3/8/12 pre-open rant.

Futures set for a higher open.
Jobless claims up slightly. CNBC trots out the usual Republican politician, this time Judd Gregg, to complain about the people who are getting unemployment benefits and who are not getting a job because they like being on the govt. dole. This followed a report by CNBC on a company that can't find enough skilled welders. They have to pay a $2500 bonus to attract qualified workers. OMG!! They had to pay more to attract workers! How about that. Isn't that capitalism. Demand and supply. But these pontificators would prefer that business had lower labor costs in order to keep corporate profits up. Isn't that what American business did when they moved to China. They wanted the low labor costs and now sell the products to the American consumers who have gone deep in debt to buy those same products. So, if wages in the U.S. come down to a level where workers are hungry enough to take any job at any wage, who the hell will buy these products that our magnificent businessmen are creating? China? I don't think so.
When Henry Ford started mass production of cars he knew that if he paid his workers more they would be able to afford the products that they made. He wasn't trying to arbitrage worldwide labor prices! He was an American who supported the American economy. Of course it was the only play at the time.

All of this angst over the economy and blaming the president for political purposes misses the larger picture. And that is that it is the cost and availability of energy and land that makes prosperity possible. All wealth comes from the earth. Printing money is only possible when those dollars can be matched up to natural resource production. Oil is getting scarce or expensive to get to the market and the alternatives are more expensive. Land is in short supply. The rest of the world has been given the idea that they too can have the standard of living that we enjoy and are competing for those natural resources that are increasingly in short supply. So all of these economic crises that are happening are the very macro-economic manifestation of a shortage of plentiful and cheap energy and land. Yet the die-hard capitalists will not see any other alternative but to stimulate growth to keep profits up. Growth has only been stimulated with ever increased debt over the last 30 years.
Think of when the debt bubble started. It was in the 1970's. Right after the first "oil shock". We were lucky to have a currency that was in world wide demand as a result of WW2 when the rest of the world was reduced to rubble. That gave us the ability to print money/create debt. (Same thing) Well things have changed. We will not be able to continue our unchecked consumption and "growth". And politically we will have to change from a capitalist competitive model to one of co-operation. I fear that process of change with the mindset of the American populace being what it is!

Lets see what the markets are going to do today....
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I have to add this: The bond market is the "adult" in the markets. The bond market has been manipulated for years by the governments of the world. Interest rates are artificially low. The shortage of natural resources will eventually cause interest rates to rise. This will restrict usage of resources and is the way that capitalism works. However, we have dug such a deep hole of debt that to allow the markets to correct naturally will cause massive anguish. The Republicans want a free market, so they say, but if what they want came to pass it would cause the biggest depression the world has known. And they wouldn't survive to claim victory. So politically we will muddle through with inflation and a gradual erosion of wealth regardless of who is in the white house.
gh