Arkady's Thoughts

Remember when Putin invaded Georgia? Remember when Chavez called Bush the devil at a UN Conference? Remember when Ahmadinejad threatened to wipe Israel off the face of the earth? Remember when all of these guys mysteriously came out of the woodwork and rattled their sabres? Well, they were awash in petro dollars and were feeling pretty good about life when oil hit $147/barrel. Well now this torpid trio are singing a slightly different tune. News comes out of the UK suggests that while US maybe hurting, this economic recession has virtually sunk the economies of these countries. Mind you all three have been heavily investing into military expansions. Chavez was buying aircraft carriers, Ahmadinejad is developing nuclear weaponry and long range ballistics and Putin has been resurrecting his military might across all major disciplines. Of course they are all blaming America for their problems, but expecting them to admit that they have no economy what so ever and instead wasted ...

Stocks rallied Friday, with the Dow industrials bouncing as much as 550 points, after reports surfaced that President-elect Barack Obama will nominate New York Federal Bank president Timothy Geithner as his new Treasury Secretary Oh really? So market rallies like crazy and it's because Obama finally made a great selection, however when the market tanked 20% in the past few weeks it must have been because of our economy? See, folks - this is not only a perfect demonstration of how useless CNN is, but also how silly these explanations are. Markets do what they do and it has nothing to do with a Treasury Secretary selection or any other goofy explanation they generally come up with. That brings me to another point. Obama ran on a platform of change you can believe in. What kind of change was he referring to? Change back? So far everyone he appointed worked in the Clinton administration! Emanuel, Holden, possibly Richardson and Hillary. Nice change. I bet that most people will fondly r...

Two quick points. 1) Democrats asked the auto industry to formulate a plan and get back to congress by December 2 nd . You know my position on the matter and I find it sickening to see this kind of government involvement. Let the free market work! If people are not buying American cars, then it is a clear signal that these American cars are over priced. The price information being telegraphed from the auto industry is being rejected by the population, the answer is to adjust the price - not grovel to Congress. Absolutely appalling. Is there anyone out there that thinks we should bail out the auto industry? Let me know and if so, explain to me why we should violate free market principles. Do not use the financial bailout as a benchmark, because according to Wall St. the financial bailout did nothing to stem our declines. 2) Stock market is extremely weak. Today's bounce attempt should be shorted for short term traders, because they underlying weakness is glaring. Energy shares are l...