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As the economy drifts listlessly going into this holiday season, thoughts of sugar-plumbed call options and zombie companies (Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE), and Citibank (C)) are dancing in the heads of day traders, fund managers and CNBC. Hooray, hooray, everything is OK! Well, not quite. While Wall Street is feasting on the greatest secular bear market bounce in history, Main Street is experiencing persistent and formidable economic famine, the likes of which, have not been seen the Great Depression – which recorded the second greatest secular bear market bounce in history.

If you are dyslexic or know someone who is,,,best selling author Vince Flynn will be discussing growing up with dyslexia. STAND UP AMERICA, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION that will change the 2010 elections. All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread. Join us won't you!

Japan Government Says Economy Back In DeflationRolfe Winkler Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:03am EST TOKYO, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Japan's government said for the first time since 2006 that the economy was back in deflation, warning of the risk that price falls may pressure a fragile economy barely out of its worst recession in decades. The announcement came as the Bank of Japan kept interest rates near zero and upgraded its economic assessment, despite grumblings from the government, which is worried about price falls and the risk of another recession. "Recent price developments show that the Japanese economy is in...

The IntercontinentalExchange is probing trades in U.S. dollar index futures that briefly showed a massive 9% jump on Friday morning. The lead contract surged as high as 82.18, up from a 75.38 close on Thursday. Such a move was improbable given that in spot markets, the dollar's moves against major currencies such as the euro were limited to about 1%. See Currencies. The ICE agreed, and according to an exchange official, all trades above 76.50 were being cancelled. The ICE was still investigating the cause of the incident, the official said. Dollar index futures were still elevated after the incident,...

It's about damn time. Yes, it's a first step - but an important first step, and it happened yesterday. Here's what Representative Grayson said at the time of debate: Bloomberg wasted no time giving the "loyal opposition" to transparency all the digital ink they desired: “It’s going to be seen as weakening the independence of monetary policy with consequent negative implications,” Frank told reporters after the vote. “People are going to be worried about the impact on the dollar, on the interest rate.” Go listen to Mr. Grayson's statement again. Now tell me how The Fed's move to dilute our...

Ask yourselves why the price of gold is headed to $1500. The answer is that this government has lost control of the currency and therefore the economy. Normally price appreciation is great except when it comes to gold. It means our political leaders have no idea what they are doing and there are going to be very severe consequences. Very! Last November gold was at $700. Now it is at $1100 on its way to $1500. We will all have third rate health care with no jobs. What a future.

Economists say the recession is over, but tell that to the 92,500 Minnesota homeowners who are facing or are in foreclosure. The Mortgage Bankers Association announced Thursday that 6.98 percent of nearly 900,000 Minnesota mortgage holders, or about 62,000 Minnesotans, were behind on their payments in the third quarter. That's a record high. Nationwide, roughly 4.3 million, or 9.94 percent of all loans outstanding, have mortgages that are at least 30 days past due. That's the highest since the association started tracking this data in 1972. Loans in the process of foreclosure rose in the state and the nation from...

This hurts: The federal government is "doing everything in [its] manpower [and] capability to destroy U.S. manufacturing," says David Farr, chairman and CEO of Emerson Electric Co. Farr added that companies will continue adding jobs in China and India because they are "places where people want the products and where the governments welcome you to actually do something. I am not going to hire anybody in the United States. I'm moving. They are doing everything possible to destroy jobs."

Hope and change hits 29 states, the sad thing is, Obama is just getting started...Chart from CNN..

More than 14 percent of borrowers were in trouble on their mortgage during the third quarter, a new record, according to an industry survey released Thursday, which also suggests that the foreclosure rate is likely not to peak until next year as unemployment rates continue to rise. Unemployment remains a big driver of the problem, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, which conducts the survey. Those with delinquent loans now include a growing portion of people traditionally considered creditworthy and people whose mortgages are insured by the Federal Housing Administration. "The outlook is that delinquency rates and foreclosure rates will...

Ten months to the day after Barack Obama took office and three years since Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, the American public has begun to get the impression that Democrats are responsible for the economic mess that continues to unfold. A new CNN poll shows that those blaming Republicans has dropped fifteen points in the last six months, while those blaming Democrats have risen 21 points in the same period (via Yid with Lid): Nearly two years into the recession, opinion about which political party is responsible for the severe economic downturn is shifting, according to a...

President Obama and his flacks constantly have claimed that the government's $787 billion stimulus package has created or saved hundreds of thousands of jobs. The numbers don't back up the claim. In fact, the numbers don't clarify anything. For example, on Oct. 30, Mr. Obama claimed the massive government spending program had already created or saved 640,239 jobs. California supposedly saved the most jobs, with 110,185 rescued workers. But this job "creation" involves some very creative accounting. The 110,185 number does not reflect new jobs or even jobs that likely would have been lost, according to the Sacramento Bee. About...

The question of the acceptance of a fabricated illusion of normality versus the cold reality of impending doom and chaos is nothing new as it has been the unfortunate choice for people throughout history, such as the Romans in the time of Caligula, the Soviets in the time Stalin, the Germans in the time of Hitler, the Iraqis in the time of Hussein, and now the Americans in the time of Obama.

Let’s do the math. Fifty-seven plus one equals fifty-eight. Fifty-eight and two that he didn’t get to go to equals sixty. Sixty states according to Barry Hussein Soetoro. But he was voted president anyway. (see :25sec video) You may think that a presidential candidate who thinks that there are 60 states in America is unacceptable and that may be true but what do you think of that same candidate who is now president whose administration is not curtain about the number of congressional districts? That’s what I said, the Barry Hussein Soetoro’s administration—the administration that concocted the fictitious scenario of...

Velocity Of U.S. Money Supply Is Finally Edging Up Prieur du Plessis November 20, 2009 Despite ballooning Fed reserves to bail out banks, money supply as measured by the growth in money supply with a zero maturity (notes and coins, check accounts, savings deposits and money-market accounts collectively) continues to slow. The slowing growth is contra to what normally happens when the Fed lowers the Federal funds rate. In real terms, the growth rate is also slowing.[snip]

Here's a real time lesson in government madness. It's so insane even the inspector general at the agency making the loans gets it. The FHA has decided to prop up the middle and high ends of the real estate market by guaranteeing the typical nutty type loans that brought down the real estate market the first place. Here's NYT's David Streitfeld with the gory details: In January, Mike Rowland was so broke that he had to raid his retirement savings to move here from Boston. A week ago, he and a couple of buddies bought a two-unit apartment building for...

10 Reasons to Believe That We're in a Depression by: Marvin Clark November 19, 2009 As the economy drifts listlessly going into this holiday season, thoughts of sugar-plumbed call options and zombie companies (Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE), and Citibank (C)) are dancing in the heads of day traders, fund managers and CNBC. Hooray, hooray, everything is OK! Well, not quite. While Wall Street is feasting on the greatest secular bear market bounce in history, Main Street is experiencing persistent and formidable economic famine, the likes of which, have not been seen the Great Depression – which recorded the...

Highlights of Tokyo Speech: "We seek this deeper and broader engagement because we know our collective future depends on it." "We simply cannot return to the same cycles of boom and bust that led to a global recession. We can't follow the same policies that led to such imbalanced growth."

The Australian dollar will reach parity with the US dollar in the next six to 12 months and peak at about $US1.02-03, a currency strategist says. State Street Global Advisers head of currency management Collin Crownover says the unit is already overvalued by about 20 per cent and that the figure would stretch out to 30 per cent if it reached the $US1.03 mark. "I think we'll see about a 10 per cent appreciation from where we are now," the London-based Dr Crownover said in Sydney on Friday. "At that point, certain dynamics come into play and that becomes an...

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is taking fire from both sides of the aisle, as liberals and conservatives are now pushing for him to resign. In a tense exchange before the Joint Economic Committee this morning, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) asked Geithner to resign over his handling of the economy, AIG bonuses and stimulus spending. “Conservatives agree that as point person you’ve failed," Brady said. "Liberals are growing in that consensus as well … will you step down from your post?” One of the "liberals" Brady was referring to is Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who said on MSNBC Wednesday there is...

"We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah," bin Laden said in the transcript.

Peter Schiff is a Republican genius when it comes to the economy. He singlehandedly destroys Obama'a plan to save the economy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46ItttTID3k&feature=subtivity

President Obama was in the Sunshine State today to announce a $3.4 billion federal investment in a so-called Smart Grid, which amounts to a complete overhaul of the country's energy transmission system. (VIDEO AT LINK) The president chose the town of Arcadia, Fla., to make the announcement because it is home to the country's largest solar power production facility, which was one of the 100 projects awarded federal stimulus money through the Smart Grid grants. Standing before a giant field, lined with close to 100,000 solar panels, President Obama addressed a small crowd of invited guests. "We're on the cusp...

THE ONLY REAL SURPRISE in the latest disastrous batch of data on housing is that anybody is surprised. With the $8,000 tax credit originally set to expire, housing starts plunged nearly 11% in October, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 529.000 units. That put new home construction back to the dismal levels of last spring before a temporary blip lifted housing activity during the warm-weather months. Even though the home-buying subsidy was extended through next March and expanded beyond first-time buyers, there's little evidence that these giveaways are working. Applications for mortgages for home purchases, for instance, fell to...

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker wrote the House Financial Services Committee earliy this month that they opposed a provision, backed by Rep. Ron Paul (R., Texas) that would expand the congressional Government Accountability Office’s audits of the Fed. The committee, ignoring the pleas from the two, endorsed the provision Thursday. Greenspan and Volcker, in a letter sent to the committee’s chairman and ranking Republicans, warned that the provision threatened the ability of the Fed to foster price stability independent of political interference.

Société Générale has advised clients to be ready for a possible "global economic collapse" over the next two years, mapping a strategy of defensive investments to avoid wealth destruction. In a report entitled "Worst-case debt scenario", the bank's asset team said state rescue packages over the last year have merely transferred private liabilities onto sagging sovereign shoulders, creating a fresh set of problems. Overall debt is still far too high in almost all rich economies as a share of GDP (350pc in the US), whether public or private. It must be reduced by the hard slog of "deleveraging", for years....

Nikkei Set To Fall After Wall St Losses, Tech Tumble Thu Nov 19, 2009 6:27pm EST TOKYO, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average is set to fall on Friday, with tech stocks such as Advantest Corp (6857.T) vulnerable after disappointing U.S. data fed concern about the economic recovery and tech shares fell on a brokerage downgrade. Investors will also watch Sony Corp (6758.T), which on Thursday pushed back an elusive target of an operating profit margin of 5 percent to March 2013 as it heads for its second straight loss and loses ground to overseas competitors. [ID:nT265644] "It's possible...

"A Truly Extraordinary Slump": Reports Of Robust Recovery Premature, James Galbraith Says Posted Nov 19, 2009 01:51pm EST by Aaron Task in Newsmakers, Recession Disappointing reports this week on housing starts and foreclosures, as well as the index of leading economic indicators, have cast a bit of a pall on the "robust recovery" story, putting a crimp in the stock market's ascent in the process. University of Texas professor James Galbraith was never a believer in the V-shaped recovery and says it's going to take a very long time for the U.S. to recover from a "truly extraordinary slump." What...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will have scant time to rest up from his eight-day Asia trip. On Saturday, two days after his return to Washington, the Senate plans a make-or-break vote on his hard-fought plan to overhaul the nation's health care system. Obama also confronts a difficult choice on strategy and troop levels in Afghanistan, which will be criticized no matter what he decides. His bid to re-regulate the financial industry faces stiff opposition in Congress. The decision to try high-profile terror suspects in federal courts has drawn withering Republican attacks. And he faces a problematic push by House...

Depressing indeed. Depressing. From yesterday’s Happy Hour, Cody Willard asks economist Peter Morici to gaze into the crystal ball and predict unemployment a year from now and how long before recovery. Depressing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgIdjvn_lmU

The Mortgage Bankers Association released a grim report today revealing that nearly one in seven households with mortgages is behind on payments or already in foreclosure. Last year, only one in 10 were behind. Two years ago, the number was just 7.3%. We’re now in what is clearly the second leg downward of the mortgage mess. While the early days of the mortgage crisis were driven largely by people saddled with complex mortgages they couldn’t afford to pay, now even homeowners with relatively sane mortgages are running into trouble as unemployment soars into the double digits. In a rising housing...

Wall Street tax must be international: Pelosi Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:44pm EST By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Any tax imposed on financial transactions would have to take effect internationally to prevent Wall Street jobs and related business moving overseas, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday. "It would have to be an international rule, not just a U.S. rule," Pelosi said at a news conference. "We couldn't do it alone, we'd have to do it as an international initiative." The top Democrat's comments seemed to spell longer odds for the Wall Street tax, which some Democrats in...

TAMPA - Business owners in Florida are about to get hit with a big tax hike: starting January 1st, all Florida businesses will have to pay skyrocketing unemployment compensation taxes to replenish the unemployment compensation trust fund.

The coroner’s report left no doubt as to the cause of death: toxic loans. That was the conclusion of a financial autopsy that federal officials performed on Haven Trust Bank, a small bank in Duluth, Ga., that collapsed last December. In what sounds like an episode of “CSI: Wall Street,” dozens of government investigators — the coroners of the financial crisis — are conducting post-mortems on failed lenders across the nation. Their findings paint a striking portrait of management missteps and regulatory lapses. At bank after bank, the examiners are discovering that state and federal regulators knew lenders were engaging...

As experts debate the potential speed of the US recovery, one figure looms large but is often overlooked: nearly 1 in 5 Americans is either out of work or under-employed. According to the government's broadest measure of unemployment, some 17.5 percent are either without a job entirely or underemployed. The so-called U-6 number is at the highest rate since becoming an official labor statistic in 1994. The number dwarfs the statistic most people pay attention to-the U-3 rate-which most recently showed unemployment at 10.2 percent for March, the highest it has been since June 1983. The difference is that what...

Is $6,300 Fair Value For Gold? By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Economics Last updated: November 19th, 2009 The last parabolic spike in gold took off when central banks joined the fray in the 1970s, hoarding bullion with the same enthusiasm as gold bugs. Dylan Grice from Société Générale says it smells much the same today. He sees an eery similarity between the decision of India’s central bank to buy half the IMF’s entire sale of gold, and the move by France’s central bank to start converting dollars into gold in 1965 — which was, of course, the start of the slippery slope...

Even though some homes in Detroit literally sell for $1, we're still surprised to see how little an entire stadium fetches. In this case it's the famous Pontiac Silverdome Detroit News: Nearly 25 years after taxpayers spent $55.7 million building the Pontiac Silverdome and a year after a $20 million sale fell through, city officials have sold the arena once called the most desirable property in Oakland County. The price: $583,000. The broker, David J. Leitch, is quite upset about the final selling price. And hey, can you blame him? "The property alone, at $10,000 an acre, should have gone...

Comments by Rep. Tom McClintock: November 19, 2009 11:10 AM House Chamber Remarks, Washington D.C. M. Speaker: The unfolding scandal of phony or inflated job claims from the so-called stimulus bill should shock the conscience of the nation and permanently stain the reputation of the 111th Congress and this president. But it gets even worse if we take them at their word. As of this morning, the administration claims that in my 4th Congressional District of California, the brain trust at the Treasury Department has spent $182 million to save or create all of 168 jobs. That’s $1.1 million per...

An excerpt of the 1924 Republican Party Platform: The prosperity of the American nation rests on the vigor of private initiative which has bred a spirit of independence and self-reliance. The republican party stands now, as always, against all attempts to put the government into business. American industry should not be compelled to struggle against government competition. The right of the government to regulate, supervise and control public utilities and public interests, we believe, should be strengthened, but we are firmly opposed to the nationalization or government ownership of public utilities. In 1924 the GOP ran Calvin "Silent Cal" Coolidge...

Birds are singing, the sun is shining and life is beautiful again. On the surface, the vital signs of our economy are improving with every economic report. In some areas, like unemployment, the rate of decline is decelerating; in others, like GDP, decline is turning into growth. The stock market is behaving as if the history of the last twenty years is about to repeat itself: recession will turn into a robust expansion. Stock prices are discounting an expectation of robust earnings recovery to a level only slightly below the pre-financial crisis level, and risk taking is in vogue again...

20% Off Select Own-Brand Merchandise for Unemployed Customers Kmart own-brands give you huge savings versus your favorite national brands every day...and now you'll get to increase those savings by an additional 20% off over 1,500 regular-priced grocery and drugstore items for up to six months! Get 20% Off With Your Reusable smart assist Savings Card Eligibility:Kmart customers who present state-issued identification (driver’s license or identification card) and a state-issued unemployment benefits enrollment confirmation are eligible to participate in the program (“Eligible Participants”). At checkout, cardholders will be required to show their valid discount card, their state-issued identification card for signature...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Mortgage borrowers are still falling behind on their payments in record numbers, despite the many foreclosure prevention efforts initiated by the government and nonprofts. In the third quarter, 9.64% of all mortgage loans were delinquent, according to a report released Thursday by Mortgage Bankers Association. That represents 4.5 million borrowers and is an increase from 9.24% in the prior three months. "Despite the recession ending in mid-summer, the decline in mortgage performance continues," said Jay Brinkmann, MBA's chief economist. "Job losses continue to increase and drive up delinquencies and foreclosures because mortgages are paid with paychecks,...

Nicole GelinasArguing the Economy A recent debate highlights the weaknesses of Obamanomics. 18 November 2009 “Obama’s economic policies are working effectively.” That was the motion that Intelligence Squared US put to its New York audience Monday night for a vote. One three-man team defended the president’s policies; another denounced them. Though the “anti” team ultimately lost the vote, it made the more compelling argument: the president’s economic-recovery policies are costly efforts to maintain a failed status quo, and the administration’s blueprint for financial-regulatory reform will only fund the same failed policies until that status quo collapses again. The pro-Obama...

From December 2008 to March 2009 the number of job losses from closing and contracting establishments remained essentially unchanged at 8.5 million. The number of job gains from opening and expanding private sector establishments fell from 6.7 million to 5.7 million, the lowest level since the series began in 1992, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Gross job losses exceeded gross job gains in all but two industry sectors: utilities and education and health services.

The plastics industry trade show on Tuesday said it is moving to Orlando, Fla., for 2012 and 2015 after nearly four decades in Chicago. The announcement follows a decision by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society last week to move its 2012 annual meeting to Las Vegas. Both shows cited the high cost of doing business in Chicago. The plastic show's decision to leave is "a very serious loss," Mayor Richard Daley said, calling on unions and others working at the convention center to change fee structures and onerous work rules so Chicago can better compete for major shows....

Officials tell ABC News so far, they found 700 mistaken Congressional districts out of more than 130,000 stimulus grants. On Monday night, ABC reported on errors found on the website set up by the White House to track the number of jobs created or saved by the economic stimulus program. The website was riddled with reports of jobs in places that didn't even exist. That report prompted anger on Capitol Hill, and defensiveness at the White House. On Tuesday night's broadcast, ABC's Chief Congressional Correspondent Jon Karl took another look at the stimulus confusion (link) LINK White House Vows to...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- So just how many jobs has the $787 billion stimulus package created or saved? A new government report raises a new round of questions on the Obama administration's figure of 640,000 jobs, saying there are many concerns surrounding the data recipients reported.

There are, in public policies, these inconvenient things called the “secondary effects.” These are the unintended consequences of even the best intended laws. Critics of Obama’s national health care program have questioned its intentions from day one. Few doubt the program will lead to a serious rationing of health care (adding 40 million on the system and allegedly lowering spending will have that impact) and will lead to increase taxes for millions of Americans. According to public opinion surveys, the number one issue of most voters is unemployment. This sentiment is backed up by the hard fact that unemployment recently...

The Great Credit Crunch Is Deepening Minyanville Staff Nov 19, 2009 9:20 am Consumers will feel the effects in the form of tighter credit standards. Editor's Note: This article was written by Richard Suttmeier, chief market strategist at ValuEngine.com, which is a fundamentally-based quant research firm in Princeton, New Jersey, that covers more than 5,000 stocks every day. Within the proposed banking reform bill, the House Financial Services Committee wants banks and funds to make payments in advance for companies deemed “too-big-to-fail”. This fund will be capped at $200 billion, insuring that taxpayers won't wind up paying for a bailout...

"The Illusion of Prosperity": U.S. Destined to Lag Rest of the World, Peter Boockvar Says Posted Nov 19, 2009 09:00am EST by Aaron Task in Investing "It's dangerous to be short this market," says Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak. Despite a penchant for bearishness, Boockvar says the rally can continue as long as the Fed keeps rates at zero. "When you cut rates to nothing you're encouraging people to take risk," Boockvar says. "As long as asset inflation is [the Fed's] goal, the market could go higher but there are obvious consequences," including inflation. The Fed is trying...