Here’s something that I’ve got to mention just because it’s an outlier statistically: The stock market’s drop on Monday was the “8th Monday in a row that the market moved down. First time in a decade.” per a note from Robin Handler at Options Signal Service.
Ures truly is expecting a decline to the Dow 10,800 kind of level, a quantitative easing indefinitely (QEI) and a small rally into elections. The real collapse action should hold off until 2013. Maybe.
Ports and Outlooks
Around this time of the month we survey the West Coast ports to see what’s up (really) with the flood of imported goods – which ultimately drives the balance of trade wreck:
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Long Beach inbound containers were up 3.47% year-on-year (YoY)
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Los Angeles by the same measure was up 6.0%
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Oakland inbound was up 3.0%
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Port of Seattle is up 3.0% YoY inbound and up 16.7% compared with last month so some overtime likely there…
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Port of Portland is up 3.27% (short tons, not TEU’s) YoY
While we’re waiting around to “pay the piper in 2013″ we can sketch out the impacts of (very roughly) 3% growth versus a money supply that’s up 16% at M1 and 9.3% at M2 YoY. Eventually that’s likely to show up as inflation, which still has me clinging to that lone gold coin of ours.
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And from the American Association of Railroads: “The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today (19th – G) reported gains in weekly rail traffic for the week ending July 14, 2012, with U.S. railroads originating 286,156 carloads, up 1.7 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week totaled 245,915 trailers and containers, up 6.8 percent compared with the same week last year.“
Again…modest growth, though railroads are doing some hiring.
Financial Implosion Notes
Gather round the paper shredder, kiddies:
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When Apple reports its profits today, don’t forget to add back in those large tax reserves – some of which the company may never have to pay.
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Slices and Dices file: Moody’s has cut ratings on Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
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Naples and Palermo are among 10-cities in Italy that face bankruptcy. A nice diversion from counting California cities on the brink.
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And in Argentina, things are so bad some city workers are being paid by raffle.
Does this really mean the world is facing a global financial meltdown? Of course. But not yet. This is just the glacier starting to squeak. It may be another year, or two, while it really builds up a head of steam.
IRS to Rescue the Republic?
We’ve been mighty disappointed by recent decisions from the US Supreme Corps lately, since they have upheld just about anything which benefits the corporations at the expense of We the you-know-whats. One of our greatest concerns is that Citizens United decision which says faceless money can [essentially] buy whatever the corps want.
But in a really curious twist of events, there’s a story now that IRS may look at the tax exempt status of such groups. Not that it would amount to much more than a holding action, but in a strange Hunter S. Thompson kind of way it restores my faith in complex systems.
Not that I’m holding my breath, but it is a refreshing idea…
AIDS Spending Spree
A follow up to one of the points of last weekend’s Peoplenomics report (“Deathidemic”): The federal government is putting another $150-million into AIDS research.
If you’re not a subscriber you may have missed that AIDS/HIV spending is more than 200-times more than research spent on suicide/intentional self-harm. Oh, and more people die that way…
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Suicide is the Deathidemic not getting the play it deserves in the MSM either. Yet roughly four times more people die of it annually. Sad case on a college campus last night. Suicides in the military made a recent cover of Time magazine, too.
Yet somehow, without lobbying groups, government promotion, and rock stars to lead efforts, suicide gets pushed into the background. Yet at the core of events like Aurora is the issue of hopelessness being faced by a whole generation.
Wonder what kind of student load burden the Aurora shooter as facing? That’d be a mighty damn interesting tidbit.
Homegrown Terrorism
I am amazed at the lack of MSM interest in homegrown terrorism in Anaheim this weekend. Amazing video here…but of course, nothing to see, move along Citizen…
Dam!
Three Gorges Dam is releasing 69,000 cubic meters of flood water – per second says China’s Xinhua news outfit. Not impressed? How about 18.2 million gallons per second which is how it pencils out?
Cyber Warring
Siemens is out with a fix for their Stuxnet vulnerable PLCs.
So how is Flame proofing going?
You Know You’re in Trouble When, Dept.
Russian media giant Pravda is running op-ed on how the “Corruption of America is Complete...” and goes on to cite birth certificate issues on the Obama side and buried tax details on the Romney side.
Sample quote: “And yet this coward, Mitt Romney, refuses to attack this fraud of a President on the birth certificate issue.”
It’s clear to me that a Washington-Moscow split has emerged when Pravda runs this kind of op-ed. The other hint was Syria.
More after this…
