Beyond Good and Evil

Well, the day started off well enough. A nice initial wallop. Regrettably, the markets clawed their way back up to end in positive territory. Chalk up "Mini Asian Financial Crisis" as yet another thing the markets can shrug off as irrelevant.

Speaking of financial disasters that no one seems to care about, the Financial Report of the United States Government was issued recently. It's nearly 200 pages, but here are a couple of interesting bits:

Despite improvement in both the fiscal year 2006 reported net operating cost and the cash-based budget deficit, the U.S. government’s total reported liabilities, net social insurance commitments, and other fiscal exposures continue to grow and now total approximately $50 trillion, representing approximately four times the Nation’s total output (GDP) in fiscal year 2006, up from about $20 trillion, or two times GDP in fiscal year 2000.

and.......

Given these and other factors, it seems clear that the nation’s current fiscal path is unsustainable and that tough choices by the President and the Congress are necessary in order to address the nation’s large and growing long-term fiscal imbalance.

I found the graph about the Medicare gap particularly interesting. I don't think I've ever seen a y-axis before which measures "billions" of dollars with figures such as $16,000 (e.g. Sixteen Thousand Billion - - otherwise known as Sixteen Trillion). Umm, we are hosed, people. Wake up!


AIV is representative of many REIT stocks, all of which are softening like butter on a midsummer's day.


BAC looks like the uptrend is over.


BLUD, one of my few long suggestions, is still looking mighty purty.


BZH, another long suggestion, seems also poised for a rise.


Although I'm uncertain as to where gold is heading, GFI looks potentially bullish as well. (Wow, three bullish mentions in a row.......)


MDC is easing away from its retracement nicely.


.....as is old favorite MTH.


Many people have asked me to look at QID. I own this now. It doesn't have much of a history to it, but it's a nice double inverse play on the Nasdaq. And check out the volume!


RIMM, which will give everyone a quarterly update after the close Thursday, is starting to slip-slide away again.


And SHLD, long-watched but seldom tried, is looking mighty mushy.


It was disappointing, of course, to see how boldly the markets fought their way back today. The bulls have had a dynamite year (and the dynamite was placed directly under our paws). I guess they're just going to keep pouring salt in the wound until Dick Clark's ball drops at year's end.