Great video Rando Keep them coming; The1And Only, I'm glad you took the video to heart. Hopefully others will follow. People need to be aware of things, or at least have a desire to think beyond stuff like - 'what should I have for dinner tonight?, or what will I do this weekend'?. After all, we the people are the only ones that can bring change; true change (no phony sell pitch offered by our dear politicians).

In the video Rando posted, notice how what Gerald said - He said that most of the protesters are young people. This is partly due to the sky high unemployment here in the U.S and across most of the developed world. That's part of the reason I think this ironclad 'society' (or call them what you want) will deter a sooner rather than later. Essentially because this new generation is hungry for equality and they will settle for nothing else. Hopefully this will trickle down to today's media consumed U.S youngsters. The best part of the video is the part were Celente called our politicians, financial leaders an media moguls (anchors, etc) psychopaths. He does have a point

Setting that aside, here is Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's latter to Senator Bennet (of Colorado) warning that if the debt ceiling is not raised, a recession could ensue.

Goldman Sachs Reportedly Offered Qaddafi Big Chunk of Company After Investment Losses

Good article worth the read:

Christy Romer Wants an Adult Conversation on the Dollar

http://blogs.forbes.com/briandomitrovic/2011/05/31/christy-romer-wants-an-adult-conversation-on-the-dollar/

Another good read:

Why it won't get better

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/more_housing_hell_aczDMaSv0hSB9tN2xiRY9J

When will the Fed understand (or may be do (yeah, they definitely do) but could frankly care less) that the housing problem is not an affordability issue (i.e. rate issue) but an income/employment issue (i.e. wealth issue); a point that I've stressed ever since the debacle took center stage? Then again, there is a major extraction of wealth (not money; money in its simplest form is debt) currently going, so that would go against their goals (a topic that I will cover in more depth later on when the time is right).

Taken from ZH:

Take away the Birth/Death adjustment of 206,000 and the Real NFP is: -150,000. This is the biggest monthly B/D adjustment in over a year. And if as all the pundit claimed last month, demanding the McDonalds addition of 62,000 janitorial, part-time jobs be added to the May number, the economy really lost over 200,000 in May.

My comments: With 125K jobs expected to be created each month, we're back to losing jobs. The output gap will obviously grow as a result, which means we can expect lower growth in the latter part of the year. Ask yourself this, will the U.S economy be growing if you ex-out all of the war spending that is currently going on? The answer is a definitive no. Why is this important? Because it shows that the real economy is stagnant at best, and the only way the U.S is able to grow anemically is to aggrandize the industrial war complex. Guess how followed in the same footsteps once the emprie had peaked? Rome; Rome depended in a growing military base to finance (service) its economy, just years before it collapsed. Am I insinuating the collapse of the U.S? No, but again, be mindful that the U.S is in a steadfast decline economically, politically and socially.

Good read -Dissecting the stock market’s P/E

Commentary: No matter how you slice it, stocks not undervalued

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dissecting-the-stock-markets-pe-2011-06-03?link=MW_story_investinginsighta

Regarding the previous posts, I'll post similar material soon.

Another very good read.

Bob Rodriguez: The man who sees another crash

He's the mutual fund manager with the best record in the past quarter-century, and he correctly predicted the last two stock market crashes. So why aren't people listening when Bob Rodriguez says another calamity is looming?

FORTUNE -- You have to see it from Bob Rodriguez's perspective. Twice he has spotted an approaching storm. Twice he has warned the world. Twice he has been pooh-poohed and seen investors abandon the two mutual funds he managed. Twice he has taken steps to shield his clients from the coming crisis.

And twice -- first with Internet stocks in the 1990s, and then with the financial crisis of 2008 -- Rodriguez has been right.

As the latter cataclysm unfolded, the man once mocked for missing out on the hottest markets of his lifetime was anointed as a seer. The Wall Street Journal pronounced Rodriguez one of the "doomsayers who got it right." Barron's labeled him a "prophet." MarketWatch described him as one of the "four horsemen of the market."

Link: http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/06/06/bob-rodriguez-the-man-who-sees-disaster/?iid=HP_LN

My Thoughts: The guy certainly certainly has the track record to back up his claims and put his opponents to shame, but as always, YOU have got arrive to your own conclusions. You cannot, by any reason allow other people to the thinking for you. If you do, you simply will not make money in this uncharted market.Why do I say this? because Mr. Rodriguez could very well be wrong about the next catastrophe. Just because he was right before does not mean he'l be right again. I agree with general points, disagree with other smaller points, but at the end of the day I've drawn my own conclusions based on varying opinions. 

I am posting the following material (and have posted past material) because I want to, not because I was forced to or was told to do so (you know who I am directing this to; note: it is not anyone who has posted on this thread).

StockJock-e, Rando, IchibomB great contributions. Rando, I found the Forbes piece quite interesting. Specifically the analogy used between the car problem and the broken economy.  The only point I take issue with is with one of the question the author made. The Fed (members) shouldn't be asking itself (themselves) if it (they) realize that there is a bigger problem at bay; that is a question that American public has to ask themselves. Let's face it, the Fed knows well what it has done. This has been done for a purpose. You know well were I stand on that.

StockJocks-e, you know I barely listen to these cads. 80% of the stuff they say makes little sense (mainly because the people they have on or the reporters themselves know little about what they are talking about (barring a few exceptions ), or they flat out lie; which by the way is pretty obvious when they do). I've found the the floor traders at the CME to be much more adept people who have a very good understanding of the markets. At least they don't sugarcoat things.

Two good reads; I don't agree with all the points made, but good reads nonetheless.

Wall Street’s (pfff) biggest secret

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wall-streets-biggest-secret-2011-06-07?reflink=MW_news_stmp

Excerpt: Before you invest a penny, listen to Bob Haugen. He’s a former finance professor who’s spent half a lifetime studying the stock market. He’s written a number of books and papers, and is the co-author of remarkable piece of analysis entitled “Case Closed” and available here. He looked in excruciating detail at the characteristics of which stocks did best (and worst) over nearly half a century, from 1963 to 2007. His finding? Most of these “styles” are a waste of time. And the idea that you need to take on more “risk” to earn higher returns is a total con.

On the contrary, he says, the stock market has a big secret.

Over many decades, “the stocks with the highest risk produced the lowest returns — and stocks with the lowest risk produced the highest returns.” In other words, he says, “the risk/return ratio was upside down ... the payoff to risk is consistently negative over the 45-year period of this study.”

Is Another Tech Bubble Good for Options?

http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=383564

Gallup Pole Research -  Underemployed Americans' Wellbeing Continues to Suffer

Daily negativity higher, positively lower for underemployed.

Gallup classifies the underemployed as those who are either unemployed or working part time but wanting full-time employment. Those who are working full time or working part time but not wanting full-time work are considered employed. This analysis of January through May 2011 data, collected as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, finds that underemployed Americans rate their lives slightly better now than they did in 2010, when 42% of the group was thriving.

Daily worry and sadness are particular problems for the underemployed. One in four underemployed Americans say they experienced sadness the day before the survey, nearly double the number of employed who say the same. Forty-four percent of the underemployed experienced worry, compared with 29% of the employed.

Why is this important? Well because if less people that have a job feel positive about life in general, they'll slack or perform poorly at the job. This of course affects output (productivity), which means that lower efficiency rates will be achieved by a company ultimately affecting the companies profitability. More than that, it speaks volumes of how people are just tired of, drenched (call it what you want) of this government, economy, etc. 

Which leads me to my second article. The unemployment picture is now starting to cripple itself into Wall St. When these people start to lose their obs, you know things are not rosy nor does it foreshadow any improvement in jobs any time soon.

Slasher street The closing bell tolls for thousands of jobs

On Wall Street the hatchet man cometh. Deep-pocketed bankers and traders are bracing for what could be a fresh round of job cuts on the Street, concentrated in equities trading and investment banking, where firms are considering eliminating thousands of jobs in the coming weeks, The Post has learned.

Link: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/slasher_street_3N2eDrojp9DGzQcAlzGPhN

Two good articles; The first article makes the case for a market breakdown, highlighting a few economic and technical factors. Some of these factors have already been discussed on the boards but others have not. Regardless, thought it was a well put article that encapsulates the views of the bears( Note: I am not agreeing or disagreeing with underlying bias that is presented by the author. By now you all know were I stand on the market long term, but short term I will not divulge my bias for obvious reasons). The second article talks about the rise and fall of the U.S dollar (well written).

Stock Market At Important Testing Phase

http://www.indexuniverse.com/sections/features/9350-stock-market-at-important-testing-phase.html

How to Kill a Dollar

The dollar has had its ups and downs, but the downs have clearly dominated of late. The greenback has lost more than a quarter of its value against other currencies, adjusted for inflation, over the last decade. It is down by nearly 5% since the beginning of 2011, matching the lowest level plumbed since the Bretton Woods System of pegged exchange rates collapsed in 1973.

An obvious explanation for this weakness is the United States Federal Reserve’s near-zero interest-rate policy, which encourages investors to shift from dollars to higher-yielding foreign assets. Predictably, the Fed’s critics are up in arms. The central bank, they complain, is debasing the dollar. It is eroding the currency’s purchasing power and, with it, Americans’ living standards.

Even worse, the Fed is playing with fire (side note - don't lit the fire again; you will pay again. Do not underestimate). Its failure to defend the dollar, the critics warn, could ignite a crisis of confidence. At some point, the Fed’s tolerance of a weak dollar would be taken as a lack of commitment to price stability. Frustrated investors would then dump their US Treasury securities. Bond yields would shoot up. The dollar would plummet. There would be financial distress and a deep recession.

My thoughts (bigbull): I ask the following; could the Fed be behind the recent market breakdown and if so, could a bigger correction be in the mix? Think about it. The Fed needs to control inflation (via commodity prices) to be able to postpone the Dollar decline. Since everything in this economy is a function of the dollar, any break below 70 on the DXY would bring about some major dislocations in the bond market that could send yields soaring. Once that happens, its gamer over. The Fed enters a liquidity trap where it cannot lower rates (since they are already at zero) and no matter how much more stimulus (debt) is created by the weight side of the government, it simply will not have a large enough effect to counteract the existing debt to bring about enough growth and lower unemployment (the crux of the problem).  Remember that the Fed wanted higher commodity prices to spark corporate profits and save the private sector (due to the massive inventory build that took place in early 2009); now he wants to do the opposite and lower commodity prices to stave a double-dip. Can the Fed or the government really do anything to realistically turnaround this economy? I'm afraid not unless some major restructuring takes place. Of course, this means the wipe out of trillions of wealth worldwide, something the banks (elite) really distaste. They can draw up more short term conclusions, but oh boy will that create a bigger doozie.  I'd have a wide open eye over the next few years.

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen31/English