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How To Monitor The Market In The Recession Of 2009

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As 2009 arrived, the second year of the recession, everyone should be careful how the situation change in order to protect yourself whether you play stock market or not. For doing that, you have to properly monitor the market. A lot of uncertainties laid ahead, I can’t predict the short-term movements of the stock market. I haven’t the faintest idea as to whether stocks will be higher or lower a month — or a year — from now. But you can do the best to reduce your loss (or make money if your lucky) in situation like this.

“A little history here: During the Depression, the Dow hit its low, 41, on July 8, 1932. Economic conditions, though, kept deteriorating until Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in March 1933. By that time, the market had already advanced 30 percent. Or think back to the early days of World War II, when things were going badly for the United States in Europe and the Pacific. The market hit bottom in April 1942, well before Allied fortunes turned. Again, in the early 1980s, the time to buy stocks was when inflation raged and the economy was in the tank. In short, bad news is an investor’s best friend. It lets you buy a slice of America’s future at a marked-down price.”

What is likely, however, is that the market will move higher, perhaps substantially so, well before either sentiment or the economy turns up. So if you wait for the robins, spring will be over.

Recession/depression create opportunity.

Over the long term, the stock market news will be good. In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.

You might think it would have been impossible for an investor to lose money during a century marked by such an extraordinary gain. But some investors did. The hapless ones bought stocks only when they felt comfort in doing so and then proceeded to sell when the headlines made them queasy.

This could also happen in this recession. Investors still could profit from this depressing economy.
Since Dow lost nearly 40% in year of 2008, 2009 could be a brighter year for you (it could be worse). In the past 80 years, 60 out of 80 started with higher in stock market ended up with higher. Whether you want to make money or protect yourself from massive lose in the market this year, you may have to monitor the trends:

Monitor the trends

-Unemployment
Initial jobless claims surged by 58,000, to 573,000 in the week ending Dec. 6, the highest level since 1982 (not controlling for population growth). A roundup of reactions by economists and analysts is below.
John E. Silvia, Wachovia Corporation: “Continuing claims suggest duration of unemployment for workers becomes longer — and probably more difficult.”

(To be counted as unemployed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics requires that someone: 1) was without a job in the reference week; 2) made an effort to actively search for a job in the last four weeks; and 3) was available for work. A person who is not employed and does not meet this definition of unemployed is considered out of the labor force.)
-Number of factory/store closing
Stores that informed the Security Exchange of closing plans between October 2008 and January 2009.

-People cutting back
The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index fell to an all-time low of 38 in December, down from 44.7 in November and 38.8 in October.
Brian Bethune, chief United States financial economist, IHS Global Insight: These adverse conditions in the employment market were reflected in a steep drop in confidence about the present situation.
However, consumer expectations edged down only slightly, and buying plans for major consumer durables actually improved slightly, possibly reflecting the steep price discounts that have been made available by retailers.

-Falling business
Brokerage, automakers, financial, consumer firms are considered as falling business, year of 2009 will be tough for them to go through. More bad implications spread around as more firms are filing chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. (e.g Lehman)
US Major Bankrupt Companies 2008- The Latest Casualty Count

Monitor the bubbles

-Credit bubble
The biggest asset and credit bubble in human history is now going bust, with overall credit losses likely to be close to a staggering $2 trillion. Thus, unless governments rapidly recapitalize financial institutions, the credit crunch will become even more severe as losses mount faster than recapitalization and banks are forced to contract credit and lending.

Equity prices and other risky assets have fallen sharply from their peaks of late 2007, but there are still significant downside risks. An emerging consensus suggests that the prices of many risky assets - including equities - have fallen so much that we are at the bottom and a rapid recovery will occur.

But the worst is still ahead of us. In the next few months, the macroeconomic news and earnings/profits reports from around the world will be much worse than expected, putting further downward pressure on prices of risky assets, because equity analysts are still deluding themselves that the economic contraction will be mild and short.
-The continuous undoing of a real-estate bubble

Today’s global crisis was triggered by the collapse of the US housing bubble, but it was not caused by it. America’s credit excesses were in residential mortgages, commercial mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, and student loans. There was also excess in the securitized products that converted these debts into toxic financial derivatives; in borrowing by local governments; in financing for leveraged buyouts that should never have occurred; in corporate bonds that will now suffer massive losses in a surge of defaults; in the dangerous and unregulated credit default swap market. Although it is not the cause but we still need to monitor it to see if the condition is improved or worsen because the improving real estate market is the result of stabilize credit market.
-a forced unwinding of hedge of position

While the risk of a total systemic financial meltdown has been reduced by the actions of the G-7 and other economies to backstop their financial systems, severe vulnerabilities remain. The credit crunch will get worse; deleveraging will continue, as hedge funds and other leveraged players are forced to sell assets into illiquid and distressed markets, thus causing more price falls and driving more insolvent financial institutions out of business. A few emerging-market economies will certainly enter a full-blown financial crisis.

Monitor the debts/loans

-Government debt, interest payment, bailout funds
The real problem we face is too much debt paying an ever growing mountain of compound interest. This is unsustainable and of course will collapse as insolvency out paces new debt writing.

But that’s not how the gummit and banksters see things. The government wants to inflate a collapsing money supply, and as 95% of all money in circulation exists in the form of private bank debt, the only way to do this is to get hopelessly broke citizens borrowing again. The banksters just want to save themselves and pass on their losses (which are in the tens of trillions) to the taxpayer. Fed bailing out the banks this way is not health and will only makes the situation worse. Moreover, It is challenging for government officials to understand how financial institutions participating in a $700 billion bank bailout program are using the capital they receive.

Recent news about bailout funds: Treasury exceeds limit of financial rescue funds

Again, the Government will ask for more of your money because it failed. Failure is the charter & mission statement of our Government. Without you, it will never be able to reach “Despotism” status.
(Despotism is a form of government by a single authority, either an individual or tightly knit group, which rules with absolute political power. In its classical form, a despotism is a state where a single individual, the Despot, wields all the power and authority embodying the state and everyone else is a subsidiary person. This form of despotism was common in the first forms of statehood and civilization; the Pharaoh of Egypt is exemplary of the classical Despot.)

Pay attention to the good predictors
“recovery advocates”
This recession (depression) is just beginning. This is not your usual recession that can be cornered by more debt. No quick fix this time, no speedy recovery (unless you really think that Benrnake can replace the 7 trillion USD already erased from the system - CANNOT!), so if you have held onto your bullish portfolio and prayed every night that one day it will have gained back the 30-40% it has lost so far, then pray no more you fool! Sell it against the next rally and start trading (not holding). I remember about 5-7 names that predicted this mess - Roubini, Schiff, Rogers, Faber and a couple more. Where was the rest? The “recovery advocates”? They didn’t see it coming, they couldn’t even envision the scale when it was already in motion and they want to lecture us on when it gets better?

Nouriel Roubini, is a professor of economics at the Stern School of Business, New York University, and chairman of RGE Monitor, an economic consultancy for financial analysis. He has been nicknamed “Dr. Doom” because his economic predictions have been noticeably more pessimistic than most economists.

Peter D. Schiff, is the president of Euro Pacific Capital Inc., a brokerage firm based in Darien, Connecticut. Schiff is an Austrian school economist and supporter of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Schiff frequently appears as a guest on CNBC, Fox News, CNN, CNN International, and Bloomberg Television and is quoted in major financial publications.
Jim Rogers, is an American investor and financial commentator. He is co-founder, along with George Soros, of the Quantum Fund, and is a college professor, author, world traveler, economic commentator, and creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index (RICI).
Marc Faber, is an investment analyst and entrepreneur born in Zürich, Switzerland.
etc.
Always follow the ones who predicted the mess instead the bashers or pumpers type predictors.

Monitor financial sector

Financial stocks turned in the worst performance, with a loss of nearly 60% Any innovation in this field will be a possible sight of recovery for the economy.

Monitor bailout effects/results

-How the Failed Bail Out Bill Will Effect You

Monitor inflation/deflation/stagflation trends
In the advanced economies, recession had brought back earlier in 2008 fears of 1970’s-style stagflation (a combination of economic stagnation and inflation). But, with aggregate demand falling below growing aggregate supply, slack goods markets will lead to lower inflation as firms’ pricing power is restrained. Likewise, rising unemployment will control labor costs and wage growth. These factors, combined with sharply falling commodity prices, will cause inflation in advanced economies to ease toward the 1% level, raising concerns about deflation, not stagflation.

Deflation is dangerous as it leads to a liquidity trap: nominal policy rates cannot fall below zero, so monetary policy becomes ineffective. Falling prices mean that the real cost of capital is high and the real value of nominal debts rise, leading to further declines in consumption and investment - and thus setting in motion a vicious circle in which incomes and jobs are squeezed further, aggravating the fall in demand and prices.

As traditional monetary policy becomes ineffective, other unorthodox policies will continue to be used: policies to bail out investors, financial institutions, and borrowers; massive provision of liquidity to banks in order to ease the credit crunch; and even more radical actions to reduce long-term interest rates on government bonds and narrow the spread between market rates and government bonds.

Quote by Thomas Jefferson “Is a Central Bank is ever created in America- Through Inflation and Deflation the “Bankers” will Rob The “Americans”

This is the Truth-The Bankers created the S&L crisis and eliminated the competition and They created the Sub-prime crisis (The Banks create the product not the Loan-Brokers) and will eliminate the Loan Brokers.And have already procured the Treasury-and Federal Reserves’ approval and the Supreme court confirmation to go into Real Estate and as The now deceased “George Thatcher” ( Thatcher who started Sterling S&L and build it into Union bank and sold it to Barclays -Who sold it to a Japanese Financial concern) told me - The Bankers tried this in the depression…

Monitor Economic policy changes
Peter Schiff destroys US economic policy

-In the final quarter of 2008, the financial crisis saw the G-20 group of major economies assume a new significance as a locus of economic and financial crisis management.
Economic stimulus plans were announced or under discussion in China, the United States, and the European Union.[19] Bailouts of failing or threatened businesses were carried out or discussed in the USA, the EU, and India.

Monitor the sights of depression (from 1929)

U.S 1929 Great Depression vs. 2008 financial, housing, credit crisis

Great Depression happened in 1929. It took over 10 years to cure.
Effects of depression:
13 million people became unemployed.
Industrial production fell by nearly 45% between the years 1929 and 1932.
Home-building dropped by 80% between the years 1929 and 1932.
From the years 1929 to 1932, about 5000 banks went out of business.

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BREAKING NEWS: Obama Eyes $300 Billion Tax Cut

By JONATHAN WEISMAN and NAFTALI BENDAVID

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are crafting a plan to offer as much as $300 billion of tax cuts to individuals and businesses, a move aimed at attracting Republican support for an economic-stimulus package and prodding companies to create jobs.

The size of the proposed tax cuts — which would account for about 40% of a stimulus package that could reach $775 billion over two years — is greater than many on both sides of the aisle in Congress had anticipated, and may make it easier to win over Republicans who have stressed that any initiative should rely relatively heavily on tax cuts rather than spending.

The Obama tax-cut proposals, if enacted, could pack more punch in two years than either of President George W. Bush’s tax cuts did in their first two years. Mr. Bush’s 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut of 2001, considered the largest in history, contained $174 billion of cuts during its first two full years, according to Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation. The second-largest tax cut — the 10-year, $350 billion package engineered by Mr. Bush’s in 2003 — contained $231 billion in 2004 and 2005.

The largest piece of the overall tax relief would involve cuts for people who pay income taxes or who claim the earned-income credit. It would serve as a down payment on the “Making Work Pay” proposal Mr. Obama outlined during his election campaign, providing a credit to offset Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes of $500 per individual or $1,000 per family.

On the campaign trail, Mr. Obama said he would phase out a similar tax-credit proposal at around $200,000 per household, but aides said they haven’t settled on an income cap for the latest proposal. This part of the plan is similar to a bipartisan initiative launched in early 2008, which sent out checks worth $131 billion.

As for the business tax package, a key provision would allow companies to write off huge losses incurred last year, as well as any losses from 2009, to retroactively reduce tax bills dating back five years. In effect, this would entitle companies to receive cash from the government that they otherwise couldn’t have claimed.

President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are crafting a plan to offer as much as $310 billion of tax cuts.

President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are crafting a plan to offer as much as $310 billion of tax cuts.

A second provision would entice firms to plow that money back into new investment. The investment write-offs would be retroactive to expenditures made as of Jan. 1, 2009, to ensure that companies don’t sit on their money until after Congress passes the measure.

A separate element would offer a one-year tax credit for companies that make new hires or reverse layoffs, which could be worth $40 billion to $50 billion. And the Obama plan also would allow small businesses to write off a broad range expenditures worth up to $250,000 in 2009 and 2010. Currently, the limit is $175,000.

Business lobbyists are pushing hard for Congress to allow companies that haven’t paid corporate income taxes to get a break, too. Start-up companies, alternative-energy firms and large corporations that have been swallowing losses for years — such as automotive and steel companies and some airlines — have already begun lobbying for such “refundability.”

They argue that a provision to claim losses on back taxes will have little effect on the economy if firms that need it most — struggling companies that weren’t obligated to pay any taxes — can’t benefit from a tax break.

For years, the tax code has allowed poor individuals to get tax checks even if they don’t pay income taxes to begin with. But such largesse hasn’t been granted to businesses.

Mr. Obama, however, doesn’t back payments to companies that haven’t paid taxes, aides said. Instead, under his plan, businesses that haven’t been paying taxes would be able to get payments from tax credits they would have taken in 2008 and 2009 for incentives offered by Congress, such as the production tax credit offered to wind-power and other renewable-energy firms. These amounts would likely be relatively small.

“We’re working with Congress to develop a tax-cut package based on a simple principle: What will have the biggest and most immediate impact on creating private-sector jobs and strengthening the middle class?” said transition-team spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter. “We’re guided by what works, not by any ideology or special interests.”

As these details are being worked out, Mr. Obama and his family left Chicago during the weekend for Washington, hoping to quickly project a shift in power even though Inauguration Day remains two weeks away.

The president-elect’s daughters, Malia and Sasha, begin classes at the exclusive Sidwell Friends School on Monday, while the family takes up temporary residence at the Hay Adams Hotel a block from the White House.

Mr. Obama will be on Capitol Hill Monday, first to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), then with the broader bipartisan leadership of Congress. The stimulus package will be front-and-center in those discussions.

On Tuesday, the new Congress convenes with Democrats’ enhanced majority. On Wednesday, Mr. Obama plans to attend a White House luncheon with Mr. Bush and the three living ex-presidents.

Democratic leaders and Obama aides now acknowledge that congressional Democrats’ initial goal of passing the recovery package before Mr. Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration is unrealistic. Instead, they are hoping for passage before Feb. 13, the first recess of the new Congress.

“We certainly want to see this package passed through the House of Representatives no later than the end of this month, get it over to the Senate, and have it to the president before the break in early February,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) said on Fox News Sunday.

But Republicans are already criticizing parts of the package. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), speaking Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” questioned one of the biggest pieces of the plan, which would send as much as $200 billion to state governments largely to expand the federal share of Medicaid, the health program for the poor.

Mr. McConnell suggested structuring that aid as a loan, saying this would encourage the states to “spend it more wisely.”

An array of business tax cuts, aimed largely at job creation, could help overcome such GOP opposition to the overall stimulus package, enabling the Democrats to present their plan as a balanced mix of tax cuts and spending. It also would likely encourage large companies and businesses to lobby hard for its enactment.

Mr. Obama’s team has spoken of wanting to attract significant Republican support to the initiative, not simply squeezing it through by picking off a Republican moderate or two. Mr. Obama’s aides argue that even the money going directly to the states could be counted as a tax cut of sorts, since it may forestall state tax increases.

Mr. Obama’s aides have already enlisted business groups to rally behind spending for roads, bridges and other public-works projects. Norman R. Augustine, a former chairman and chief executive of Lockheed Martin Corp., will testify before the House Democrats’ Steering and Policy Committee Wednesday in favor of an infusion of federal infrastructure spending.

But the tax cuts may hold more sway with Republicans.

—Amy Chozick contributed to this article.

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The most depressing forecasts seem to be the most accurate.

Clarity of vision is in short supply by all including economists, however, this collection profiled here is more right than wrong. Shall we recap a portion of 2008?
1. Housing bubble collapse.
2. 400+ trillion derivative/credit default swaps worldwide
3. Switzerland’s Krono disappears for all practical purposes because of overboard investment in collaterized debt securities.
4. Bernard Madoff already contributing to a man’s death over his and others greed. Greed, perceived entitlement, and market manipulation runs the market now, soon fear will rule.
5. The resets on ARMs in 2009 is the other shoe to drop on home foreclosures.
6. The farmers are worried that loans they depend on might not be available to buy their seed/fertilizer. Reduced planting into soybeans from corn already under way. Being breadbasket of world don’t mean jack if can’t plant.
7. Large wave of retail bankruptcies and store closures (73,000) predicted in early 2009 by retail association. (Provided by WinstonSmith2008)
8. At least one US auto manufacturer will declare bankruptcy with ripple effects throughout the economy (2009 auto sales are projected to be 9 million vs 17 million in 2007; at least one manufacturer won’t survive that). (Provided by WinstonSmith2008)
9. Massive commercial real estate issues. (Provided by WinstonSmith2008)
10. State budgets are in turmoil. Expect large layoffs of state employees, especially around May/June. (provided by bharper5)

Any one of these issues above would spell trouble for the market. Combined into one-year dwarfs the depression years for the simultaneous effect of all happening at once. Safeguards built into the markets you say, NOT. No one knows where we are going, but the train is on the track, and it is not being held back, nor coming back.

Everyone in the country (and the country itself) are leveraged to the max, with nothing saved for a rainy day, much less the ultimate rainy day.

You may want to read this as well : How To Properly Monitor The Market In 2009

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More funds forced deleverageing in 2009

2009 we should see lots of funds dieing and forced deleverageing. This happy talk of recoveries will end up being just that happy talk.

This recession/depression shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. It was 30years in the makeing starting with voodoo economics.

We are leaving the era of borrowing behind and entering an era of savings.
This will lead to less spending and more saveings fueling the deflation/recession. This year media will shrill all the louder and throw everything at the investors greed trigger.

Frustrating and stubborn the investing machine will spend and spin its way into the void. Less and less will people care about the movements in the market. More and more will the shrills cry and scream as they lose ratings and money.

By the end of 2009 business news will be back on the business pages and dead for those who still have money worth loseing in the market.

What I can’t believe is the blatant PSYOPS! (Psychological Operations)

ALL of the media has consolidated on telling us that everything is now fine and 2009 will be a V-shaped recovery all because we have a new president that “means well” and there is so much “hope” in the economy.
Then, without hesitation, numbers are released showing increased velocity of housing troubles, unemployment numbers worse, allocation of TARP funds to failing auto companies, (which won’t work we all know)
People are tightening purse strings, lowering credit scores for auto loans (great idea..lets pour more gas on this) What else am I missing?

anyway, When I put those puzzle pieces together I get a picture. Hope and “meaning well” as well as other corny catch phrases won’t help the numbers.

Recovery and dreams will die with the year and sow deep seeds of anger for the new year.

2009 will not be as dramatic a year as 2008 was in shock value, but the reality of a dream deferred never is.

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Middle-class home owners’ fear

Half of middle class home owners fear their properties could be repossessed next year
Nearly half of middle-class home owners fear that they could lose their properties next year because they are struggling to pay their mortgages, research shows.

By Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor
Last Updated: 6:53AM GMT 30 Dec 2008

The news comes after the Council for Mortgage Lenders forecast that the number of repossessions is likely nearly to double to 75,000 next year.

A YouGov poll, carried out for a new report from Tory MP Grant Shapps, found that 44 per cent of mortgage holders are worried that lenders could force them out of their properties next year.

A similar proportion were worried about not being able to meet mortgage payments between now and the end of 2010.

The study - The New Homeless - found that the concern among homeowners about losing the roof over their heads in the economic downturn stretched across society.

It found that 42 per cent of middle class professionals were worried about not paying the mortgage over the next year, compared with 46 per cent of blue collar households.

The study found that nearly one in seven people were in the highest category of being “very worried” about making the repayments over the next year.

More higher earners - 15 per cent - described themselves as “very worried” about being able to make the payments, compared with 12 per cent of those in less affluent groups, possibly because they over-borrowed during the property boom.

Part of the problem was that bills have far outstripped increases in family income. Figures show that while average pay increased by 13 per cent in the four years to the end of March 2008, fixed household costs jumped by 45 per cent.

Mr Shapps said: “Householders up and down the country and in every kind of housing are now concerned, as never before, about their ability to maintain a roof over their heads over the next 12 months.

“While Gordon Brown would like us to believe that they fixed the roof when the sun was shining, it’s now becoming clear that for many hard working families concern about keeping their home is greater than at any time before.

“Despite this, the Government continues to release a series of poorly thought out announcements which are often contradictory and confusing for the public.”

YouGov polled 1,208 people across the UK on 9 December.

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“You never know who’s swimming naked until the tide rolls out.” - Warren Buffet

Until the US middle-class wage earner is valued and paid a wage that is commensurate with what stuff (like houses) costs, this melt-down will continue no matter how much quantitative easing or liquidity injections occur.

I’ve said from the beginning (around 2000) that outsourcing US jobs to India, China and Mexico would bite everyone in the rear-end and I’m being proven right. Wages have been depressed for most (non-UAW) middle-income Americans for years now. While those 1% with executive pedigrees have been rewarded with compensation at levels that are staggering.

During this same period the banksters ratcheted up the real estate prices with inflated apraisals/LTV ratios because they were taking money hand-over-fist and shoving half of it in their pockets and the other half of it in the faces of dumb people who took it because the loan terms sounded too good to be true.

Everyone was doin’ it with each other. Banksters, home builders, brokers, real estate agents; home flippers and mostly naive home buyers. It was an out of control drunken orgy that had cats and dogs making it with each other that finally came to a screeching halt.

Now the problem is homes are still not affordable for the average Joe with under-valued wages while all these over-valued home notes are blowing up left and right.

If Joe Blow owes $25k to the bank and can’t repay it - then that’s his problem. Whereas, if Joe Blow owes $250k to the bank and can’t repay it - it’s now everyone’s problem who lives in the US and pays taxes or buys stuff.

As Warren Buffet says, you never know who’s swimming naked until the tide rolls out. Well, the tide has rolled out and the naked numbers are astounding.

The only way out appears to still be down, down, down with house prices. Which translates into more foreclosures and more bank failures and more credit default swaps kicking in and more job cuts and more 401k account divestment and more mutual and hedge fund redemption and more collapsing equity prices.

Take your pick.
House prices drop another 50% and we all take our medicine now and pay with another great depression and a DOW at maybe 3500.
or
Print and handout money and hyper-inflate out of the collapse and create a new larger debt bubble that will eventually implode with worse consequences down the pike.

-Shempy

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THE OBAMA RALLY BASED ON HIS THREE PART PLAN

which consists of creating ” JOBS JOBS JOBS ” as fast as he can ! BUT will they materialize fast enough in this falling economy to make a real difference anytime soon ? one would have to guess not when your talking building inter structure that in many cases are measured not in months but years in the making!

THIS IS WHAT THE NEXT ADMINISTRATION WILL HAVE TO OVER COME IN 2009

Home prices dropped by the sharpest annual rate on record and there are no signs the housing pain is over, according to a closely watched index released Tuesday. Unemployment hitting record levels with 4.5 million being recorded on continuing unemployment claims just last week alone!

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index fell by a record 18 percent from October last year, the largest drop since its inception in 2000. The 10-city index tumbled 19.1 percent, its biggest decline in its 21-year history.

Both indices have recorded year-over-year declines for 22 straight months. Prices are at levels not seen in many a year.

Prices in the 20-city index have plummeted more than 23.4 percent from their peak in July 2006. The 10-city index has fallen 25 percent since its peak in June 2006.

“The numbers are getting worse. And I think they will get quite a bit worse over the next two months because housing demand has plunged since the market went into a tailspin in 2008.

Underscoring that point, other figures released Tuesday showed consumer confidence hit an all-time low in December, dropping unexpectedly in the face of layoffs and deteriorating markets for housing, stocks and other investments.

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Let’s review the situation:

1. The Fed funds rate is essentially at zero, with no further room to cut. Any future threat of inflation due to all the money pumped into the system will force the Fed to raise rates and likely lead to stagflation.

2. The Big 3 automakers, the backbone of the American manufacturing economy, are on life support.

3. The financial system is in tatters, and further shocks to the system (e.g. Alt-A and ARM) are likely this year.

4. Consumers, the backbone of aggregate demand, have lost huge chunks of their personal wealth through housing and equity market collapses, yet record high personal debt levels persist.

5. The federal government can only provide fiscal stimulus by borrowing money, exacerbating horrendous fiscal situation. Taxes will have to be raised substantially in future to pay for this, depressing the economy.

6. Similar fundamentals exist in the rest of the world.

So in conclusion, the market should rise 8% in 3 days, and 24% of it`s lows of 1 and half months ago. The buying signal is clear.

P.S

Next week’s data:

Jan 5 Construction Spending
Jan 5 Auto Sales
Jan 5 Truck Sales
Jan 6 Factory Orders
Jan 6 ISM Services
Jan 6 ISM Services
Jan 7 Crude Inventories
Jan 8 Initial Claims
Jan 8 Consumer Credit
Jan 9 Average Workweek
Jan 9 Hourly Earnings
Jan 9 Nonfarm Payrolls
Jan 9 Unemployment Rate
Jan 9 Wholesale Inventories

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We achieved the DOW medium term target at 8940

1/02/09
3:37EST
Dow: YMH8 (mini Dow)
We achieved the medium term target at 8940

New Medium Term Targets..
Next up price target is 9243
8940 + 303 = 9243
In the event we fail to reach 9243,
We head down to 8332

We wandered up almost 300 points today.
Expect another gap up on the Sunday night open..
Which will be filled…

Strange chart pattern earlier this morning entering a triangle after an open gap, last time I saw such a pattern after 7400 on the Thanksgiving holiday trading sessions.

Opened with a 61 point gap up from the close at 8655 to 8716
8655 – 8716 = 61 pts
61 pts = 1/5 of the 303 point RCT (long term) trading range since 12/15/08

We didn’t fill the Gap at 8655.

Long Term: 13 to 21 days (Already intact 20 days)
RCT: (Reverse Combustion Tunnel)
Heading Down
Equalizer: 8571
Down Target: 7207
Up Target: 9934

Until one of the two price targets are achieved on the Long Term RCT,
The above pattern stays intact, along with the 303 point trading range.

Recent bounce from 8325 = Shorts (holding stocks) are currently closing positions in order balance the books for the end of the tax year. Every year it’s this way on the holiday trading…Those holding profit always close out their positions before 12/31…

Remember all holiday trading MOVES (up or down) are always erased, once regular trading sessions return on Monday.

-Che

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“U.S 2009 depression” talk is heating up

U.S 1929 Great Depression vs. 2008 financial, housing, credit crisis

Great Depression happened in 1929. It took over 10 years to cure.

Effects of depression:
13 million people became unemployed.
Industrial production fell by nearly 45% between the years 1929 and 1932.
Home-building dropped by 80% between the years 1929 and 1932.
From the years 1929 to 1932, about 5000 banks went out of business…

——-

Publication admits that characteristics of economic slowdown resembles 1930’s
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Friday, January 2, 2008

Renowned financial publication The Economist reports that, based on the characteristics of the current financial crisis, the U.S. is in a depression, not a recession.

The admission marks the first time that a major international financial news outlet has acknowledged that the scale of the economic mess is unlike anything seen in recent decades.

Under the headline, Diagnosing depression, the article asks, “What is the difference between a recession and a depression?”
A depression is characterized by “falling asset prices, a credit crunch and deflation,” according to the article, all factors that we see unfolding in the current crisis.

“A depression is the result of a bursting asset and credit bubble, a contraction in credit, and a decline in the general price level,” according to the article. “In the Great Depression average prices in America fell by one-quarter, and nominal GDP ended up shrinking by almost half.”

Fast forward to the start of 2009 and house prices have fallen by at least 17 per cent over the last two years with that number only set to plunge further over the coming 18 months. Overall, American homeowners have lost $2 trillion of equity during what has become the worst housing slump since World War II.

U.S. GDP in the fourth quarter last year fell an estimated six per cent, but that number is expected to accelerate through 2009.
The piece also states that assurances from economists who say that a repeat of the 1930’s is impossible “because policymakers are unlikely to repeat the mistakes of the past,” are coming from the same people who confidently predicted that “a nationwide fall in American house prices was impossible and that financial innovation had made the financial system more resilient.”
The Economist piece makes the argument that the current crisis is far closer to a depression than a recession and that the only question remaining is how deep the downturn will be.

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