The Alamo

　

The Tea Party. Who are they? Well, you can recognize them easiest on the street because they will have a gun strapped to their belt. These Tea party zealots are also the "2nd Amendment solution" people. And when a Tea Partier says they will exert their 2nd Amendment solution they mean that if things don't work out for them by democratic process, in other words if by voting they do not get their way, they will take their guns out and force the world to comply to their demands.

This is the same mentality that has led the US Congress to find itself debating whether to shut down the U.S. govt. for an extended period for lack of a funding solution. And it is all over an ideological position that objects to a law requiring all citizens to buy a health insurance plan. A law intended to reduce the number of those not receiving medical care due to lack of ability to pay and a law with the objective of reducing national healthcare costs for the nation. A law that is very similar to the law in the state of Massachusetts that was enacted by the last Republican contender for the White House, Mr. "Mitt" Romney.

The Tea Partiers remind me of those Texans that fought and died at the Alamo as they attempted to wrest Texas from the control of the Mexican government. The same Mexican government that made the mistake of inviting U.S. citizens to settle in that wild land in return for their loyalty. They overestimated the ability of those Anglos to be loyal to Hispanics. The defenders of the Alamo managed to get themselves into an untenable position that resulted in the last man dying.

The Tea Party is having it's Alamo now, with the position they have taken in Congress. The Affordable Care Act was passed into law by Congress and ultimately declared constitutional by the Supreme Court. But this small minority in Congress is unhappy with the outcome of the democratic process. They are intent on extorting concessions by the threat of a default on the sovereign debt of the United States of America. As they near this precipice of default, the markets and the economy will feel the effects. And money will be lost by big and small business alike. And it is big business that funds the Tea Party. Big money that has been idle due to a lack of competition in the economy and is now being used to foster a philosophic and ideological idea of "free markets" and "free people". All the while ignoring the fact that no market is absolutely free. All markets and economies function under a set of rules. All societies function under a set of rules. It is the changing of some of these rules that they are objecting to. And their ideological position must stem from the idea that if people are allowed to see that a govt. sponsored program can work then "government" by the people may not be all bad, and may actually be a solution to some of our problems.

As the big money finds itself on the losing end of the markets due to any serious dip into default they will question the effectiveness of their funding of these lunatics. And then will be when the Tea Party dies. They will lose the funding of the deep pockets. And perhaps then the" Occupy" movement will take over the more humane concerns of the American people and rein in the power of the money of the 1% and advance the cause of the 99%, with a rallying cry of "Remember the Alamo!" Or some such.

"As Ford goes..."

There was a saying many years ago. It went, "As GM goes, so goes the country". Referring to the U.S. economy. And at the time whatever was good for General Motors was good for the country. That may be true today, but being a chart oriented trader and investor I need a good chart to look at. That chart is Ford. Take a look at this long term chart of Ford.

I love "triple tops" because the area above the tops seem to be a magnet drawing prices up there and beyond, partly due to the greed of the short sellers but mainly because prices should not see the same high price three times if that price is TOO high. So often a break above is a good trade and the continuation of a trend......

Perhaps the saying should be: "As Ford goes, so goes the country".

I sure hope so.

What is UUP??

A 5 min. chart of UUP, the US Dollar index fund....

An intraday rally today as stocks look increasingly strong...

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Latest good looking chart/ MCP

Molycorp is looking strong lately.

Control your risk, limit any downside. If I am wrong I accept that my timing or view may be wrong. At least for now......
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SLV

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The Doctor is Well

Copper is holding up well despite the U.S. soap opera. It looks like the world economy may be on the way to a time of expansion.

EEM is looking good.

keep some powder dry and don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes.

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The Tea Party Effect

The U.S. dollar is down again. The world must be wondering if our political trouble will spill over into our dependability as a world reserve currency. And who can fault dollar holders for wondering.

Our rural partisans are running amuck in our nations capital. Those rural counties of this nation that get a disproportionate share of federal government spending are complaining of government debt.
And they want to do away with this countries first big step toward fixing our dysfunctional health care system by continuing to dismantle the ACA.

It is a pathetic show.

And it is reflected in the decline of the U.S. Dollar.

In spite of this, or maybe because of this, the basic materials remain strong. For now.

And First Solar is strong.......

Control risk,
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2016!!

Yes. The next national presidential election is in the year 2016!

I guess it just seems like a long time since the last one.....

befuddled yours,
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WARREN 2016

Rick Santelli talks about the treasury purchases by the Fed and says they are unfair to poor folks. He gives the stock price of Walmart vs. the stock price of Tiffanys as an example. Tiffanys is up three times as much as Walmart. I guess he means to point out the fact that the rich can afford to buy much more than the poor can afford because the rich peoples assets have appreciated much more than the poor folks assets. The poor have no assets. The only asset of the poor is their good health and their ability to work for an hourly wage.

Rick does not advocate for higher wages for the working poor. Unless of course the economy booms so much that the poor and their labor are indispensable. But then we would just import more from China where the workers are cheaper. That is Rick's free market capitalism.

How will this country, the USA, ever put people back to work if we don't have a debt boom like the recent past? The answer is: we will devalue our currency in order to make imports more expensive to purchase, and more desirable to make here in this country.

It is not another debt bubble that Mr. Bernanke and his Federal Reserve want. It is a depreciation of the US Dollar.

In the abscence of tariffs on imported goods what else is there? The rest of the world has been manipulating currencys to their own benefit for decades. And we had the debt bubble to show for it.

As the dollar goes down the people of the US need to stand up for increases in the minimum wage if we don't want the poor to get poorer. And if we want them to be able to afford the goods the will be making here.

I think I will get a bumper sticker for my car that reads: Warren 2016

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All is lost!

Markets, being made up of market participants who are herd animals, tend to disappoint the greatest number of those same participants. This is because the herd is in competition with each other at the same time that they depend on each other for guidance and support.

It is for this reason that markets tend to bottom when there is no hope for a rally and top when all are feeling good about the prospects of continued rise.

I have not heard much good about gold lately. (Except for the gold bugs, but they never give up!)

But I am quite sure that the US Fed is intent on a devaluation of the U.S. Dollar. No one will say it of course as that would greatly excite the partisan tea drinkers among us. But it is way past time that the U.S. economy stopped enjoying the benefits of being the sole reserve currency in the world. And the world is looking for alternatives at the same time that we are on a quest to have perpetual low interest rates. We are looking for some inflation WITH low interest rates. We may get the inflation and our interest rates may lag inflation. It is my observation that interest rates LAG the rate of inflation right up until someone or some force decides they have had enough of inflation and then they briefly surge ahead. (Volcker was the last such force. The "bond vigilantes have been bought off by the reserve currency status/Chinese)

So now may prove to be a good long term chance to buy the precious metals.

I really like the sheen of that stuff.

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