Investors Fear More than Just a ‘Fiscal Cliff’

The Dow plunged 313 points on Wednesday, and another 121 yesterday, but don’t believe news media reports that it was the nearness of the “fiscal cliff” that has caused this selloff. What spooked investors is a bigger picture that recognizes the economically catastrophic implications of a second Obama term.  To be clear, there is nothing Romney could have done to avoid the deflationary Depression that lies ahead.  However, a Romney presidency might have at least served as a reality check, delaying the onslaught of hard times for perhaps long enough to allow Americans to put their financial houses in order before austerity hits with the force of an earthquake, as it has in Europe.

We’re not going to dwell on the choice Americans made on Tuesday. Suffice it to say, the election has substantiated conservatives’ worst fear – that, sooner or later, Big Government’s clients would come to outnumber those of us who pay for the criminal extravagances of their voracious welfare state. Actually, it turns out, drones needn’t have outnumbered taxpayers, since the quirks of the electoral college have enabled them to execute a coup even though they lacked a statistically significant majority.

Bread and Circuses

Now, with a $16+ trillion federal deficit that is growing by more than a trillion dollars per year, the nation’s descent toward insolvency can only accelerate, further widening the gap between tax revenues and outlays. Soaking the rich, even by taxing them at 100%, would not begin to arrest the decline, but just try to tell that to those who voted for Obama. Bread and circuses will be their reward, and far be it from us to predict that they will feel unsatisfied. Rather, the opposite should hold true, since it will not have cost the 47% a dime.

As far as the stock market is concerned, we were quite surprised to find some bullish opportunities in the dozen or so charts reviewed in real time during a “Hidden Pivot Analysis” session held Wednesday morning at Rick’s Picks.  Amazon, Priceline and Facebook, among others, look promising, suggesting these companies, and presumably a few others, may be able to buck a depressionary tide, perhaps by focusing on nickel-and-dime sources of revenue. If you’re interested in the details, as well as the reasons for our bearish outlook on the broad averages, watch the session recording.

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  • Anthony November 12, 2012, 4:03 am

    Ah the Angry but somewhat Rich White guy strikes again. Look losers there has been a mandate with Obama since 2008, he’s been largely held up by a obstructionist party that is moral corrupted beyond imagination.

    I bet the majority of you are also MRA’s/MGTOW, tisk, tisk, using misogyny to get your point across. No wonder White women are constantly calling you out…

    You didn’t build either, you got help from the Government deregulating the financial system.

    I love how the blog post was about how Romney would have been better with a deflationary cycle, he has no proof of this. I have been saying for months no matter who’s in power they will do something you do’t want either way.

    If the country defaults that means all you morons with wealth mostly locked up in dollars will find your wealth largely wiped out. Those with nothing will not be impacted bringing true meaning to “The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth”.

    Keep your money in the stock market at your own peril…

    • DK November 12, 2012, 9:12 am

      “I have been saying for months no matter who’s in power they will do something you do’t want either way.”

      Only months?

      ” If the country defaults that means all you morons with wealth mostly locked up in dollars will find your wealth largely wiped out.”

      “Keep your money in the stock market at your own peril…”

      Thank you, Captain Obvious. Did you happen to see a turnip truck?

      Speaking of “no proof of this,” how did you come to the above conclusion that US morons have our wealth “mostly locked up in dollars?”

      What safe havens are you suggesting, genius?

      Once the jig is up, the party is over anyway, so what is the point in not playing “the game” as long as you can and enjoying whatever fruits you can bare? What is lost by not doing so especially if you manage your time even half way decently? Many here provide for their families, even in part, by doing so (as long as they can), so where is the idiocy in that?

  • gary leibowitz November 12, 2012, 3:41 am

    The Dems offered a 10 to 1 spending cut to tax increase on those 250K people, and the Repuks didn’t even bother to listen. 10 to 1 ! Gimme a break! if that isn’t playing fair than I don’t understand math. Not even bothering to discuss it? The Repuks strategy was well documented. They made an example of this president and the economy just to obstruct any positive action that the Dems can use during this election. Disgusting to put politics ahead of the nation. This was a big deal.

    I want one person to explain why they ignored this very accommodative stance? Anyone?

    I will also guarantee this time around they JUMP at the chance. They miscalculated in a very big way. Losing seats during an economic crisis similar to FDR? How was that possible without their own lack of understanding the pulse of the nation. Out of touch is a mild way to put it.

    No Fiscal Cliff, and a HUGE rally ahead. The consumer is B-A-C-K! They saved, drew down debt, and is ready to spend again. Look these facts up for yourself. You only see what you want to see. Yes more people on food stamps AND a spurt in spending. YUP.

    In fact this will be the last chance to make easy money on the upside. The most negative atmosphere in years and you expect a crash from here. This drop is NOT impulsive. sorry, but a slowwww drawn event, similar to all other corrections. Again, don’t take my word for it, look it up, charts, numbers, whatever you wish.

    • DK November 12, 2012, 8:30 am

      There shouldn’t be ANY increases in spending, none, nada, zip, zero, zilch. Before the end of the year, the debt ceiling will mostly likely be “debated” again by the cancer at the expense of the host (crazy notion) even though it’s currently costing us above $10B/day just to run the damn goober-ment. There should be cuts, or to go along with the above metaphor, they should be emergency surgery. Although I can’t agree with all of what Senator Paul was saying, he was dead on in that department. We already borrow nearly half of every $1.

      People have just been duped into believing that this is how life really is and should be; they’ve been born(e) into it. Many seem to treat the abysmal performance of the system (pick a department), and it’s secondary/tertiary enterprises, as they do when their favorite professional sports team hero has a bad day. Yet, the fans can only sit back and watch as the coaches, GM, and the Owner call the shots despite fans wishes for “hope” and “change” (admittedly great “dumbed” down marketing schemes there, although, as expected, neither came), even when it comes to paying X amount for admittance and $8 plus for a brew at the event. People don’t know how much “system” they need nor what the role of it should be because we are so far removed from centuries past, successfully, that people don’t know any better. To a few (TPTB as they are commonly known) that is the beauty of it all, and it only took them about 100 years of our history, give or take a few hiccups.

      As George Carlin used to joke, the number of ice cream flavors at the parlor gives people the illusion that they have choices in this country.

      Regarding taxing, in the face of stagnating to falling incomes (as RA has alluded to so many times) with a continually debased currency (M-1, M-2,etc), the whole idea is simply laughable,

      “Soaking the rich, even by taxing them at 100%, would not begin to arrest the decline, but just try to tell that to those who voted for Obama.”

      I forget where I saw it, but the number comes in at less than $1.4T, so that gives us a little over 3 months of “breathing room.” Of course, that’s only 3 months of THIS year.

      People still have their “H0PE,” but evidently it is not with the incumbent stooge/numb nuts-in-chief nor the stooge/fool he ran against, no matter how much any main stream “media” outlet wants to spin it or how much manipulation “they” can engineer (but that’s what $6B in campaign spending and future back scratching will get you)

      http://www.flickr.com/photos/89808458@N03/8165989509/in/photostream/

      They can creatively finagle their choice of words as much as they want, but austerity, as much as it may seem unavoidable, is not “welcome” in Greece, Spain, etc. and it won’t be in the U.S., and this country is heavily armed. But then again, that’s expected. Again, there is some “beauty” in it. The GOP had a pathetic candidate, campaign, and turn out (losing to arguably the worst POTUS this country has EVER seen) and now they are trying to save face.

      “I want one person to explain why they ignored this very accommodative stance? ”

      That was just priceless, I spit out delicious mouthful of my Cab reading that petty theatrical remark.
      Accommodative??? How in the world…?
      Again, laughable, but worse yet, it sounds like there is belief that this can be mitigated. I guess that exponential function is nearly on “Err” so, yea, let’s keep buying that time and create some more fractures.
      What do you expect them to do on their national stage reality TV soap opera? They are on the verge of disintegrating. The people are getting wiser and they are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Hold on to your butts.

      “Lets not use the fervor of supporting a particular party from realizing the goal. We should be aligned in forcing our elected officials to treat their job as a sacrifice, and not a career of guaranteed power and wealth. To do this requires very strict verifiable rules and laws.”

      It’s called The Constitution (perhaps more accurately the Articles of Confederation) and there was a very REAL reason why many of the founding fathers were so against political parties in the first place. What you describe is the advent of being a Statesman, as opposed to a Politician. As much as you criticize “the Repuks,” you seemingly breeze by the increases in personal wealth that so many Dems have enjoyed in their careers on The Hill. THEY don’t care about US. All of them are self serving parasites, even Rand dipped his toes in this year at his own peril. The anti-Federalists seem to be proving their points, 230+ years later.

      While we are at it, let us take a page out of Jefferson’s book regarding the issuing of the peoples’ currency, “The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”

  • -1987-dejavu November 11, 2012, 10:02 pm

    yoh, rick, found something of interest to you today, straight down your pike.

    I just got my free ‘teaser email’ from prechter’s socionomists institute,
    and guess what. your article week ago, is near identical, to what they wrote.

    it’s about current u.s.a. virulent POLARITY, even between friends and family.

    read, you’ll be amazed. it’s based (of all things, a 30’s-style radio-broadcast series)—
    ‘THIS AMERICAN LIFE.’

    exactly as you wrote it (or where you listening to it, before you wrote article?)

    IMO, THIS IS BIG-TIME –IMMINENTLY– BEARISH.

    —————————

    “This is What Polarized People DO to Each Other”
    By Robert Folsom (‘social mood watch’) | November 5, 2012

    “Plenty of news stories in recent years have noted that American politics have become “deeply polarized.”

    Nearly all of them define and gauge what polarization means in broad terms — by a breakdown of “red state/blue state,” an analysis of “attack ads,” or via the endless examples of the “dysfunctional” legislative process in Washington.

    But if polarization truly does run deep in society, the fact is that it will show up in what everyday people actually do. That’s why I was fascinated by a story I heard over the weekend, which was not the latest repeat of the same big-picture tale of polarized politics…

    …But instead reported on how polarized individuals behave.

    The most recent episode of the award-winning radio broadcast This American Life did the shoe-leather work, via interviews in many communities and households to discover how individuals are acting and reacting to political differences they have with people they know and in some cases love.

    The short version: Time and again, this episode of This American Life learned of broken friendships and divided families to an extent no one could recall.

    I’ll mention two of the many examples (one Democrat, one Republican) from the broadcast, which can only be described as open meanness to a friend.

    A lady learned of an opening in a friend’s hiking group — only to be told by her friend in front of the group — that she would not be permitted to join because she was a Republican.

    A man and his friend are married to sisters — but the man warned the friend not to vote Democrat or he wouldn’t serve the friend any barbeque at dinner. Further, the friend would need to bring his own food if he visits.

    Mind you, these are not hearsay accounts. The radio broadcast played audio clips from the interviews of these people, describing their own behavior.

    The broadcast also played many clips to tell how friends/family on opposite political sides each express the same sentiment about the other — often in the nearly the same language, including:

    1) I can’t believe they really think THAT
    2) People in my party are so much more open minded
    3) People on the other side just don’t consider my point of view
    4) They’re acting like the Nazis did [yes, I heard quote after quote saying that].”

    http://www.socionomics.net/2012/11/this-is-what-polarized-people-do-to-each-other/

    ——————–

    IMO, getting OUT ASAP, from U.S.S.A is #1 aganda, for ALL I-N-D-I-V-I-D-U-A-L-S.

    and before they lock doors and you can’t get out, since moochers NEED to drain you.

    • Anthony November 12, 2012, 4:11 am

      I don’t mooch, but I’ll deck you to saying because I am Black I am automatically a moocher. All you clowns crack me up.

      The “correction” will make you poor. I can’t wait.

      Yes I would leave too but only because the correction will take a long time (1) and (2) because the All White Party in charge of anything is a bad thing and gives a wink and nod to the racist in the party.

      Self Deporting Immigrants? They can’t be serious, but they are… They should send Blacks back to Africa if they could even if we have no connection to the country or from an island country like Haiti…

  • Oregon November 11, 2012, 4:30 am

    Sorry last post was meant as reply much further up the list.

    • Oregon November 11, 2012, 10:39 am

      Gary, I’m guessing that LA figures that a Democrat mandate state like CA is sucking the gov’t tit so hard there won’t be any left for anyone else anyway. Freeloading just seems so much less obscene when educated, fit and tan people are doing it.

      Not wanting to get into a red vs. blue argument, because I hate both, but have you ever noticed that most counties or states in this country that produce real wealth are red? I realize these people sound, act, look and perhaps are real stupid sometimes, but these are the farmers, loggers, ranchers, oil/gas/coal miners, fisherman, etc; the only true creators of wealth in this country, and coincidentally the same people that most blue people despise. You see, bankers, lawyers, accountants, builders, traders, doctors, computer programers, etc. don’t actually create any wealth, they beg, steal, or borrow from the producers. And blah, blah, blah, blah… Because I know none of this can be understood by people who have never earned a living by the sweat of the brow or the strength of the back, only to pay over a third of that income to a gov’t that can then give it to blue people who DESERVE a student loan (grant), a climate controlled desk job with paid vacation, or food stamps redeemable at 7-eleven for soda and nachos; whichever comes first. It can’t go on forever.

      “Tough titty!” says the kitty when the milk goes dry.

  • redwilldanaher November 11, 2012, 12:45 am

    Rick, this is what I’ve been pushing and hoping for for some time. This is likely still one of the first baby steps and of course will be ignored but I thought it might interest you since my sense is that you haven’t yet gone full on anarchist.

    https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/peacefully-grant-state-louisiana-withdraw-united-states-america-and-create-its-own-new-government/1wrvtngl

    &&&&&&&

    I always thought Texas would be the first to secede, but I wish Louisiana well. Speaking as a native New Jerseyan, I’ve always been in awe of Louisiana for making the Garden State look like a bunch of amateurs when it comes to corruption. A can-do state if ever there were one. RA

    • Erin November 11, 2012, 2:03 am

      Sir red,
      Thanks for the great link. I have sat and pondered this very scenario before and after “they” elected the pissant. Really nice to see this type of thing and I hope it starts to catch on really quickly. It would be nice not to have to leave the country to get our freedoms back and not support the takers. There is hope out there yet!

      Unfortunately we are at the point of no return. I am sure there are many millions of us who don’t want to support the welfare state and want to be left alone.

      As many of us have witnessed in our lifetimes, our country truly has gone to hell. The corruption is just too big and widespread and the sheep are way to stupid!

    • Erin November 11, 2012, 2:30 am

      Jill, Gary and Mario will certainly like this news. It is time for you all to except the facts that our welfare state is what we call a “runaway train”. Hope and change you can believe in!

      http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-10/foodstamps-surge-most-one-year-new-all-time-record-delayed-release

      And for good measure, this was released late after the election of course but I am sure that is just a coincidence.

    • Erin November 11, 2012, 2:36 am

      Oh, and for good measure, don’t forget who benefits from these rising numbers.

      http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/19/946333/-JP-Morgan-Rakes-in-Profits-from-U-S-Food-Stamp-Program

    • Oregon November 11, 2012, 4:27 am

      I would’ve thought petition signers for such an action would have to reside within LA, but most I looked at were from other states.

      The state of Jefferson tried to pull this off once upon a time, but lost traction when WWII broke out. Here in S. Oregon and N. Cal. we claim the mythical State of Jefferson nonetheless. Got flags too.

    • gary leibowitz November 11, 2012, 4:42 am

      Red,
      The movie dumb and dumber doesn’t do jsutice to the state of Louisiana: Number 1 in the least healthiest state, number 2 in the poorest, number 5 in the least educated, but as the best place to live it ranks 49th.

      Yes I can understand why they don’t want government mandated health plan, social services, and any government intrusion whatsoever. They are doing just fine with the great local government care as it is. Why burden the federal government with unnecessary intrusive actions.

      No wonder the south votes for the Republican mandate. Is it coincidence that the poorest, most uneducated vote to remain where they are. I guess if it’s good enough for their parents it’s good enough for them.

    • mario cavolo November 11, 2012, 12:54 pm

      Erin?….why are you picking on me on these issues? You need to read my posts girl, I’m the first one to acknowledge and in fact clearly lay out an understanding of all the horrible corrupt, miserable, self-serving shit going on courtesy of our pathetic political system in bed with the wealthy and all the damage they have done to what was once an America to admire not fear…

      I have to stay out of all of this commentary because I don’t want to be in the muck of political argument. The office of the presidency and the whole system is now kowtowing to interests which are a cancer to the country, a systemic problem that has been building for the past several decades and is now at its pinnacle of disgusting.

      With THAT said, ALL is not bad, there is plenty of good and growth and productivity happening for plenty of people and that’s the part I am much more willing to recognize than others here. Also, my perch is here in China where I live in a society which is on the rise and improving, not getting worse and declining so it is easy for me to recognize the far more negative of an American living in America dealing with the nightmare on a daily basis. I’m happy to not be there…

      Cheers, Mario

      Cheers, Mario

    • John Jay November 11, 2012, 9:42 pm

      An old joke on the subject of Louisiana.

      Louisiana:

      Where half the State is underwater
      And the other half is under indictment.

  • gary leibowitz November 10, 2012, 8:17 pm

    Give em’ hell Jill.

    The idiotic notion that any prsident, yes any, would do things differently is ludicrous. I am not talking about re-distribution of wealth, where there is a clear difference. Bailouts, propping up the banks, ignoring white colar crimes of massive proportions, etc.. are the way our system works. Nixon’s pardon, dismissing Bush’s inept ignorance of 9/11, is mandated in a democratic system. It isn’t fair since blame and retribution is the primal motivation of all. In regards to the mortgage implosion, the crimes were so invasive throughout our corporate world that to prosecute will result in a huge disruption of our financial system.

    Imagine an economy that is still struggling to recover from the event started 4 years ago, and the incumbent winning another term. Not an easy task. It was made easier by the rigid, mean spirited, unsympathetic Republican stance. A throwback to the robber baron days. Declaring that 50 percent of the populace is dysfunctional and a burden goes to the heart of a cynical party that justifies its elitist actions. The days of Roosevelt, Morgan, and Carnegie are over. In its place are more nefarious, hidden corporate mega-powers that rule through corrupting the democratic system. The result however will be the same, and so will the consequence. The party system has become corrupted by outside influence.

    You divert you anger away from the core reasons, because you are more concerned about retribution than real permanent change. The party system along with its diverse ideologies is not the problem. When those ideologies become corruptible and our democratic system breaks down, we should take notice.

    Lets not use the fervor of supporting a particular party from realizing the goal. We should be aligned in forcing our elected officials to treat their job as a sacrifice, and not a career of guaranteed power and wealth. To do this requires very strict verifiable rules and laws. We must place our representative under the microscope. Financial disclosure before, during and after office. Rules prohibiting any money, or job that has a hint of impropriety, even after thier term. A true definition of “sacrifice” for the needs of it’s nation. Perhaps an unrealistic goal, but I would rather fight this battle than one where anger and punishment are the dricing force.

    Just to put this whole thing in historic perspective, we are wher we were in the 1930’s, and 1890’s. The start of the economic collapse have many things in common. Huge disparity between rich and everyone else, government corruption at extremes, and laws and policies that favored the one’s doing the corruption. The biggest difference between then and no is that both political parties figured out how to get away with thier crimes without any accountability. The massive social programs to compensate for their crimes is coming to haunt us today. That is why we are in new territory when it comes to the next debt implosion.

    I have my theories as to why we will first go much higher in the stock market before it ends, but make no mistake it will end.

    • redwilldanaher November 11, 2012, 12:43 am

      You’re so off target in so many ways, as usual, that I can’t even complete this …

    • Chuck November 11, 2012, 2:43 pm

      yes dems now control 1/2 of the federal government…..senate + executive…..repubs 1/2 also….house + supremes….not much of an advantage. I also think the 4 supposedly conservative supremes can outlast this administration. please give us the fiscal cliff….just like brer rabbit…..’anything but that’…..haha. Something tells me they will run out of other ppls money to spend alot quicker that way anyhow.

    • mario November 12, 2012, 3:04 am

      Rwd I am truly and completely confused by your response to Gary’s post above. So I read it slowly one paragraph at a time and conclude with more confusion. What the hell did he say that you or rick or anyone else could possibly disagree with? He correctly identifies that the system is fubar and why it is fubar.

      Many people on this board need to seriously think about what they want to say before they post; generalizing deleting and distorting are the classic mistakes driven by the mystery of human emotions…. I’m not criticizing I’m just noticing, we’re all human, all a bit nuts as far as that goes

  • BigTom November 10, 2012, 7:49 pm

    “BREAKING: Man Who Told Half the Nation to F*** Themselves Somehow Loses Election.” Excellent, Jill. That banal tome you just printed out, ‘Republicans, Global Warming, Dirty Air, Killing Children & Destroying the World,’ by Al Gore; well you just spilled wine on it darling. Please sop it up. BTW, who is that wonderful lady you hang out with that once said, in reference to working people, ‘Let them eat cake!’ What a marvelous person. So pleasant. I am sure she is at all your gatherings…..What ever happenend to her anyhow?

    Your vitriol is limitless, it is too bad your politics consists of shouting out inside a bunker with such limited parameters….but that is the world today. Those that are most obnoxiously loud……For years I had the misfortune, or fortune perhaps, of negotiating with bureaucrats in the government and eventually came to understand their deeply held beliefs of disdain for middle america. But they were clever enough to keep it under wraps then, to most people anyway. That venom is not so much hidden any longer and now exposes itself everywhere if one cares to look about. It is about time those working middle americans see and understand what is coming down the pike, and who these people are leading the charge against them…..

  • Jill November 10, 2012, 6:58 pm

    Yeah, people who graduate magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and then work as Constitutional Law professors are such dummies. At least according to Fox News.

    On second thought, I think there are a lot of freeloaders out there, actually– people who enjoy the full advantages of government built roads, bridges, fire departments, libraries etc. but scream like someone stabbed them when they are required to pay taxes to finance this stuff. Hey, why not go live in a 3rd world country without such services, rather than trying to change the U.S. into a 3rd world country? As you can see from the election results, there are more of us that don’t want to live in a 3rd world country than there are of you.

    And thes freeloaders like Ayn Rand who received Social Security & Medicare herself in her later years! Gosh, please someone free us from such leaches.

    As for charities helping the needy instead of government, they are hurting a lot lately, without enough resources to fill the need. My sister was briefly in a Christian church that had a charity attached, in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina happened. Much to her great shock, these folks exhibited the Supreme Ayn Randian Virtue of Selfishness that is so loved here on this board. They said “This furniture/clothing is “too nice” to give to the poor. I am going to bring it home for myself.”

    • redwilldanaher November 11, 2012, 1:05 am

      Jill, you need to do a lot of critical research before any thinking person can take you seriously. You may be intelligent but you are either completely duped or yet another message board shill the likes of which only Gary can compete with consistently. Even Mario the smiling lefty has stated that a slow boil is occurring. The government has failed its citizenry for 5 decades in every way and fools like you think the only solution is to order up more it…

    • -1987-dejavu November 11, 2012, 9:42 pm

      communist jill says—
      “My sister was briefly in a Christian church that had a charity attached, in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina happened. Much to her great shock, these folks exhibited the Supreme Ayn Randian Virtue of Selfishness that is so loved here on this board. They said “This furniture/clothing is “too nice” to give to the poor. I am going to bring it home for myself.”

      AND DAMN RIGHT!
      THOSE CLOTHES ARE TOO GOOD FOR THE [victims] OF KATRINA!
      listen, jill, I love you, but you and your sis should become amerikani nuns.
      and give yourselves, body and soul, to [the] masses, to eat you both.

      but first watch a damn good film by buñuel, to see how it’ll end for you—
      VIRIDIANA.

      ————-

      btw, if ruthless ayn rand was alive,
      she would make your head spin, like in ‘the exorcist.’

  • mava November 10, 2012, 10:18 am

    RA, I agree.

    Romney could not have done anything, but he, at least would have been seen as the one who genuinely wants to do what is required. It is clear, on the other hand, that Obama will not and could not do anything right, even if he wanted to, – he is too dim (never mind his for-show brightness).

    What has to happen, will happen. No one wanted to heed the warning. Let’s enjoy the show, hopefully from a flat screen somewhere far away.

  • Jill November 10, 2012, 5:33 am

    It’s like that Borowitz Tweet.
    BREAKING: Man Who Told Half the Nation to F*** Themselves Somehow Loses Election

    • redwilldanaher November 11, 2012, 12:41 am

      Half the nation deserves to be told to F themselves.

  • Jill November 10, 2012, 5:22 am

    Everyone wants free stuff from the government. They just don’t want other people to have free stuff from the government. Even Mitt Romney wanted, and got, a 10 million dollar bailout for Bain from the taxpayers. But hey, please continue to call everyone who disagrees with you a freeloader. That way, the Democratic party will just grow & grow.

    As for those who believe Obama is a“preening narcissist” or a “psychopathic megalomaniac”– if really were those things, I would think you would admire him greatly, since selfishness is the supreme viture in the eyes of so many here.

    But you can’t reason with “fools”– or with people whom you think are fools. Because insulting everyone outside of your party is not an effective way to add members to your party, whether it be Libertarian or Republican or what.

    • redwilldanaher November 11, 2012, 12:41 am

      WRONG. Millions simply want to be left alone by the idiot-minded such as yourself and Obamao and his ilk. We want to be left alone! We want no free stuff from the government. We want to be left alone!

  • BigTom November 10, 2012, 4:36 am

    “…we all should know most Americans want the same things, but just disagree on how to get there…” Jill, you are right. Some want their stuff free, others want to work for it. What’s the big deal, not much to disagree about here, and if anybody does? Why of course there is always anger management…..could you pass me another croissant, please? Oh, and my chardonnay needs a touch…..

  • Jill November 10, 2012, 2:04 am

    “So all this freaking out and vicious invective-trading looks nuts from the outside: it looks like we’re making up reasons to hate and fear each other, summoning the language of violent civil unrest with a hedonistic zeal that only people who haven’t experienced the real thing could possibly enjoy.

    “What’s become clear in the last few weeks is that the last real taboo in America is admitting that the world isn’t going to end if the other guy gets elected. The corollary to that taboo is an apparent new national prohibition against having even the slightest faith in the essential patriotism of the other side.

    “When push comes to shove, we all should know most Americans want the same things, but just disagree on how to get there, which is why it should be okay to not panic if the other party wins.”

    Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/election-day-is-finally-here-tonight-is-going-to-suck-no-matter-what-20121106#ixzz2Bm0p2pwj

    • redwilldanaher November 11, 2012, 12:59 am

      Most Americans want the same things? I don’t think so. There are millions that want nothing to do with what “conservative” Bush did and what “liberal” Obamao has done, continued to do, and will continue to do…

      Millions just want to live free and not be coerced down to the very level of what soft drink sizes are available to them…

      You want to know why there is vitriol? I’ll tell you why I dish it out. Because I’m tired of the liars and cheaters not only winning but taking control of the government. And you know what makes me even angrier? Reading or listening to stone-cold idiots that are cheering them on as the noose tightens around all of our necks.

  • Jill November 10, 2012, 1:38 am

    Hi, Erin

    Thanks for telling me I must have been abducted by aliens because I don’t agree with you. Please keep it up. I don’t want anyone to think of switching parties– which they might if other parties start being as respectful of them as Democrats are.

    I am actually socially liberal & fiscally conservative. But the socially liberal people are so much more nicer and more respectful of me than the fiscal conservatives are, that I sometimes forget I am that.

    I have said here that I don’t believe in welfare for people– or corporations– who could be standing on their own two feet. But you didn’t hear that because you have the conservative way of believing that “Either you agree with me 100% or else you are the Devil Incarnate Communist or Socialist.” Democrats more often hear what I say and give me credit for being an individual– rather than seeing me as either just a carbon copy of them or else the Devil.

    • Erin November 10, 2012, 2:44 am

      Jill,
      YOU DON’T GET IT! I don’t care if you agree with me on anything. My problem is you and your liberal socialist friends are not going to take my hard earned money and take a free ride on my back.

      And you’re absolutely right, Jill. Hostility will become the norm. It is called class warfare and it is going to get much worse.

      Jill, you also said the bailouts were a good thing. Which means you condone the crime of stealing money from the people to bail out the banks by spending money we don’t have. Sounds pretty fiscally conservative to me. Save it for your liberal friends!

    • DK November 10, 2012, 10:59 am

      Jill,
      You really do seem lost. This is not about being partisan (although some here may lean certain ways), this comes down to simple logic. I am no fan of either “candidate,” but all of this Obama massaging is simply ludicrous. You are in support of a complicit fraud. The man is following in the footsteps of his predecessor in so many ways, while taking private enterprise (that includes you and me, mom and pop, etc.) out to the shed in the back yard and giving it a royal beat down.
      Can someone explain why this “Constitutional scholar,” “champion of civil liberties,” should be praised, after he used all of the tools available to him to successfully not only RENEW the Patriot Act, but give us something WORSE in the NDAA?
      What about HR 347 or the E.O. of National Defense Preparedness?
      How come he hasn’t come out AGAINST an internet take over/kill switch and been adamant about it? I think HR 347 told us what he thinks about free speech.
      How does his AG, Holder, Mr. “We just really need to brainwash people,” still hold a job?
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nM0asnCXD0&feature=player_embedded
      He’s still enjoying a cushy role (paid for by us) after all of this garbage with the Fast and the Furious and his exposed connections to the MF Global Scandal? You know the Jon Corzine hedge fund that bilked investors out of $1.6B? That other guy who continues to walk free, uncharged in any way. The one Biden and Obama suggested would be their first contact to address the economy they inherited. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years on $18B, and he was at it for nearly 40 years.
      I would have liked to hear more about Fast &Furious from Obama’s perspective, but I think he was too busy politicizing the Trayvon Martin case. As if this wasn’t really all about the 2nd Amendment, race baiting, and a pseudo war on drugs.
      Where is Obama in the face of all of these ridiculous TSA pat-downs? What about questioning the allegations about the invasive body scanners? I thought he was a protector of liberties? I guess he must just trust the “sound judgment” of his Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, a.k.a. “Big Sis,” and ignore all of the peer reviewed studies questioning the safety/efficacy of these machines. Strange though, that the TSA agents themselves haven’t been allowed to wear radiation monitors. I guess we just get to guinea pig these millimeter wave machines now, oh joy. Will they dismiss the medical reports on those, or will they allow independent testing?
      I wonder what Obama’s supporters’ thoughts are pertaining to the guy campaigning on the notion of reducing/eliminating lobbyists from Washington, then appointing the top one from Raytheon to the uppers of the DOD as one of his very first actions?
      How about the Geithner appointment and his subsequent move to get one of the Goldman goons as his right hand man at the Treasury? You know, Timmy boy, the Mandarin speaking NYFed crony who keeps spewing his “strong dollar policy” vomit to the main stream media. China is manipulating its currency? What do you call ZIRP?
      Jill, you seem so convinced Obama really has everyone’s best interests in mind, particularly with respect to peoples’ health and well-being (Obamacare), which, as “Justice” Roberts has ruled, factually, a tax, that you seemingly overlook his OTHER actions, such as appointing Tom Vilsack (Monsanto lobbyist) as the head of the Department of Agriculture. How about the Taylor appointment to the FDA?
      I hope you like those GMO’s, considering corn and its byproducts are main ingredients in virtually every packaged good on the shelf.
      Where has the POTUS been during all of these federal raids on farm co-ops and raw milk distributors? How come he didn’t use his clout to support Prop 37 in California? Oh wait that’s right, Obama’s the one who PROMOTED Vilsack. Obama had no problems suing the Arizona over its positions on immigration (which I imagine helped his re-election), so it’s not like he was trying to be “hands-off” over a state issue. Come to think of it, he’s not “hands off” with ANYTHING.
      Finally, where, exactly, is there ANY “transparency” in this administration? He could have gotten behind, or even LEAD (POTUS are supposed to lead, right?) a Fed audit, a Treasury audit, removed his lawyers from his records (instead of challenging so many in courts throughout the country), so on and so forth.
      Please, for the sake of all of your fellow citizens, pull your head out of the sand join others in telling the POTUS to skip the golf course and actually do some work that HAS our best interests in mind.

    • redwilldanaher November 11, 2012, 12:55 am

      Great job DK. I run out of time and energy too often and sometimes thoughts like Robert’s above hold sway over me and I can’t muster what is necessary to smack Jill sillier. Thanks for doing just that.

      &&&&&&

      Ditto. I no longer read a single word of what Jill writes, but I much enjoy your responses.
      RA

  • Erin November 10, 2012, 1:27 am

    Jill,
    It is very clear that the more I read your posts, I am realizing that at some point in your liberal life you have been abducted by aliens. I won’t hold that against you but…

    We (the working people) should not be responsible for anyone else except ourselves. That means we should not be paying for your children or anyone else for that matter to have health care or anything else. Selfishness is what has driven this country to be great and prosperous and is the reason why we are the most giving nation in the world no matter what political party you are affiliated with.

    Stop the petty party crap. Your a socialist and a liberal and your type is the reason why this country is being driven apart. No one should be given anything but a short safety net. We have churches and non profits who are there to help anyone who needs help in their communities in the long run. The endless bailouts, unemployment insurance and food stamp programs are a great way to buy votes and divide the nation but it is clearly a social failure and will only speed up our demise. Is that the type of success that you were hoping for?

    A vote for Obama is a vote to destroy what made this country great and will keep us a divided nation. In that type of system, there will never be a reason to get along. You want to take money from me and give it to someone else. It is that simple and it will not work. There are too many takers and more coming everyday because of Obama class warfare.

    A vote for Romney would slow the destruction compared to Obama but will only delay the inevitable collapse from our constant money printing.

    Congratulations on your selection of Obama. Now we all can suffer the consequences rather quickly. The bright side for me is that now that Obama was re-elected, the destruction will be coming rather quickly and that is a positive no matter how you look at it. There is no way to avoid it, Republican or Democrat, you all suck! Ron Paul WAS the only hope we had because our problem is not democratic or republican, it is the system that allows them to spend money they don’t have!

    • redwilldanaher November 11, 2012, 12:39 am

      Way to go Erin! Be prepared for more nonsense from Jill and Gary et al. pronto! As bankable as the sun rising…

  • Jill November 10, 2012, 12:01 am

    Community organizers like Obama was do less for the less fortunate than people who work at companies like Bain who send American jobs overseas amd/or take multimillions out of a company, thus driving it into bankruptcy and ending all the jobs there? And who then get a 10 million dollar bailout from the U.S. taxpayers to bail out Bain– a much better use of taxpayers’ money than feeding hungry children.

    And the less fortunate who will get medical care from Obamacare should have voted for Romney because he had something better to offer them? Please explain .

    • redwilldanaher November 11, 2012, 12:38 am

      Jill, you’re welcome to willingly march step by step into collectivist Hell but there are many of us that are sickened by the fact that you fools are effectively dragging us and our children with you…

    • redwilldanaher November 11, 2012, 12:52 am

      How about the less fortunate vote against the race hustlers and poverty pimps that have enslaved them for the past 5 decades by polluting their minds with propagandcrack all the while laughing behind close doors as the plight of the less fortunate further tumbles each and every year. Of course you’re right again, it’s better to feed a man soylent green for one day than to teach him to fish…

  • Ralph November 9, 2012, 10:00 pm

    Guess my first post was deemed to inflammatory by the censors, lol. No offense was meant towards Rick personally, so I hope none was taken.

    The point was the demographic of America has shifted away from mainly white male voters, and the Republican Party is not appealing to the newer generation of young people, women, and minorities. The party really needs to rethink its extremely conservative ideologies regarding immigration and abortion, then they have a decent chance of capturing those votes.

  • Jill November 9, 2012, 9:30 pm

    I was indeed oversimplifying above when I said that “Dems give welfare to the poor & Repubs give welfare to the rich.” To be more precise, Dems are okay with giving small amounts of food stamps, welfare etc. to poor adults & their children. Dems do give welfare to the rich also.

    Republicans would rather give zero help to the poor & make the rich fatter & fatter with their subsidies to oil companies & other mega-corporations, and their tax cuts for the wealthy who are, after all, SO much more deserving than hungry children.

    • redwilldanaher November 9, 2012, 9:57 pm

      You’re right Jill. Dems do care more for their chattel. 50 years and counting since LBJ and literally everything is worse for the aforementioned chattel. So keep on keepin’ on Jill.

      As for the Reps, since caring for only the top 1% is a surefire recipe for electoral success, I guess we can understand why they are as heartless and void of humanity as Axelrod suggests.

      I despise Obamao and wouldn’t vote for Romney if here were the only candidate on the ballot but any objective observer can see that Romney has done more in his life to directly help the less fortunate than the preening narcissist in chief.

      I hope that you’re still heading up the mountain Jill because it would truly be a tragedy for you to be on the other side of it and yet still this delusional…

  • -1987-dejavu- November 9, 2012, 9:06 pm

    what never ceases to amaze me, is the extremely bullish optimism of near all ‘yahoo-finance’ articles, constantly expecting this current BEAR worm to turn, notwithstanding while it breaks all major trendlines downward.

    These bulls are like salivating pavlovian trained dogs, that see every dip, as a buying opportunity, since they are trained to believe, that the hyped-stock balloon will fly forever upwards, feeding off bernanke’s happy helium magically-appearing mega-fiats.

    very strange indeed. and I found particularly amusing, the jubilation about ‘consumer confidence’ announced today, rising to it’s highest percentage level of approx. 85%, best since july 2007.

    summer 2007? future optimism? so, how did that turn out, in 2008?

    but this is the kind of ASSURED bull sentiment that is needed, to create—
    BIGGEST bear of all times. happy assured bulls, staying in—no matter what.

    here are few of TODAY’s yahoo headlines, and they are mindblowingly bullish,
    despite the current BEAR, strong VOLUME, IMPULSIVE downtrend:

    “Is it Time to Jump Back Into Stocks?: Pros”

    “Bank Stocks to Benefit From More ‘Stress’: Goldman”

    “Have Treasury Yields Hit Rock Bottom?”

    “Buy the Dip?”

    “Will the Dow’s Plunge Crush Your Retirement?”
    (WHAT ‘plunge’, 5%?? the -REAL- PLUNGE, hasn’t even STARTED yet).

    “Find Your Way to Greek Riches”
    (now THIS guy MUST be a recent loony-bin escapee).

    “Did the S&P Bottom Thursday? Yes, Says the VIX”
    (this guy’s ‘logic’ is azz-backwards, for he reads extreme bullishness, as bullish).

    “Fiscal Cliff: Congress Will Come to ‘Reasonable Agreement’ By Year-End Says David Walker”
    (now this guy must live in colorado, and is already heavily sampling all the newly legalized marijuana available).

  • Anthony F November 9, 2012, 4:00 pm

    Great call by R.A. on EAZ12 target 1364.50 (Actually 1363.50 8:15 EST)… now looking as Reverse HS, it may fade the open.

    • Rick Ackerman November 9, 2012, 5:07 pm

      Thanks, Anthony. Hope you got a piece of it. I’ve posted an update with detailed instructions on how to manage position risk if you still have any of the contracts I’d recommended shorting at 1399.25.

    • Anthony F November 9, 2012, 5:46 pm

      Good trading Today, Thanks R.A.
      I am looking for opportunities to short the 6EZ-Euro
      While the ES has made higher highs, not so the Euro.

  • redwilldanaher November 9, 2012, 3:32 pm

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2012/nov/8/ron-paul-election-shows-us-far-gone/

    Rick, first it was Paul Craig Roberts, now it is Ron Paul. For anyone that still held out hope of working intelligently from within the system, please take heed…

  • Oregon November 9, 2012, 3:48 am

    A.K. you should demand a refund.

  • Al Kyda November 8, 2012, 10:10 pm

    So those past commentaries about Facebook heading “MUCH lower” now mean nothing, despite no real changes to the fundamentals? This kind of flip-flopping would give even Mitt Romney a run for his money. Nonetheless, it’s one reason I don’t take any financial newsletters seriously.

    • Jeff W. November 8, 2012, 11:41 pm

      Al K, if you read the reasoning why it’s based on new information that wasn’t available at the time. It’s the same with hidden pivots as well which seem to be working for people (i.e. a new impulse leg appears, present trend is now weak/reversing).

    • Robert November 9, 2012, 3:21 am

      The newsletters flip flop as the markets flip flop…

      It is a basic right to change one’s mind.

    • Rick Ackerman November 9, 2012, 8:09 am

      Oh great, just what I needed in my forum: another clueless lurker with a pea shooter and an oh-so-cute handle: ‘Al Kyda’. If you had coughed up $39 for a one-month subscription, wiseguy, here’s what you would have learned on October 25:

      FB – Facebook (Last:23.23)
      October 25, 2012 4:17 am GMT

      I’m canceling the hell-of-bearish target at 13.97 and the death sentence I disseminated in August, since Facebook has come up with the first great money-making idea I’ve heard from them since the abortive IPO in May. In brief, the plan will leverage the birthday, anniversary and special occasion wishes that Facebookers send each other by enabling them to add flowers, chocolates or other gifts with the click of a mouse. This could be a huge winner, since it will allow advertising tie-ins between Facebook and a broad variety of retailers and possibly even a percentage deal for them. Gift givers will love it too, since it will make them look like they actually care enough to go one thoughtful step beyond the automated, and therefore perfunctory, special-occasion greetings that have become annoyingly familiar to so many of us.

      Why the Street Is Wrong

      Please note that my bullishness is unrelated to the $153 million in revenues the firm booked for mobile advertising in the last quarter. Wall Street went ga-ga over it because this category didn’t even exist for Facebook as recently as last spring. My gut feeling, however, is that too many advertisers will be competing for eyeballs on ‘billboards’ with extremely limited space, and that users of smart phones and pads will resent the intrusion, the moreso if it becomes too aggressive.

      In the meantime, we’ll wait for the right buying opportunity in the stock, since attempting it now, following yesterday’s 25% move, does not interest me. Stay tuned — and be sure you’re signed up for email notifications if you wanted to be notified in real time of any possible intraday opportunities. For your information, yesterday’s move was not bullishly impulsive on the daily chart, since it exceeded no external peaks. It did, however, bring the stock up to a 50% retracement of the enormous fall from $45 on its IPO day to a low of $17.55 . Click here to give Rick’s Picks a free try.

  • Terry S November 8, 2012, 8:09 pm

    NB For the record, “statistical significance” is the chance (probability) of rejecting a null hypothesis (no difference/no change) when the null hypothesis is true. It is hypothesis testing in its purest form. The conventional level is less than 0.05 . Highly improbable results would use 0.01 or 0.001 for testing purposes.

  • jazzmaniac November 8, 2012, 7:54 pm

    All I can hope Rick is that you won’t let your political delusions affect your trading discipline. Trying to come up with reasons for why anything happens in the market is a game for losers.

    &&&&&&

    Actually, Jazzamaniac, in the trading world it is “hope” that is for losers, not the process of reasoning.
    RA

  • Jacques Redou November 8, 2012, 7:42 pm

    The best way to prepare for the future is a Good Pair
    of Shoes.

    This will help when standing in Long slow-moving Lines.

  • Robert November 8, 2012, 6:07 pm

    I applaud all of you for caring as deeply as you seem to.

    I concurrently question the intellectual efficacy of this care.

    If you don’t personally know a person, then why do you prefer to expend energy investing your sentiment into their personal actions?

    Find people you KNOW. Help them if they need it, and if they are willing (and reciprocal) recipients (ie: they possess the character and integrity of someone who might someday return the favor during your time of personal need).

    Obama’s actions can impact your personal prosperity ONLY if you bought into the false premise of a flawed financial system that promised you that the future would always be robust enough to offset the burdens of the present.

    You live in the here and now. Today is where you reside.

    Tomorrow is something to PREPARE for. It is not something to EXPECT (think very carefully about the difference between those two terms)

    The universe (nature, Earth, humanity, reality, God) owe you NOTHING; so you have no right to feel victimized when tomorrow comes, and your expectations are not met.

    “I paid into the system- I only want what’s mine”

    – pure heresy.

    What you pay is GONE the moment you pay it. ALL refunds are at the discretion of the recipient.

    Well, this particular recipient (the collective US citizenry) is telling you that they will NOT be returning what you provided them in good faith.

    You can waste your energy crying “Foul!” and “No Fair!” and other “Boo Hoo”s; but your energy will be as wasted as a shout of “Echo” into the Grand Canyon.

    A system that was always based on nothing more than collective faith, is failing. That is not an inflammatory personal opinion – it is a point of view based on rational examination of empirical data.

    Demonizing someone (anyone else) for their actions (however misguided those actions may seem) is merely a reflection of how little thought you have personally given to your own efficiency and harmony as a living spirit.

    Place your faith where it will not (or can not) not be destroyed by the willful actions of others…

    There are opportunities out there worthy of your faith. Nature (or God if you prefer) guarantees this as surely as they guarantee that your expectations will not always align perfectly with the realities of an unforeseeable future.

    If you formulate your personal expectations on a future based upon the perpetuation of false premises, then the burden of the consequence when those premises fail to deliver (or collapse outright) is YOURS to bear. Blaming Obama for your own failings is, again, pointless (Echo….. echo….echo…)

    You invested your faith in a faith based system; and you leveraged this faith to the point that you now face a margin call.

    Again, nobody owes you ANYTHING.

    Expecting to win, without preparing to lose, will leave you with nothing but empty “hoping for the win” in your heart.

    Hope is not enough for me. I must have faith; and right now my faith is not in the form of investable capital… my faith only exists in the form of savings.

    So I must hold onto it tightly, and find the opportunities that will reward me for my investment.

    Look into the eyes of your neighbor as they scream and curse about the insanities of a nameless, faceless “government” (while concurrently demonstrating their own insanity, and hypocrisy, in the process); and then go look into the eyes of a 6 year old as you sit across from them during a game of checkers.

    Where should your faith be invested? After all – the future belongs to THEM. Not us.

    The default, the collapse of Empire, and the associated dark ages of consequence are OURS (whether we like it or not). The following Renaissance and enlightenment will be THIERS.

    No politician is worthy of my capital, because none of them will ever reward my faith with any form of reciprocal care later in life…

    From this moment forward, think CAREFULLY about where to invest. Your future depends on it….

    • Rick Ackerman November 8, 2012, 9:34 pm

      Good one, Robert. You’ve fleshed out my new Mission Statement.

    • Jeff W. November 8, 2012, 11:38 pm

      Well said, Robert.

    • BigTom November 9, 2012, 1:19 am

      Robert – interesting read, thank you. “….and then go look into the eyes of a 6 year old as you sit across from them during a game of checkers.” Yes, and that is where I quietly and patiently invest…..

    • tgmur10 November 9, 2012, 3:52 pm

      Robert,
      You’re Words, simple yet powerful, spoken to the truth have helped to assemble the scattered feelings within me and as Rick pointed out, shall be the new “Mission Statement” to guide me and my Family going forward. Thank You! You’re wisdom is worthy of passing along and that is exactly what I shall do and pass it along to all that are willing.

    • mario cavolo November 11, 2012, 12:33 pm

      Ditto Robert, well laid out, unfortunately….Cheers, Mario

  • Andriyko November 8, 2012, 6:06 pm

    I am with Marc Faber, Jim Rogers and Jim Grant.

    The markets are manipulated. It is like the “Truman Show”. The Algorithms control the market (70% of volume.) Who is being niave?
    From a outsider’s perspective, there is NO real difference between the two candidates in what they do or say. Who started with Larry Summers, Geitner, Bernanke et al. ? It was George Bush – Only to be continued by Obama.
    Foreign policy – during the debates they were fighting over each other on who could agree more. Stop the presses! Lets have a diversion for the people – Iran is the big boogey man today – Do we forget that democratically elected Mosaddegh was removed from power in a coup on 19 August 1953, organised and carried out by the CIA? To be followed by a U.S. installed despot Shah. So the Iranians are not pissed? Given history, would Iran not think they have to defend themselves? Like Ron Paul says, maybe its Obama’s and Republican foreign policy that is creating the problem!

    Universal Health care was proposed by Harry Truman in 1946 and it was pushed again by Eisenhower. Oh and BTW don’t look at the Trillions spent on the military for cuts – There is a dept issue so the naive follow the MSM and blame things like health care and social security!
    As Ron Paul says – who made the U.S. the policeman of the world? Why are we spending trillions on far off wars and military bases? Shouldn’t people/countries take care of themselves?

    The election campaign cost in the order of 6 BILLION dollars. – Follow the money …

    The Captains wanted Romney. The Kings invested in Obama.

    Jim Rogers, Jim Sinclair, Marc Faber et al. said over a year ago that:
    1) There is no difference in either of them
    2) Obama was going to win.

    Differences in Democrats and Republicans in what the DO versus what they SAY ? … come on now.
    It is time we were not so naive as to quibble as to who is better. Time to wake up and look for something really different than Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum. Unfortunately the average citizen doen’t recognize that they are just being played with.

    &&&&&&&

    Obama and Romney may look the same to you, Andriyko, but not to those of us who abhor the prospect of extending the rule of judicial fiat any further than Obama already has with his appalling Supreme Court appointments of Kagan and Sotomayor. RA

  • Oregon November 8, 2012, 5:16 pm

    Jill: “I am against welfare for anyone who is able to take care of themselves.” So you are saying that 1 in 10 Americans is unable to take care of themselves? And… “But Dems give welfare to the poor & Repubs give welfare to the rich–” So that’s why after 4 years of Obama and many trillion dollars the poor are now rich and the bank execs. are poor. Right?
    This is the first time in my life that I didn’t vote, and I have to say if feels pretty good. Ignorance might really be bliss. I am glad Romney lost. The only thing better would have been Obama losing ALSO!

  • Andrew Gutterman November 8, 2012, 2:58 pm

    Rick,

    What on earth are you smoking that you think a Romney victory would have changed anything? Most likely the Democrats would still have gotten full control over the Senate, so between the President, the House and the Senate we would still have gridlock.

    In any event you cannot believe a tenth of what a candidate says about their policies before and after getting elected.

    Remember Hoover? How about G.H.W. Bush? No New Taxes!

    The deflationary depression has been in the works for 40 years, nothing anyone who got elected could do is going to stop it, and whomever did would do everything possible to halt it. We got Helicopter Ben in a Republican administration, Obama was just stupid enough to keep him on. (I think Obama is a closet Republican, the way he caters to the banks and Wall Street.)

    Andy

    &&&&&&&

    Can you furnish a quote from me that said Romney would be able to alter our economic destiny? That’s what I thought.

    A point of emphasis in perhaps two dozen essays I’ve published here over the years is that the economic cycle that will usher in a Second Great Depression that is vastly larger than our (especially puny) president and his minyan of central bankers. RA

    • redwilldanaher November 8, 2012, 4:44 pm

      He’s not a closet republican, he’s their puppet tyrant.

  • redwilldanaher November 8, 2012, 2:20 pm

    Rick, really enjoyed this piece today. I don’t note that all the time even though I usually do but this one is “uber” in one word!

    Retired UCSD professor on the lull before the revolutionary storm if you care…

    http://lewrockwell.com/douglas/douglas66.1.html

    • redwilldanaher November 8, 2012, 3:16 pm

      Here is Faber from ZH on how investors should protect their assets. Once again a real observer speaks to manipulated markets as Gary plunges his head even further under the sand:

      “They should buy themselves a machine gun…I need to buy a tank. Joking aside, look, we have manipulated markets. Whenever you manipulate markets, you will get unintended consequences. i think the reelection is unintended consequence of money printing, that favors the so- called 0.25%. It was easy for the Democrats to attack the wealthy fat cats of Wall Street, the elite, and the privileged people to portray them as a profiteer of the system, which to some extent, they are. Not because they wanted to but because Mr. Bernanke enabled them to be profiteers. We have a situation where you have today Mr. Obama, I doubt he will stay at the presidency for another four years. I think there will be so many scandals, but that’s another story.”

  • BMac November 8, 2012, 10:21 am

    – the Divide and Rule TV reality show “The Presidential Election” is over. MSM controlled it all, waving crowds, bands , balloons, plastic US flags waving madly.Wow.
    – it was all actors, and made for TV – and it is a big scam.
    USA is a television democracy.
    Real is very, very different.

    • Rick Ackerman November 8, 2012, 9:08 pm

      Echoes of Paddy Chayevsky, who called television “democracy at its ugliest.”

  • C.C. November 8, 2012, 8:59 am

    Mitt Romney will likely be thankful in due course that he wasn’t elected. This isn’t necessarily an Obama thing any more than it would have been a Romney thing. It’s a multi-generational thing, called a $Debt/deficit/fiat based economy, and those economies can only last so long, no matter which savior sits on the throne. I feel for Mr. Obama, because what awaits in this generational shift is not going to be kind to the leadership that presides over it – ideological loyalties notwithstanding. Wish him the best –

    • redwilldanaher November 8, 2012, 2:18 pm

      You feel sorry for a psychopathic megalomaniac? How quaint…

    • C.C. November 8, 2012, 6:33 pm

      And I take it you have clinical evidence that the president is a psychopathic megalomaniac? And just where did I say – or even suggest, that I felt ‘sorry’ for him? Your ideological myopia gives credence to the notion that politics and religion are 2 sides of the same coin – neither can see reason, nor be reasoned with.

      &&&&&&&

      Can we perhaps agree on “preening narcissist”? If so, far better that He should have found his way to Hollywood than to the White House. RA

    • redwilldanaher November 8, 2012, 8:35 pm

      Oh I don’t know, how about from you:

      “I feel for Mr. Obama…”, you lament in the post so was I suppose to assume you felt elation?

      Obviously you haven’t paid much attention to the past 6 years or so. “Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity …” – Tolkien. What did this Alinskyite accomplish before being installed as a Senator from arguably the most corrupt political machine in the country? Nothing, exactly. His most noteworthy accomplishment was to have a biography ghostwritten for him about his life of nothing. Yet after doing nothing, and being installed and do nothing, he then seeks the office of President and becomes installed there. He’s been an unmitigated disaster in any measurable way and he’s a serial liar that cares not about any he rules over but instead about himself and his over-sized ego first and foremost. I think that and observing the petulant puppet over the past 4 years should be enough to for any objective observer. His own people recently admitted that he doesn’t really care about people. You may have been too busy making claims that you can’t support to notice.

  • John Jay November 8, 2012, 4:56 am

    It’s not just here in the USA that jobs are vaporizing.
    From Bloomberg.com:
    “Million-Dollar Traders Replaced With Machines Amid Cuts”
    Link: http://tinyurl.com/ae25pyk

    UBS in Zurich will give 10,000 employees the boot, including top dog traders. They also plan to exit fixed income.
    Perhaps years of ZIRP has made the spreads in bonds too slim? Beats me, that could be part of it.
    So, at long last, the FIRE economy meets automation.

    I have also read the US Army plans to replace 30% of their manned vehicles with robots by 2015, by Congressional mandate it seems.
    If Obamacare stands, a lot of jobs will be switched to part time to either avoid penalties or to avoid offering health care to full time workers.

    Thank god that I am not starting my work career in these conditions. Part time jobs, no benefits, 1% on a 12 month CD, 12k for a tiny econo box car, $4 a gallon gas, bloated house prices and rents.
    My, my, my!
    Maybe I would losing myself in video game land too if I was young again!

    • mario cavolo November 8, 2012, 7:58 am

      If a typical owner had a small retail business in the U.S. such as a restaurant and Obamacare forced me to pay an additional $3k a year for mandatory health coverage for fulltime workers, obviously, not being an idiot, they would adjust to the issue by hiring more 25hr/week shift workers and only give fulltime to the fewer first level managers. Geez!…we can surmise then that will have an even worsening downward impact on the already struggling lower/middle class decline…

      Cheers, Mario

  • maddog November 8, 2012, 4:44 am

    Whether you lose 3-2 or 14-0, you still lost.

    So the fact that the Republicans lacked a statistically significant majority smacks of sour grapes. I’m sure you would have rather won 3-2 instead of being on the losing team with Romney, Ryan, Fox, Rove, & Trump.

    The real circus was watching all the BS being tossed around trying to convince all the white guys that the Republican clowns were going to help them. The clowns didn’t notice that there were women in the audience which was a big, big mistake. IMO that the females ignored the BS and put in someone who they thought was going to champion their causes.

    Ignore the women at your own peril. Before you know it there will be a woman president and you lemmings will end up drowning in a river where you misjudged its width.

    • Jill November 8, 2012, 5:09 am

      Hey, Maddog, go ahead & let them ignore women. Then we get Democrats in office. I am against welfare for anyone who is able to take care of themselves. But Dems give welfare to the poor & Repubs give welfare to the rich– e.g. oil company subsidies & other mega-corporation subsidies & tax breaks. I prefer Dems because the price of welfare given to the poor is far far less expensive than the price of welfare given to the rich.

      I don’t care if a candidate claims he’s going to help me or if he pretends to share my ideology. I care what he does. And how corrupt he/she is. And the Dems come out superior on those measures.

      Both parties keep expanding the government, so it is a tie in those areas, if you watch what they do, not what they say.

    • Steve W November 8, 2012, 7:12 am

      What a bunch of inane comments by maddog and jill. The popular vote is statistically dead even. There is no mandate, the country is torn down the middle and we are in a verbal civil war. Hopefully it never goes beyond that. The real circus is the MSM not doing their job regarding Benghazi, Fast and Furious, wasted money for all the “green” bankrupt industries, out of control Federal Reserve etc. Oh, and lets not forget all the racist leftist supporters of the Dems that are not denounced by the party, political cover ups, ex-cons getting elected in Detroit and overall incompetence at the highest level. Wake up. It isn’t the color or sex of the president. It’s their policies. Unfortunately, its to late for this nation. Our future epitaph for our country will be ” that we were weighed in the balances and found wanting.”

    • redwilldanaher November 8, 2012, 2:17 pm

      Great work Steve W. Maddog and Jill perfectly exemplify why there can be no “compromise” because you can’t reason with fools. The only real solution remains a fresh start for us while leaving these fools behind in the prison they are enthusiastically have created for themselves…

    • fallingman November 8, 2012, 7:15 pm

      Democrats don’t do corporate welfare? Really? You want to stick by that statement?

      And Republicans don’t give welfare to the dependent classes? Really? You might want to check out the actual budget and learn something about who actually gets what before you make such stupid categorical assertions. You also might not want to confuse talking points and propaganda for actual reality.

      The fact of the matter is that BOTH parties support the mega state, which include welfare for EVERYBODY…except the poor shmucks in the middle who get neither government favors, subsidies, etc. nor government handouts. I, for example, get absolutely nothing beyond government’s not so wonderful basic services, and I don’t want anything, but I damn well pay plenty for everyone else…from Jamie Dimon to the EBT crowd.

      Here’s a question for you:

      If the outlays keep increasing each year for virtually every line item in the budget and new ones are constantly being added, how is it that anyone’s ox is being gored by the new boss when he comes in, be it Reagan or Bush or Clinton or Bush or Obama taking over?

      It’s wine and cheese for all my friends!…all the time. If you can’t see that, you’re either blind or simply not paying attention.

      Total on-budget federal spending was $657 billion in 1981. It’ll be around $3.8-3.9 trillion next year if we’re lucky. That’s a roughly six fold increase in around 30 years.

      The truth? Ain’t nobody cuttin’ back on nuthin’! And they won’t until they’re forced to by the bond market or they blow the whole thing up with the Fed monetizing all new debt issue.

    • VegasBob November 9, 2012, 9:53 am

      The real tragedy is that this country was founded by people who sought to escape the heavy hand of coercion by government.

      Now, governments across the world have made escape pretty much impossible. The entire planet has become a prison.

    • redwilldanaher November 9, 2012, 3:31 pm

      Dead on VegasBob…

    • DK November 10, 2012, 10:43 am

      Fallingman, you’ve just been nailing it lately. That goes for John Jay, RWD, and Robert too. It is so reassuring to know that not everyone out their head completely stuck in the sand.

      Thank you all.

    • mario cavolo November 11, 2012, 12:31 pm

      VegasBob, that IS the point! They come in different shapes and size but at this point all the major govt’s have their citizens pinned down, there is very little one can actually do to affect change. Its like me trying to be influential in Chinese govt affairs… huh? what? Its an impossibility that’s beyond obvious. What pisses me off is that its not much better in America, they are still trying to make an American citizen feel like they can make a difference, but where it counts, where they are being steam-rollered, they can’t, plain and simple.

  • Kurt November 8, 2012, 4:06 am

    Then: Bread and circuses; Now: Birth control and Sesame Street.

    • Bam_Man November 9, 2012, 6:25 pm

      You forgot to mention the now “legalized” recreational weed.

      &&&&&&

      Anyone with teenage sons or daughters should be forgiven for taking an un-libertarian stance on this issue. RA