The insanity continues. A few days ago... Dave over at the Golden Truth had mentioned that some very big, national retailers were shutting down and closing stores. Today I found this article on Yahoo.  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/eight-retailers-that-will-close-the-most-stores-173320796.html?page=1 So just how many more people will become unemployed as a result of this? It's hard to tell for sure but... This is how the new math works. These eight chains will report higher earnings as a result of leaning out their structures. Quarterly results  are bound to improve. Another 200,000 workers will be unemployed, paying substantially lower taxes, and receiving unemployment. This of course is all bullish for the stock market. Decades ago, it was pretty much understood that employment had always been a lagging economic indicator. Markets predicted future economic health and as businesses expanded their operations, employment picked up and eventually peaked at the top of the bu

Remember the days when the markets reacted appropriately to news? It's been about 6 years since Ben Bernanke decided to ignite the mother of all bull markets to avoid a deflationary death spiral brought about by crooked bankers making shitty loans. Ben has added trillions upon trillions of unbacked dollars. Are we in a recovery? Is a recovery imminent? Of course not. I will prove that in a minute. Today's job report came out and it was actually bad. The media of course made it sound like Happy Days as usual. Unfortunately to prove otherwise, you have to be willing to go dig for the real numbers which is always a pain in the ass.  http://www.bls.gov/ The easiest way to gauge the health of employment is actually quite simple. Use tax revenue. In fact that is so simple- you can't massage it. Which is why the government and economists refuse to use it. Think social security withholding. That's a pretty accurate gauge. Then we have POMO. Today is a POMO day.

Gun Control In Boise, the Ada County Sheriff has been employed by the county for nearly 30 years. He didn't get that job nor does he keep that job by making disobedient statements or by rendering personal opinions. People expect community leaders to make rational statements. So Gary Raney's statement about gun control is really pretty predictable. Raney knows that gun control efforts are all bluster and that eventually the issue will pass. Either way, it won't matter much to him. When the smoke clears, Raney will look just like the smart, level headed Sheriff who Ada County voters elected. His statement about gun control is really about how smart, rational, and re-electable he is. Boilerplate statement follows: Link.... http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/01/25/2425376/i-uphold-all-of-the-constitution.html Arizona S.B. 1112 In Arizona, law makers have had enough of the Federal Government eroding the Constitution and usurping the authority of states to govern them

Be warned, you may need some Kleenex before you get through this. All month long I've been getting my ass kicked. Gold and silver were down at the end of January as the bankers (JPM, HSBC) feverishly shorted futures in an attempt to drive metal prices down before Feb. delivery which ended yesterday. So I did what I often do. I bought more silver. Cheaper. When the DJIA struck 13,400 I toyed with the idea of shorting that index. Instead, I shorted the Russell 2000 around 875 and I promptly took a 10% haircut this month as the index made new highs. I am planning on shorting some more. You must always keep some powder dry. If that weren't bad enough- things haven't been that rosy here in Boise either. People are calling this the worst winter in 20 years. This morning I woke up and there is another two or three inches of snow on the ground. This is something I am used to. What I am not used to is a bunch of burhka wearers and crackheads on cellphones trying to drive aro

I'm sticking my neck out here. I think this story is credible. Apparently some super secret Iranian nuke plant got blown up a week ago- and I have yet to see one story about it from the "American media."  http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/wnd-report-blows-iran-nuke-program-wide-open/ In the American news world, we get a steady diet of absolute bullshit, like whether or not Notre Dame football player Manti Te'o had a real girlfriend or not. There are pages and pages of that garbage on google.  http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/notre-dame-manti-teo-girlfriend-lennay-kekua-death-apparently-hoax-011613 It's a closed loop. The rich and elite own the media and they feed us crap like this to peruse. There is no way that our "leaders" don't know about this. No way. We get a football player with a make believe girlfriend. We get a steady diet of that. God help us. Here's the story in a London tabloid.  http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/worl

Forgive me for playing around with the blog this week. I'm one of those guys that gets bored with things looking the same way, day after day. Every once in awhile, you just have to move the furniture around.  So I am going to play around with the layout of this blog until I find something new and exciting- something that will draw readers here- because my writing sure as hell ain't getting it done. Anything a normal human being can do in an hour or two- takes me about three days.   *Meh. I am already getting tired of trying on the sweeping changes that I envisioned. I am "color challenged." Think I am just going to stick with the blue theme and blocky letters for awhile. 

This week I traded insults with some of the liberals over at Huffpo. Sooner rather than later, I get tired of all that nonsense and I just delete their comments. You just have to ignore them like the crackheads across the street from me. Well, when they are not shooting guns at 1 a.m.  Something new dawned on me during the flame war this week. It was a common thread, something I noticed in their nasty, little Huffpo comments. Liberals are obedient.  An entire obedient class of people who think that everyone should live the way they do. Everyone should believe what they believe. To think otherwise leaves you isolated and alone. They actually think that you are a dumb shit if you don't agree with them.  They use the same arguments, say the same things. If they had a unique thought- I'd clutch my chest and die of heart failure. Their thought patterns are completely predictable.  They are slaves to a thought process that must always focus on the smallest picture.