Commodity Trading & Trend Following

Very clearly there was extreme dissatisfaction over big bonuses paid by firms bailed out with U.S. taxpayer money. Is it hard to understand why when people are losing their jobs, houses or even hope. It is ironic when a salary of $100k is considered a great salary for someone in Iowa and bonuses in the $100 of thousands or even millions were given to incompentents.

Take out your feelings on Ben with the bernanke squeeze doll.

Nouriel Roubini and Nassim Taleb (”Dr Doom and the Black Swan”) discuss the crisis –and what to do about it.

In less than twenty-four hours the price of Gold climbed $65 and the price of Silver $1.20. Considering the announcement by the Fed, one has to wonder why the moves were not bigger. The Fed stated it is going to ג€œincrease the sizeג€ of its balance sheet, that means it is going to put the printing presses on full octane, maximum performance. What this really means that in approx 6 months or so there will be an additional $1,050,000,000 in circulation. The ABCs of economics are when this happens Inflation raises it’s ugly head.

What words can describe the current situation? Fear…Dispair… Disbelief..Hopelessness…? I am sure not everyone feels these feelings…but I would tend to believe a great many do. People are afraid of losing their jobs and with good reason. Many people are only a paycheck or two away from default. The mood of the country is surely down. Amplifying the mood has been all the expressed anger about bailing out banks and financial institutions that made poor decisions. Putting salt on the wound was the bonus-paying spree to the incompetents at insurance giant AIG and Fannie. Now billions of dollars are being promised to the auto industry. Where does it end? Will this really help the economy or is it another bailout where those who asked for bailouts came in their private jets.

Where are really in this cycle. Are we in a Recession? Have we entered a Depression? Everyone seems to have an opinion. However only in retrospect will we really know. We have not had any waterfall declines such as 1987 or even 1929. Seems things are just dragging down or grinding us down. The anxiety is not just in the stock market but seems to be encompassing our entire lives. It seems to many the world has changed. Who would have really believed interest rates would be virtually zero. Who would have believed that Citi would be $2.51. Surely not the Abu Dhabi investment authority or Bin Alaweed. It seems more money was lost trying to catch the bottom. Seems everyone wants to call a bottom. Not to be negative but all one has to do is look at Japan. Their economy,stock market and real estate market has been in the dumpster close to 20 years. Why can that not happen in the Western economies. I have never met anyone who has been long time successful predicting anything..not alone the stock market. One needs not to have an opinion and simply follow the market where it wants to go in order to be successful.

Do you remember the statement.. It is the economy,Stupid…Maybe the same words are effecting President Obama’s approval ratings. They are slipping as Americans are worried about the economy. Obamaג€™s approval rating slipped to 59 percent from 64 percent last month. All in all Americans still generally support Obamaג€™s handling of the economy, more questions are cropping up. One of the most pertinet was yesterdays AIG debacle. Obama is scrambling to assure Americans he is extremely aware of public outrage over taxpayer-backed bonuses for AIG executives.

According to Nicholas Taleb the famous author of the “Black Swan”, he feels the financial crisis will be harder to end than the Great Depression and may force banks to be nationalized.He makes the case that the more complex financial system makes the current problems much more severe than what transpired during the Great Depression. [...]

What is happening to the USA’s Triple A Rating?

Where will all the bailouts end? Depression?