Posted on 05/06/2010 5:19:35 PM PDT by Kaslin
Panic: If investors think the U.S. is as bad off as Greece, this sell-off is unwarranted. But if they fear the U.S. is trying to copy Greece or another socialist state, that's another matter. Fortunately, it's also quite correctable.
Markets that go up a lot — and this one ran up 82% on the S&P 500 in 14 months before topping two weeks ago — are entitled to correct. That is normal. But we'll admit Thursday's 8% free fall — and near-1,000-point dive in the Dow — was a little out of the ordinary.
After looking at the action in Procter & Gamble, you might even say it was a glitch. In a matter of 10 minutes, P&G, a 4.3% Dow component, plunged 37%. That qualifies as wild even for the most volatile Nasdaq stock, let alone one of the stodgiest Big Board issues.
P&G's plunge below its own circuit-breaker level then reportedly triggered automatic selling in other big-cap stocks.
Another rumor had a trader at a "major firm" accidentally placing an order to sell $16 billion, instead of $16 million, of futures contracts tied to equity indexes.
Such snafus aside, much of the blame for the market's recent weakness has centered on the debt crisis in Greece, the latest example of why socialism should never replace capitalism as an economic system.
But let's get real. There's almost no comparison between the U.S. and Greece or other failed European states. By almost any measure, the United States has outperformed Europe for decades.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Next support test is down at 9,000
Nope. Greece’s debt is 115% of its GDP. Ours is a measily 84% of our GDP.
Of course, Obama will fix that.
Of course he will /s
I think we were about ten years behind Greece.
Baraq and Company are working hard to shorten the horizon.
Sadly some Republican will have to administer the financial chemotherapy to kill this disease and it won’t be a fun experience for anybody.
We are headed toward 100% fast, projected to add another trillion to that every year for the next ten years. The writer doesn’t address unfunded liabilities, currently $108,000,000,000,000.
Yet.
Add in Fannie and Freddie, the PBGC and other “off balance sheet” Federal enterprises and we ARE Greece!!!!
http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/greece-bailout-only-way-to-avoid-collapse-050610
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/293247-1&showFullAbstract=1
Listen to Sanders from George Mason University (the bald guy).
SOMEBODY has to be getting the word out!!!!
Greece has one advantage - a muslim is not running Greece. It is sad because the Greeks have been a bulwark against islam for centuries.
Remember November...Greece could end up as nothing more than a food fight compared to what could transpire here if the path isn’t changed.
Markets that go up a lot -- and this one ran up 82% on the S&P 500 in 14 months before topping two weeks ago -- are entitled to correct. That is normal. But we'll admit Thursday's 8% free fall -- and near-1,000-point dive in the Dow -- was a little out of the ordinary.Thanks Kaslin.
Socialism can never replace capitalism as an economic system. Capitalism always exists. Socialism is merely a suckerfish on its back.
The cast of characters are eerily similar.
ITEM Greece paid Goldman Sachs $300 million in fees for arranging the toxic 2001 transactions, according to several bankers familiar with the deal.
ITEM We are witnessing the extensive political power of the Greek unions....which is capable of bringing the govt down.
ITEM Ohaha reflexively bails out anything that has a union.
ITEM "Professor Ohaha" knows nothing about int'l finance. But Wall Street Rahm Emanuel sits in OUR WH.....AND is a G/S toadie.
More below.
Traditionally a Democratic booster, and one of Barack Obama’s top sources of funds in this past election, Goldman has always had some particularly strong allies within government.
Emanuel is one such ally. An interesting early chapter in the Goldman-Emanuel relationship took place in the setting of Bill Clinton’s campaign for the White House in 1992. Clinton hired Emanuel as his chief fundraiser. At the same time, however, Emanuel was on the payroll of Goldman Sachs, receiving $3,000 per month from the firm to “introduce us to people,” in the words of one Goldman partner at the time. This is certainly a noteworthy relationship, but it’s one that has almost entirely escaped scrutiny. (snip)
In his four terms in Congress, Emanuel has raised $74,750 from Goldman, making the firm his number four source of funds.
Goldman has helped Emanuel. How has Emanuel helped Goldman? The most obvious answer, as mentioned in this column two weeks ago, is in Emanuel’s lead role in shepherding the “$700 billion” bailout—first proposed by former a Goldman CEO, Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson—through the skeptical House.
Of course, back in the Clinton days, Goldman benefited from NAFTA and the bailout of the Mexican currency, with Emanuel pushing NAFTA through Congress, and Rubin hammering out the peso bailout.
Did Goldman improperly funnel money to the Clinton campaign by subsidizing Emanuel’s salary in 1992? Did Goldman’s help to Clinton spur the Democratic president to push NAFTA and the Mexican bailout?
The answers to these questions are opaque, and with Emanuel burrowed deep within the Obama White House, the continued relationship between Goldman Sachs and Obama’s right hand man won’t be easy to follow.
Watch which regulations of Wall Street Obama fights for. Watch where the bailout money goes. And don’t be surprised to see Goldman soon sitting pretty once again. SOURCE http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/TimothyCarney/
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GOOD FOR GOLDMAN, BAD FOR AMERICA (G/S the major toll collector on govt's red-ink railroad)
BY TERRY KEENAN, anchor of Cashin' In, Fox News Sat 11:30 AM.
EXCERPT G/S morphed into a commercial bank to take advantage of gov't handouts, yet Goldman is really a hedge fund on steroids, with trading accounting for 69% of gross revenue in the first quarter........ a big chunk of its trading involves US govt debt -- federal, state and local...... G/S has a huge vested interest in the US digging a deeper and deeper hole.........trading govt IOUs is big business.....one of the few growth markets on Wall Street. IPO's, M&A's, etc, have yet to recover but the US will borrow a record $3.25 trillion in the current fiscal year -- four times as much as in 2008.
With its biggest competitors out of business, G/S is a major toll collector on Washington's red-ink railroad.......a "debt tsunami" that will lift Goldman's fortunes. G/S plays on the bankrupting of America -- the more we borrow, the more they make........ ........but the American public should know this side of the G/S profit miracle.
Through savvy trading and management, G/S set aside $11.4B this year to compensate its employees on a playing field cleared of its top competitors and soon after Uncle Sam bailedout G/S with $10B TARP -- and millions more through AIG, all paid for by taxpayers.
G/S benefits nicely from the govt borrowing binge that was triggered in part by the banking crisis that started in Wall Street's own backyard.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07192009/business/good_for_goldman__bad_for_america_180130.htm
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