Some of a global decline is baked in the opening of markets this morning.
U.S. futures are down about 70 93 on the Dow when I looked, but around the world it looks like the average decline is in the vicinity of 1.25%.
You can work the numbers yourself, but Japan was down 1.1% and in Europe France and Germany (did we ever give them any of their gold back?) are down over a percent each and the Brits are getting there fast.
Nimble fingered pundits are tripping over one-another to find an excuse for why this is happening, but the simplest reason is always the best: More sellers than buyers.
“Stocks on edge ahead of earnings; Dell gets it done; Ferrari races to IPO” says a Yahoo Finance piece.
Got news for you: Stocks are always edgy ahead of earnings, but what’s not mentioned is that this is options week – and by the time expiration gets here (Thursday for indices and Friday for the underlying (emphasis on what syllable?)) the market should be inflicting more pain than a dominatrix on bad drugs.
Might even hurt your target body parts in the same way, since we’re in the period when according to our work, things could go very badly for the next month. Not to be a pessimist, though: I live to make money on declines and we need a big one right about here for me to break-even.
Still, you can’t keep a good country down. Despite all the doomsayers around, the outlook for 2016 is still strong because democrazy has a chance to throw the bums out. You’ll have several to pick from in the demoncratic “debate” tonight. I’ll be rooting for Bernie because he’s closer to Diogenes than anyone else on the platform.
So who was this Diogenes of Sinope?
“He believed that virtue was better revealed in action than in theory. He used his simple lifestyle and behavior (which arguably resembled poverty) to criticize the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt or at least confused society. In a highly non-traditional fashion, he had a reputation of sleeping and eating wherever he chose and took to toughening himself against nature. He declared himself a cosmopolitan and a citizen of the world rather than claiming allegiance to just one place. There are many tales about him dogging Antisthenes‘ footsteps and becoming his “faithful hound”.[3] Diogenes made a virtue of poverty. He begged for a living and often slept in a large ceramic jar[4] in the marketplace. He became notorious for his philosophical stunts such as carrying a lamp in the daytime, claiming to be looking for an honest man…”?
Not to grind the point into your forehead, but Diogenes would be wasting his time in Washington and most of America has come to the same conclusion. That’s why outsiders (Sanders, Trump, Carson) are the hot tickets right now. Insiders are to be turned out, unless the power of the purse (like the big one Hillary swings) can really buy elections.
Here all this time we thought buying votes was illegal, but no one except me seems able to mention this fine point:. How much campaign spending on massive advertising does it take to cross the line to become “vote buying?”
I think we cross that threshold every year…it’s just no one in mainstream media runs with it because the MSM is as crooked as K-Street when comes down to it. The money Hillary and Trump will going to pour into media is going to land directly on the income statement of the very media that is supposed to be defending the American way.
When we were up in Iowa a couple of weeks back, unidentified Citizens for something or other ads that were virtually untraceable were smashing Trump on eminent domain.
With a couple of billion dollars in presidential money and congressoid cash, who’s gonna stand up and scream “bullshit!” at the top of their lungs? In ‘Merica, Big Money is a Big Deal especially if you’re getting a cut.
Hint: It won’t be the MSM explaining the rip – they will be too busy in the back room counting their take.
News? What news?
Producer prices tomorrow and Consumer Prices on Thursday are the big ones to watch.
Markets always go looking for a patsy before major moves and rising consumer prices or a drop in tomorrow’s retail sales numbers would do just fine.
File under “victimology.”
The Missile Report
As expected, the Dutchies have come out with a report that the missile which took down MH-17 was fired from Eastern Ukraine.
All of which would roast the Russians except they have countered with reports that the missile used was an old-older-oldest style one that could have been left over for years.
So we really don’t know anything more than we did yesterday, except that the charges are going back and forth.
What I’d offer, though, is that ICAO ought to be mentioned more prominently. That’s the International Civil Airline Organization:
I want to know (as a former international airline VP myself, remember): WTF was ICAO doing – and what have they done since – to mop up international flight routing in the wake of MH17?
MH17 had no business being over a war zone where there were missiles deployed and on “hot to fire” status. Old missile or not, the airline transport organizations roached its public responsibility to be more “doctor-like” E.G. first do no harm.
Who were the controllers and who routed the flight?
The Dutchies don’t seem to get into this aspect of it based on initial reports.
Their failure to blame flight routing is a lot like an arson team coming out with a report that explains in grand detail that a house burned down because of a source of ignition. The problem in the house fire analogy is not that there was a source of ignition, but who was going around splashing the flammable liquids before the fire…and that – as I see it – comes back to flight planning and routing.
The FAA as last month delayed implementation of ICAO flight planning forms for another year.
Yet even this morning the International Flight plans have not implemented a check-off for flight over known combat areas.
As a pilot, I am expected to know where SIGMETS and AIRMETS are – winds aloft and transponder codes and all the rest of it. Even HAVE to do an eAPIS filing to take people out of the country, even just Elaine and me to the Bahamas in our plane.
But even TODAY…is there a check-off for the risk assessment of flight over conflict areas and a pilot’s discussion of THAT threat analysis?
Hell, no, there’s not.
Look: This is a fine example of a key point. Until we start solving the world’s problems at the “next level up” bad ju-ju will keep happening and thousands more will die unnecessarily.
I hope no one we know is on that next flight that goes down. Who allowed this plane into the hot zone? And why do Flight Plans today STILL not require routing discussion over known dangerous territories?
We have checklists for safety gear over water, for crying out loud. Over missiles????
FMTT…the world is awash in idiocy. Go read “Blind Trust: How deregulation as jeopardized airline safety and what you can do about it.”
Is This How WW III Starts?
So you know about Syria Monday? While the Russians are enjoying a success rally in front of their Embassy in Syria, out back here comes an attack by bombers…which the media carefully labels insurgents.
For now, the Russians are keeping their cool about it, calling the attack an act of terrorism.
But what will the Russians do if/when they find the fingerprints of American involvement in an attack on Russian soil – which embassies are?
Well I’ll be Trucked
Meantime, the spin machine has ramped up against Toyota over all those newish Toyota trucks that are showing up in the propaganda from in-theater.
The answer, says this report circa 2014 is simple: The US State Department decided to send in Toyota trucks…according to this 2014 report from Public Radio International…check out this quote:
“Recently, when the US State Department resumed sending non-lethal aid to Syrian rebels, the delivery list included 43 Toyota trucks.
Hiluxes were on the Free Syrian Army’s wish list. Oubai Shahbander, a Washington-based advisor to the Syrian National Coalition, is a fan of the truck.
“Specific equipment like the Toyota Hiluxes are what we refer to as force enablers for the moderate opposition forces on the ground,” he adds. Shahbander says the US-supplied pickups will be delivering troops and supplies into battle. Some of the fleet will even become battlefield weapons.
“You can absolutely expect for many of those trucks to be mounted with crew-served machine guns or other type of equipment, military equipment, that the opposition forces have access to. I mean, that’s one of the reasons why the Toyota Hilux is such an important force multiplier, because it could be used both for humanitarian purposes and for operational purposes as well.”
Yessir, here we go again….and who was the SecState when this kind of crap was being arranged?
Well, since this report was dated April of 2014 and John Kerry took over in 2013….draw your own conclusions.
Mr. Ure, I have to once again tip my hat off to you. I cannot highlight the good portions of your positing, since almost all of it today is excellent. Sadly, MSM which is party to all the crimes, would never ever let it get out into the open. God bless you.
I have to add that I am from India, been your follower for over a decade and fully agree with your contention about jobs being hijacked to India, funny part is that India has the largest clerical pool and all the work done is clerical in nature, Tech be damned.
wrt to the presidential campaign; The bad news is when the most honest candidate in both parties is a socialist.
The Middle East becomes uglier every day . . . People are being warned and most seem to be ignoring the evidence.
Turkey Turkish bombing Syrian forces Ankara conflict Attack force Army rights
Syria Syrian minister Ankara attacks Attack war Army suicide Tehran important
Israel Syrian bombing Ankara forces Attack conflict Army force Tehran rights
Iran Ankara minister Attack attacks Army war Tehran suicide President important
ISIS Ankara bombing Attack forces Army conflict Tehran force President rights
Israel Attack minister Army attacks Tehran war President suicide Military important
Jerusalem Attack bombing Army forces Tehran conflict President force Military rights
Province Army minister Tehran attacks President war Military suicide Russian important
Damascus Army bombing Tehran forces President conflict Military force Russian rights
Russia Tehran minister President attacks Military war Russian suicide During important
Oh grady… I think you are so right on the money here….what I would like to see is a graph showing the flow of money.. who will benefit and what companies will.. who won’t from this taking place.I think we already know that the one percent usually have an out for family to be exempt in actively joining in any of the more tragic situations so it will be the poor and middle class.What I think they are missing is one small factor. This time there won’t be an exemption.. it would in my way of thinking affect every single one of us world wide.. flash goggles and bio suits and masks ready….
The Dutch will say whatever they are told to say about MH17 or else the USA will simply kill those involved in telling the truth or at least have already threatened their families. It’s the same reasoning for not following up on who directed the aircraft into the war zone. The contents of the black box have never been made public to my knowledge. And if they were, it was months later, which gives plenty of time to cook the contents. Just another war crime covered up by the USA government.
Only Americans believe Russia had anything to do with this failed American black op.
AFAIK the black box contents have not been released. Adding to the US/EU lack of credibility is the fact that no US sat intel, whether images or comm intercepts, has ever been released…as Putin requested. The only other outlier concerning this is that, if I recall correctly is that Netherlands have had the gold returned…but not Germany…Hmmmm.
“Not to grind the point into your forehead, but Diogenes would be wasting his time in Washington and most of America has come to the same conclusion. ”
I am not saying this is so.. but “A corollary of Finagle’s Law, similar to Occam’s Razor, that reads “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”( he forgot to add greed)Murphy’s Original Law
If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it.”
But then I think they were really optimists at heart..
I guess they’re too busy watching us to notice what other depts. are doing. After all the inter-connectedness of gov. Via patriot act and freedom of info act, they literally embarrassed themselves. http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2015/october/09/the-mystery-of-isis-toyota-army-solved/
In defense of Toyota, seeing a Toyota Hilux on the road anywhere in the middle east is hardly a new occurrence. I’ve been in and out of several places over there for the last decade or more and Toyotas are probably the most common vehicle on the road. I’d feel differently if suddenly ISIS was tearing up the roads in something like an F-150.
You can’t swing a dead cat over there without hitting a Hilux, so I think this an opportunity being taken by a rival manufacturer to play off the ignorance of the masses at the expense of Toyota.
http://thebulletin.org/doomsday-dashboard
I’m not sure how lifetime politician Bernie Sanders qualifies as an ‘outsider’. I think he’s got the right and wrong of things, but his solutions are just more government.