Monday, May 4, 2009

Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick is the hardest of the hard-liners where Israel's security is concerned. However, in the two essays linked below, her perspective is global and concerns 1) the long-term implications of President Obama's recent Apology Tour; and 2) the implicit go-ahead that Mr. Obama has given to Islamists who would make war to restore the caliphate. Here are the links:  http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1238562949505&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239710831634&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

(Following are the trenchant thoughts of one David Kaiser, forwarded to me for comment by talk show radio host Al Korelin.  Dr. Kaiser thinks the U.S. is headed toward political and economic catastrophe under President Obama.  Please note, however, that the quote attributed to Mr. Obama was actually part of a parody that appeared in an essay by National Review polemicist Mark Steyn.  RA) Interesting thoughts from David Kaiser This is long, but enlightening. Lest you think it was written by some right-wing kook, David Kaiser is a respected historian whose published works have covered a broad range of topics, from European Warfare to American League Baseball. Born in 1947, the son of a diplomat, Kaiser spent his childhood in three capital cities: Washington D.C., Albany, New York, and Dakar, Senegal. He attended Harvard University, graduating there in 1969 with a B.A. in history. He then spent several years more at Harvard, gaining a PhD in history, which he obtained in 1976. He served in the Army Reserve from 1970 to 1976. He is a professor in the Strategy and Policy Department of the United StaStates Navalr College and has previously taught at Carnegie Mellon, Williams College and Harvard University. Kaiser's latest book, The Road to Dallas, about the Kennedy assassination, was just published by Harvard University Press. Dr. David Kaiser writes: "My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it." - Barack Obama History Unfolding I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books on history that have been published in six languages, and I have studied history all my life. I have come to think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is simply a

With Goldman shares banging on a rally target and the E-Mini S&Ps flirting with one of their own, this has the potential to be an interesting week. Gold is not likely to remain locked in tedium if stocks break out of their range, so I've provided benchmarks both above and below the market that can help you judge for yourself whether something interesting is happening.

Friday's opening-hour rally went just high enough to run stops above the previous day's peak, but we'll consider that peak, a Hidden Pivot resistance at 129.95, technically intact. However, if the stock closes above the pivot today, or trades more than 60 cents above it intraday, we should infer that Goldman is fixing to run up to

The downtrend begun in early March faces a crucial test of support at ____, the midpoint of the pattern shown in the accompanying chart. If that Hidden Pivot is breached it would hint of more weakness over the next few weeks to as low as _____. A strong bounce from that number looks

A print at ____ is still needed to justify a bullish bias for the near term, although _____ might work if you're looking for a subtler signal. As of 11 p.m. Sunday, however, there was only the promise of a push to

The futures were up as much as six points Sunday night, apparently unable to pick up the scent of news that could be used to move the markets more significantly. The _____ rally target is still viable but perhaps too well divulged by now to be of particular value for trading. There were no promising

With swine flu panic receding somewhat, mail from readers over the weekend gravitated toward less urgent matters, including the seeming now-and-again cynicism of Rick's Picks. "I follow your commentary regularly," wrote one reader, "and it sometimes seems like you actually want the economy to collapse. Do you?" Guilty as charged!  How else can the economy get back on track, if not from such ruinous depths as might force us toconfront the root causes of its sickness?  Otherwise, as long as we continue deceive ourselves about the nature of wealth, and about the economically crucial role of savings in creating wealth, no sustainable recovery is possible. To judge from the actions of our political leaders, one might think the way out of a debt deflation is to stimulate yet another credit boom - one powerful enough to cause all prices, most particularly home prices, to rise. Why anyone would believe in this flim-flam is baffling.  An estimated $12.8 trillion worth of attempted stimulus, bailouts and loan commitments have been tried already, to no avail. All of that funny money has produced no inflation whatsoever, much less a discernible benefit. What it has achieved, mainly, is to put Americans inextricably deeper in debt.    Inflationists 'All Talk' We note that even those who consider themselves inflationists do not seem to believe deep down that promiscuous monetization will raise the price of anything besides groceries. If they felt otherwise, why aren't they putting their money where their mouths are, plowing what remains of their nest eggs into real estate?  After all, what better way to bet on inflation right now than to jump headlong into a very depressed housing market? And maybe if we all do it, we can get rich together, perhaps recouping the biggest and most obvious piece of the American dream that