“We were joking Friday about people preparing as though it were going to be Armageddon — referring to the hordes of shoppers who emptied stores of milk, bread, shovels, driveway salt and other supplies.”    - Tihana Blanc , Washington D.C.

A winter storm. Sure, a severe winter storm, but something relatively normal and certainly predictable. It wasn’t even a record breaker. And people emptied the stores like they were ‘preparing for Armageddon.’

I haven’t written in a while because the mood of the country has been strangely euphoric despite the depression… I mean recession. The stock market went up, and the jobless were swept under the rug. No one - certainly not the media - paid any attention to the truly Armageddon-like buildup of new generation missiles, submarines and unmanned military drones around Israel.

But the military pacts between Iran, Syria, Hizballah and Hamas have been brought out into the open this week, with a message of destruction for Israel. You can see that for yourself if you search Google News for ‘Iranian Missile Airlift’.

The Middle East is poised to drop into war at the slightest provocation. (more…)

On Friday, many stock market pundits were whooping up the glory of a market that has made gains for six weeks running… even though the final count on Friday included a Dow Jones Industrials Average that was up less than 6 points after such erratic trading that one stock market daytrader commented that they felt ’seasick’.

Never mind that the Great Depression was heralded in by just such a run-up. Never mind that we are in the throws of dire economic circumstances where, if you carefully read the official Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, our unemployment is more like 20 percent, rather the 8 or 10 that is generally acknowledged by the media.

As a nation, we are sinking into what closely parallels clinical shock in a person’s body.

When a person has a serious trauma inflicted on their body, like an auto accident or a bullet wound, it is not uncommon for them to regain consciousness and not realize they have been severely compromised.

They are in the two-edged state of shock.
(more…)

Congratulations to the National Bank of Commerce of Berkeley, Illinois. They are the first bank to fail in 2009, shuttered by the FDIC on Friday, January 16.

Apparently we’ve had a real ‘bank holiday’ since the beginning of the year. The Federal Deposit Insurance Company took a vacation from shuttering banks for the first two Fridays of the month. You see, that is their day to close banks. Friday. So far they have put the final touches on 26 banks since the start of the current crisis.

That’s right. 26 banks have failed. That is not widely reported, is it? The headlines are full of the bank bailouts to the glamorous stars like Bank of America, which is currently in need of, and receiving, more billions just to keep their doors open. And pretty much everyone agrees it will take more bailout money in the future. It is like the gambler at the blackjack table, losing one bet and then doubling down to get their money back. Except they keep losing. That’s us, or rather that is our government acting for us.

(more…)

That is the current headline on MarketWatch.com, which I’ve been looking at during the last fifteen minutes or so of stock trading each day.

I must shamefully admit that it is somewhat of a guilty thrill, a schadenfreude. It’s sort of like watching a collision spectacle such as the ones that happen on California’s central valley freeways when the thick, impenetrable fog huddles in the low spots along the road. A single accident turns into a 100 car pile-up.

Frankly, it’s exciting. If you are early on the scene, you can sometimes see cars still coming on at 70 or 80 miles an hour through the fog at the last moment before they crash into the ones that (more…)