About the least surprising thing in the world was Fed getting all dovish on rates yesterday.
No doubt, this was driven by the food price increases that are in the pipeline. See Related comment in this morning’s Coping section under “American Vegetables.”
So after putting on a decent 98 point rally in the Dow, and kicking the S&P up 15-points, the market really ought to take a breather and see if anyone with common sense is left. But I doubt it.
Japan was up 1.6% overnight, alight Hong Kong was flat. Europe is following through, though with the French market up 0.85% when I looked, so what happens today with the S&P in record country again, should prove interesting. A couple of hints might come from leading indicators and natural gas inventories later on in the day.
For now, we’re on snooze control. Long stocks, holding golden and silver’s almost back to $20. Interestingly, Bitcoin is sitting at $606…and that one could pop either way.
Refinery Battle
The BBC coverage of that refinery battle in Iraq is worth checking out over here. It’s likely to be the first real test of how the ISIS forces are doing in real pitched combat. It’s one thing to shoot training films, but another to actually get eye to eye in numbers in something other than easy pickins.
Still, it’s all part of the rollout of the New [global] Caliphate, as we mapped for Peoplenomics.com subscribers Wednesday. When you put conflicts on a map and update it every few days, you can see where the New Caliphates borders are being carved out.
Expansion will then follow.
The British are worries about an attack on their homeland. But seems the AQ types are trying to keep the fight localized to the M.E. as they empire-build.
Meantime, president Obama is almost certain to act without Congressional approval. I’m not sure how the history books would write this:
The Bush war in Iraq was fought without a formal declaration of war, ended without a declaration of peace, restarted without a declaration of war and then….
A Washington Coverup?
Well, of course we’re not surprised to hear that the IRS hard drive with controversial emails having to do with purported orders from higher-ups to home in on conservative groups experienced a crash.
The problem is, now that those emails are likely gone, forever, will the recipients of the emails ever find their copies?
Well, none of this seems likely to end in a conclusive manner to the satisfaction of the other side, so it will fall into “the conspiracy gap.” That’s the holding file for stories like UFOs, antigravity, Tesla’s lab, and now: IRS emails. Voting machines are in there, too.
Coverup to Come
If people on Capitol Hill hadn’t really earned my label “Fools on the Hill” someone might be paying serious attention to the NY Post’s John Crudele who this week is outlining what has the peculiar odor of stink that we frequently notice when gub’mint statistics come out.
It’s getting to be where Mark Twain’s fine observation about spastistcs (sic) can honestly be misquoted as “Lies, damn lies, and government.” But I stand, hand over heart, as I say that, of course. It’s the kind of thing we used to do, back in the day before we became a state of Mexico.
More after this…
(Looks kind of interesting, doesn’t it?)
Quake Notes
6.4 in Vanuatu this morning. More important, is a quake trend back in the ascending mode now.
5.7 just now off Chile, but still not the “grim rim” yet.
Immigrates: Who Says What Dept.
Corpnews mogul Rupert Murdoch says immigration reform can’t wait.
Interesting, but I’m not aware of him owning property in Texas or Arizona, however.
Rupe Murdoch as you may know was born an Aussie who was subsequently naturalized to US citizenship in 1985, so we note that he had skin in the game at one point.
In fact, studying his position, I’m moved to changing my opinion on immigration, thanks to learning this: I think we should throw open the doors of the USA to anyone with a net worth of half a billion, or more, or owns at least three major newspapers.
Now, isn’t THAT truly the New ‘Merican way?
Meantime Mexico is trying to explain dozens of bodies in a mass grave. Zetas and rivals. And we still can’t legalize weed and close the borders? GMAFB.
We don’t need “Common Core” in ‘Merica, so much as we need Common Sense.
Dubai Flies
Now busier than Heathrow as the world’s busiest global hub airport.
Peak Oil – Reader’s Writes
From DJ:
Hi George,
Forgetting even the Middle East woes for a second, would you ask Oilman2 what the localized problems with Disposal of FRACKING WASTEWATER could be? The Southeast US is screwed: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/05/184829/fracking-waste-could-go-to-nc.html .
This article states that even garbage dumps don’t want it. So, we’re possibly gonna be Fracked Up & Fuku’d up: there are many N P P’s in the SouthEast – several of which are already constantly on the N R C’s Watch List, & there’s an earthquake fault line off the coast. Quakes can have bad consequences here. How much more pollution can the planet & it’s inhabitants take??!! I just don’t understand why people-in-charge can’t grasp the perils of fracking, and also of operating aging N P P’s. If wellwater near fracking can be set on fire & coastal areas have shallow water tables, [sarcastically] what harm could a little flaming coastal groundwater & glow-in-the-dark ocean water do? I believe Elon Musk [Tesla, Space-X, PayPal] is turning his focus to WORKABLE solar strategies next – maybe he [brilliant entrepreneur & pioneer] can do something, assuming we don’t all go up in smoke the next few months.
Still here at cheery East Coast, USA – although I sometimes wonder why, DJ PS – Don’t read EneNews without a defibrillator, smelling salts, a bushel of Tums, & your EMS son standing by.
I’m sure Oilman2 will cobble up the requested answer as soon as he gets the drilling mud off from his latest dry hole down in Loosely-Anna. A lot of folks don’t appreciate how expensive oil is when holes don’t come in.
BTW, I have a seismic crew due here at the ranch shortly (next few weeks to a month) doing a 3D survey under us. Am I happy? No. But here we’re in drill, not frack country. Instead, we’re likely to get 120-days of damn intolerable noise from down and sideways drilling…I’m still not sure how those horizontal holes happen…