obama’s ‘Bad Bank’ Rescue Plan, A Trillion Dollar Boondoggle for Taxpayers
(2-2-09) The new plan that has been floated by Obama’s so-called ‘Economic Recovery Team,’ led by former Under-Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers and former NY Fed governor Timothy Geithner is what’s now known as a “Good Bank/ Bad Bank” rescue plan. This may be likened to a Good Cop/ Bad Cop scenario, in which everyone seems to be talking out of both sides of their mouth. They’re talking about having the US Treasury purchase so-called “toxic assets” from the nation’s commercial and investment banks. “Toxic assets” is another name for busted-out mortgage paper, not only sub=prime mortgage paper, but defaulted mortgage paper like CDOs, CMOs and other securities that are now worth, let’s say, less than 30 cents on the dollar.

Obamanomics, Economic Reality, and the Price of Gold
(1-26-09) The so-called “Obama Shill” turns more desperate, as the world falls apart. So what’s the difference between the Bush Regime and the Obama Regime? Not much. Last week we saw more affirmation of what the incoming Obama-Biden Regime is attempting to accomplish by maintaining a shill to keep markets overbought for as long as possible -- before economic reality sets in. What he’s doing is no different than what the Bush Cheney Regime did with oil, namely, they did everything they could from a policy standpoint to maintain high oil prices for as long as possible fro the purpose of wealth consolidation within the Bushonian constituency. Now Obama is trying to maintain overvalued equity markets for as long as possible to prevent the IRAs and 401Ks of the working class from looking any worse by instituting mortgage reform in an effort to reduce foreclosures, none of which is workable, by the way.

Japanization Rules: Global Economic Collapse Postponed… For Now
(1-19-09) Consensus builds in Washington. Japanization of the world’s economy is the only way to prevent global economic collapse and preserve the new “modified” capitalism. For the first time, officials of the incoming Obama-Biden Regime, as well as senior members of Congress in both parties are using the word Japanization in financial media. Now you see people in Washington using the term, including former under-secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, who will be the new chairman of the Presidential Council of Economic Advisors. Summers is widely respected in both parties, and he’s the new go-to guy, as they say in Washington, for the new Obama-Biden economic policy. Why is there a new consensus now? Because it’s either that -- or we allow global economic collapse to occur.

Is Obama Keeping Market Bubble Alive?
(1-12-09) It’s becoming clear that Obama is playing the shill game. Please note some of the speeches he made last week, where he provided very few specifics about his financial stimulus program. Nevertheless he urged the equity markets to move higher despite ever increasing bearish fundamentals. It’s obvious that he wants to extend the honeymoon with the markets as long as he can. All he’s managing to do, however, is rob Peter to pay Paul. Why? Because Obama has now been keeping the markets artificially inflated by joining the shills of the financial media that we are not to worry about the depths of this recession and that we are not to be concerned about multi-million job losses nor are we to be concerned about a 25% decline in S&P earnings. Obama is implying this and in so doing, when the honeymoon is over 30 to 60 days from now, he is ensuring a greater decline in equity prices than would otherwise have occurred because he is part of the “Shill Program,” shall we say, that is keeping equity prices artificially inflated. So who is responsible?

Welcome to the World of Deflation; Will Japanization of the Planet’s Economy Prevent Global Economic Collapse?
(1-5-09) The impact of Japanization is that it retards the ability of the middle class to create wealth. Traditionally this is how the middle class created wealth. They have done this by buying a home which has increased smartly in value over time and investing in stocks that have always risen in value over time. But what if you take that away…

The World Turned Upside Down! (2008 Year-End Recap and 2009 Outlook)
(12-29-08) 2008 was the year that helped Americans get rid of their much-cherished, rose-colored glasses, which had so long blinded them to the “Great Lie” that everything worked the way they thought it did. Very simply put, 2008 was the year of the Global Unwinding of Speculative Bubbles caused by Bushonomics. In 2008, Bushonomics became not just a domestic, but a global event. It was also the year when the speculative bubbles that Bushonomics created simply burst, laying bare the motives of Bushonomics itself.

A Sordid and Tawdry Affair: Central Banks Attempt Bailouts – Again & Again & Again…
(12-22-08) The efforts of global central banks to keep their economies together – what a sordid and tawdry affair it has become. They’re like a bunch of little rats running around in the back room, trying to keep the whole thing together with little bits of string and baling wire. That’s what they have to do – to prevent global economic collapse. You can see these little rats with the faces of Bernanke, Trichet and King. And they’re all running around with little pieces of string in their teeth and their paws are trying to pull all sorts of stuff to hold the planet’s economy together.

Don’t Be Overhyping “Hope”: An Open Letter To President Obama…
(12-15-08) Dear President Obama, Please tone down market expectations of your economic stimulus program. You’ll be glad you did. Here’s why…

Beware - Major Disconnect Between Economic Reality & Stock Prices
(12-8-08) The most important issue today is the continuing dangerous move higher in equities (stock prices). Recently the number one question on CNBC and Bloomberg from Joe Six Pack 100 Share Investors has been – How the hell have equities been able to move higher after such inordinately bearish news flows?

The End of US Sovereignty: How the Fed Is Playing Chicken with Future Creditors of the United States
(12-01-08) This is the story of how changes in the TARP Bailout Program will negatively affect millions of working class investors. TARP was the name of the original Treasury-Federal Reserve bailout/rescue package, and now that it’s been changed, we’re way beyond Plan B. You could say that now we’re up to TARP #14. TARP has been changed and changed and changed again. Now we’re to the point that it is far removed from what the government’s original intent really was. Now there's even more danger on the horizon, and here's what we have to look forward to...