Do Sports Signal Market Reversals?

A number of respected market observers say that the true, "internal" top of the Big Bull Market that started in 1981 occurred in 1998.  1998 also marked the end of the Chicago Bulls' hoops dynasty, one of the greatest ever witnessed in all of sports.  Their reversal down in 1999 was truly dramatic.  The market fibrillated until 2000 when the bubble popped, and its reversal was dramatic as well.

Now here we are in 2013.  My hometown San Francisco Giants have won two World Series' in the last three years.  This year, however, they are about as snakebit or bad a baseball team as you'll ever see and it's quite possible they'll finish the year with the worst MLB record.  Quite a dramatic reversal. Since the busted stock bubble that bottomed in 2002/3, the Federal Reserve has been on quite a campaign to pump up debt levels to levitate the market.  Especially since March 2009.  There are plenty of signs that this effort is losing effectiveness and is increasingly precarious. \

In the vein of past is prolog and history rhymes, make a mental note that the Giants' relatively short fling at the top of baseball has a certain poetic rhyme factor with the Federal Reserve's post-bubble bubble attempt at a bull market encore, that will appear to be a relatively brief historical footnote once it has turned.   The key reversal of the Giants' fortunes is in.   Will the market do the same?

Savers Bail out the US Government, Get No Thanks

This article in ZeroHedge :  http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-17/savers-and-real-108-trillion-cost-zirp should confirm the heat under your collar if you (attempt to) save in this central-bank-planned economy.

It's no secret Uncle Sam spends WAY BEYOND our collective means (for our benefit, right?) year after year and has piled up a super-impressive growing national regret of debt that is fast approaching $20T Trillion dolores.  Ben Bernanke just said this week in testimony to Congress that if he slowed down printing money ("not literally") the "economy would tank".  Oh, "tank" is an arcane econometric term meaning in the crapper, for the rest of us.

Since Uncle Sammie can't possibly afford to pay ANY interest on the swelling national regret, his handler, Bro Ben and the Federal Reserve (hey, that's a catchy band name!), has held rates at about zero for years with a snazzy policy vehicle called the ZIRP (zero interest rate policy).  It doesn't take much power of observation to see that your savings or money market accounts are getting zip nada as long as you ride the ZIRP.  In total, it's calculated that over the years the ZIRP has taken over $10T Trillion dolores out of the pockets of savers.  A lot of that is money that USG would have had to pay us savers if there were freely functioning exchange and securities markets.

Now I don't recall that any politicians ever asked the millions of savers if they would mind floating an extra bunch of irresponsible overspending, or bailing out the TBTF Banksters with all the niceties including record bonuses etc.  I don't recall that anything has been offered as a make-good down the road, you know, like some kind of savings bond where we get ZIRP for the first five years and then SIRP (some interest rate policy) for the next five to recognize our sacrifice to the coffers of the Reckless and Endangering.

There should be a Tomb to the Unknown Saver after all the ashes of Great(er) Depression II have blown away.  Somehow I doubt that will happen, but don't lose heart; there will be plenty of statues and BUSTS of the Central Banking Hero of All Time, Bro Ben.   I hear they are a great investment already.

Training America's Secret Police

If true as reported, a recent article by McClatchy on the Obama administration's "Insider Threat Program" is a deeply troubling harbinger of dark doings in the Land of the Free, Finks.

On the surface, it is bad enough that the administration directs Federal employees to snitch on each other based on unscientific observation of almost random behaviors.  Where did you go on your vacation?   Did you just make a new friend?

If this garbage policy takes hold and the feddies develop strong finking habits, first on each other, all of our futures can be compromised.   About 1 in 12 of all jobs in the USA is Federal.  That makes it possible for a zombie 4F - Future Federal Fink Force - to capriciously and maliciously monitor every citizen.

Yes there is an Internal Threat in the USA, and it starts at the top.