77 thoughts on “The Fool On The Hill?”

  2. I am amazed that anyone that is financially savy enough to be a trader could think that the "COMMUNITY ORGANIZER" can run a country. If this country was a corporation ran by a socialist with no business expierence, and focused on redistributing the wealth of the company from the owners (Say stockholders) to the workers, would you invest in it? If the answer is YES..Find another hobby, you'll never make a living picking stocks................

  3. The community organizer is a failure. He is merely pointing out the obvious.
    go crawl back in your hole.

  4. Oh, how long must we suffer your political commentaries, Adam?
    Stick to your market predictions and you may get some praise; otherwise you and your tea party guests may become too obnoxious to even listen to.

  5. @mike, you don't pay for these videos. they are available to everyone for free, and nobody is forcing you to watch them. If the title wasn't enough to clue you into the content, well then...

    Also, I understand you feel Fox News is a gang of malcontents, but if you believe CBS, NBC,ABC, CNN are any different, then you're not paying attention to the water they're hauling.

  6. I'm neither Republican or Democrat any longer. What Bush did is criminal by starting a war and ignoring how to pay for it at the same time is beyond ignorant....no matter what you thought of the war. Obama really has his head up his arse by pushing health care through without taking care of jobs for those that need and WANT one. He's been in office now for almost three years and him and his cronies can't even come up with a budget. For you guys that have your blinders on to tight that think the people that are now out of work want to be and are free loading off of you have your heads up your arses as well....although you are correct no doubt about some who are. For reasons beyond any of their control millions of skilled craftsmen unvoluntarily lost their jobs due to policies that should have never been passed in the first place. I'm talking about cabinet makers, carpenters, masons, plumbers, electricians, etc. Whose big idea was it to hand out money to unqualified applicants that didn't need any earnest money that is actually "good faith money" known as a down payment or for that matter a job to get a loan for a house. The policy at the time was don't ask and don't verify what they write on their apps....just give em the money. These people practically ruined a whole industry. I have a feeling it was the democrats idea that George Bush ended up passing due to some deal making which go ahead..... put it on Bush's watch, makes no difference now. How would you like it if you woke up one day and your profession had completely disappeared ? This isn't rocket science boys, and you aren't as smart as you think you are or what an economist (what's that) would have you believe. You don't spend money you don't have, it's real simple. We need ideas now, fresh thinking and something that this country has been missing for to long. We are long overdue for a great leader and if there is someone who is worthy............please step up to the plate.

  7. The song "The Fool on the Hill" was a disrepect to Christ on the Cross.

    Actually, President Nixon tried very hard to keep them out of our country. Nixon knew the Power of Music and realized their music could change our culture that would reinforce that drugs are OK, sex outside of marriage is OK, and throw Christianity under the Bus.

  8. Obama is doing like any other President has done in the past.Of course,his political foes are doing their part too.Nothing new so why do you use a trsding website to promote your political views?

  9. It really doesn't matter who POTUS is because if you ask small businesses what they need to create jobs, they will say $2/hr wages, realty tax exemptions (especially for manufacturing), lower corporate tax rates, less regulation, lower insurance costs, and lower energy costs, unless they are corporations feeding off of trade deficits, litigation and military/government spending. The bottom line is you create jobs by being competitive globally. If you can't compete in labor and production, you compete in technology and investment and build a strong social class economy like Germany or Japan. Ask questions like why do the Germans and Japanese build better automobiles and machine/tooling than Americans? Why is German infrastructure superior to American infrastructure? Why do S&P 500 companies create the majority of their new jobs overseas? Why does the highest corporate tax rate only represent 9% of total government revenues? POTUS is nothing more than a puppet representing the interests of military and multinational corporations with his magnificent charm and deception. We have to stop falling for the trick of blaming presidents, they are just a small piece of the power structure who controls both parties. If it weren't for the structural benefits of the US reserve currency we would have already collapsed.

  11. @Jim - Not sure I understand what you are saying. Are you attacking me because I don’t want to hear Adam’s political opinions on a trading site that I pay hard earned money for or is it because I don’t feel Fox News is anything but a gang of malcontents that do nothing more than push their agenda on people that can’t think for themselves?

    And please tell me what facts you feel I am ignoring.

  12. Harry Truman where are you when we need you! He had a sign on his desk that said "THE BUCK STOPS HERE!" This little old school teacher from Mo. dumped the atomic bomb on Japan -twice. This brought an end to WWII and was a payback for Pearl Harbor. Most of the recent presidents graduated from Harvard and have no concept of reality beyond the ivy halls.

  13. Mike; You really are out of touch with what is happening in this world or in denial. Your view implies the only thing important to you is what is going on in your own personal space. People like you need to recognize this world can be and is a dangerous place. Ignoring that fact does not make it go away.

  14. Adam: I voted for Obama and I think you are right in being upset about his behavior. I too and dismayed. I feel he has lost his courage and seems to be unable to lead. I think everyone senses his weakness and they wont follow him.

    We are in a really terrible situation in this country and there have been warnings for years about the debt and all the programs we spend for but cannot afford.

    Also, its clear that corporations are not helping the employment situation. The data shows they are firing more American citizens (of all colors) and replacing our college grads with H1B visas from India and China and South Korea in record numbers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is lobbying hard in Congress to lift the cap on H1B and L1 visa holders and let in "unlimited" numbers. Meanwhile companies like Intel, Oracle, Microsoft and all the techs are pushing to hire more foreign tech workers.

    This has been going on since 1990 and has accelerated after 2000. I know, I live in Silicon Valley in California and I have witnessed the transformation. If you dont believe me you can see it in the U.S. census numbers from 2000 to 2010---there has been a 50% increase in immegrants from Asia all around the San Francisco Bay area, where Silicon Valley High tech jobs are centered.

    Yet Obama says nothing and does nothing about this. He, like all the other presidents "talk" about Americans getting "educated" for high tech...but my data shows that about 1.2 million American citizen engineers, mathematicians and every science degree have been getting fired and replaced by these non-citizens for 1/3 to 2/3 of the salaries we got paid.

    So picture this: in 10 years, everyone who got a college degree (B.S., Masters, PhD) and who worked 80 hours a week inventing the devices and building Silicon Valley start getting laid off after age 35 to be replaced by a non-citizen.

    This is what big corporates do----they break the law of our land and get away with it. This situation is getting much much worse as companies like Wipro, Infosys and other Indian based corporations are lobbying our government to send more from India--look at their revenues---increasing to billions for importing Indians to the U.S...billions.

    These companies are now targeting a list of 25 other professions requiring college grads including accountants, lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, even government workers....

    I ask you, Adam-----America is being destroyed from within and now foreign governments have more sway with our Congress than do the people.

    I cant see any politician changing this. Only we the people can. We will have to march on Washington again---this is the only way...they are not listening as you say---none of them.

  15. Adam – Would you please start a different blog site for your political commentary?

    I could really care less about your opinion of any elected official especially when you are doing nothing more than parroting the malcontents on Fox News.

    If you can’t form an original and productive thought then, out of respect for your viewer’s time, please refrain from posting anything.

    But since you brought it up:

    Let's talk about vacation - Bush starts a couple of wars at a cost of several trillion dollars, destroying tens of thousands of lives of US soldiers and their families and took 77 vacations in 8 years. I am almost 50 and haven't taken 77 vacations in my life.

    As far as I know the White House is not part of Capitol Hill so your Beatles reference makes no sense.

  16. @ Jeff

    I fail to see the relevance of anything you argue here to anything I said (?) Furthermore, Warren Buffet is a brilliant investor with a great record. However, one can't deny that his wealth would be a lot less if not for government bailouts for which he lobbied so aggressively (Google "Buffet benefits from bailouts" and you'll see he benefited more than any other single investor from state bailouts of his financial holdings).

    Also, see Derek Thompson's article in The Atlantic on May 4, 2011 which states that 51% of Americans don't pay taxes. How MUCH each segment of the population pays (which you point out) is irrelevant to my argument. The fact is, if you don't have any skin in the game and your vote counts as much as, say, Warren Buffet's -- who pays about $7 million/year in taxes -- you can vote for goodies without a thought to the costs of said goodies.

    And when the majority of U.S. citizens can vote for goodies without any thought to the short- and long-term costs, THAT'S a big problem for a country that is already the largest debtor nation in history. Politicians who want to keep their jobs will pander to this majority...and the ship goes over the waterfall.

    Consider this quotation often attributed to A. Tytler:

    "A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years."

    Happy 235th birthday, America!!

  18. Adam,
    When does a president get to govern? You have unintentionally highlighted a significant problem. At some point, even the elected have to actually DO something. You can't have it both ways: Obama is a beater without a plan AND Obama is a beater he's selling on the taxpayer's nickle. It is absurd to expect the Democratic Party, or any political party, to pay for the chief executive to do his job. That's just nuts.

    You would do better to stop criticizing the process and stick to the issues. My problem with your approach is that it is so lopsided. There is no shared responsibility / shared sacrifice. It's an odd kind of Foie Gras / Cat food scale: more for the top; cat food for the bottom, which is 4/5 of everyone. America's a great place except for a lot of the people who live here. The only thing missing from your campaign slogans is "let them eat cake".

    There are things we can agree on and get done. Let's get them done. Our children, and the world, are watching.

  19. We need an honest, compassionate person who can identify a problem, form and initiate a decisive plan of action, communicate in a clear manner with citizens, inspire those high and low, and who has a proven track record.

    Maybe we should beg John Walsh to run for president.

  21. I´m from Peru-South America, I´m 43, in the late 80´s my country went through Hiper Inflation, though and thanks of my father being a businessman we were lucky and had better chances, still I remember having to stand for hours in front of trucks for food (my mother, my 2 brothers, my sister and me)lane and buy a bar of soap to get rice, buy toothpaste to get sugar, sometimes we had to put a candy in out tea cup because we couldn´t get sugar...others had it worst. Now Perú has worked its way out after being considered by the world as unilegible for credit... thanks to all of us getting the pain of devaluating our currency... Our currency the "Sol de Oro" was worthless... we then changed currency to the "Inti"... 6 zeros were added through inflation, the "Inti Million" came and then suddenly we slashed those zeros and came out with the "Nuevo Sol"..., we had riots and terrorism, too. Still we made it. The party in power made the PAINFUL but RIGHT THING I think, the rest of us got the hit but stood unbroke and dealed with the situation. Then Peruvian Businessmen, Entreprenuers, the Global Market, Surging Metal Prices, Agroindustrial exports to USA, Europe, Asia, China´s demand for Tropical Flooring...wrote the rest of our story to this days.Can´t imagine how it would be given the European Situation, the American Debt (By the way Perú´s debt-GDP is 9% approx.) But I tend to think we need the world to be in good shape to keep on -We need each other-. I´m son of a WWII Japanese survivor -so I´m quite old fashioned- so I tend to think Japan is now the way it is because somehow they forgot the good part of the essence of being Japanese, isn´t America forgeting the essence of being the America -people on the other side of the planet always dreamt of, the American Dream, the land of possibilities for EVERYONE- ? I started drumming because I heard "I Should have known better" when I was 8. I would say DON´T "Close your eyes, and I´ll kiss you...." BECAUSE "tomorrow I´ll miss you"... the "WAY THINGS ARE GOING..." "You say goodbye and I say Hello"...ALL WE NEED IS JOBS....Above having a political opinion, I´m a Peruvian and above being a Peruvian I´m a Human Being... I wish the world gets its way to Peace, Well Being and Health HERE THERE AND EVERYWHERE. All my Best.
    By the way, though it´s important to keep cool for investment, aren´t political facts part of the Fundamentals ?

  22. Here is a proposal for all the posters who believe we need to stick to "business", and that Adam should leave political commentary out of this trading blog. Let's put our politicians on the same footing as professional athletes -- require they wear logo clothing that shows their financial supporters whenever they appear at public events. After all, a business relationship deserves disclosure, especially when one side is paying the freight for "performance". Mr. Obama would have a GE shirt, BAC pants, a GS jacket, and to top it all off, a JPM hat.

  23. As a Canadian I can not understand why most Americans always blame the problems on the president.you can not count on any party getting the US back on track. You have to make the best of what you have and address things yourself.

  24. Obie made 7 million last year. He has the answer to the job problem but it will take him a few more years (like another term)to make it jell. He will have resolved one job problem if he gets another term.
    Come on folks! Politicians will promise you anything to get your vote. I did kinda like "slick Willie" Clinton. He could pull the most outlandish stuff and get on t.v. and lie about it without even cracking a smile. Like he said-"I can feel your pain".

  25. President Obama will win this election with 52% of the vote!! An easy win too~ Gov Perry HATES gays/lesbians and Texas only has the wealthy and the lower income people, no middle-class! Bachmann, will NEVER be elected! Paul, cannot be elected because of his views! And Romney, he couldn't be elected in a telephone booth!! President Obama will tear into Gov Perry like a Dobey guarding a car lot at night as a robber breaks in!! All President Obama needs to do is dye his hair, after Gov Perry loses some of his!! Gov Perry is the most pregidous individual in America~ whose about to get a rude awakening.. Have a beautiful day sir, Pastor D

  26. Tour bias IS obvious, NOT from what you said, but rather what you didn't say when the right side of the congressional aisle pushed our country to a credit downgrade. There you have the real Fools on the Hill. They affected the market with historical results. The President is in a no win situation. People against the President will do things that are bad for the country hoping to assure he has no chance of reelection. Corporations are using extortion attempting to repatriat overseas funds at 5% tax rate or else. Who's to say they won't do the same thing again with any country willing to offer them a low tax rate for their business. And where do these corporations look to protect their overseas assets? The good ol' US military. CEO obligations to stockholders is to return the best ROI they can. However, if considered on the long view, what they are doing affects the world economy and may just have the opposite effect by squelching global growth. Last, there hasn't been a President in my lifetime who didn't take advantage of his position. Partisan politics costs us all money. It's time to do away with political parties! Let individuals stand on their own. Now, let's trade!!

  27. You are completely wrong here. I do not want to say that the individualist spirit is wrong. We would probably both agree that people working hard and implementing their ideas for a profit is what made this country great. But what is good strategy looking at the situation from the bottom up can be misguided when you look at the problem top down. In particular, even though production is not zero sum, the dollars that are used to buy production are zero sum. That means any money you take out of the system (which is what happens when it ends up in the pocket of someone who would never spend it) reduces the amount of money that is buying production and therefore creating jobs.

    Further, you are completely wrong about the existing tax structure. Warren Buffet has a nice discussion on that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVOn371TCPo

    To pull a couple details, the bottom 40% of the population earns 10.6% of the nation's income and pays 6.9% of the nations taxes, with an overall tax rate that is in effectively greater than the rate Warren Buffet pays.

    The problem with your claim "Once Americans get off the petty spit-ball politics and realise the whole ship is headed for a waterfall, they might be able to save it." is *both* sides agree that it is time to cut short the politics and fix the problem, but each side has its own ideas what the problem and solutions are and those two sets of ideas are literally 180 degrees in opposition to each other. The supply-siders believe very much the same as what Reagan and Bush believed, which is almost exactly the same as what Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hover believed. Unfortunately the result was very similar to what happened back then. Harding reduced the tax rate from 65%, I believe, down to 25%. He also did things like break unions and preach that a free market will be self-regulating (which actually goes way beyond what Adam Smith meant by the invisible hand, by the way. By modern standards, Mr Smith was something of a progressive.) The middle class shrank. Asset bubbles formed. Even as the real economy shrank, the growth in the wall street economy was faster in the early days and hid the effects. Meanwhile more and more people got jobs that were directly related to the asset boom. When the bottom fell out, Hoover reacted a lot like Bush did and pushed moderate levels of stimulus through. He was not in favor of social security because he was afraid it would destroy the moral character of its recipients.

    Long story short, Reagan and Bush did the exact same thing with the exact same results except that we have more time to deal with it because we are not on the gold standard. We are now at our 1930 moment with the inequality between the rich and the poor at levels last seen around 1928. Can we make better choices than we did back then?

    A few sources:

    http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVOn371TCPo <-- Warren Buffett
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8s1p7NdHm0 <-- Joseph Stiglitz
    http://zfacts.com/p/1196.html

    Jeff

  28. Flat tax wont happen. The tax laws are complicated because our politicians use them to help their friends and punish their enemies. To hlp or hinder certain industries. Grow corn to make fuel, yeah, that really makes sense. Anyhow, as long as politicians are in charge, you will not see a flat tax.

  30. Im not american. But what I observe is that whether its democrats or republicans, none has come out with any job plan. All your politicians do is shouting here and there about how bad is the current economy but none doing anything effective to address this. Well if you feel that the president is not doing his job then go ahead and propose and do something immediately(if you think its that easy). It is easier to blame others. If this prolong I can foresee that no matter who you elect as president, things will never get better.

  31. Every party in power has taxpayer-funded travel. If you consider that the secret service is obligatory, then the taxpayer should pay for it, just like they paid for Republicans to travel before. George Bush enjoys Secret Service protection as well.

    Part of the issue here is he needs to lay his platform before the public because we have a large base of entrenched politicians who are anti job who believe that they are pro job. It all goes back to the fundamental basis of economics. Every transaction involves a creation and a purchase. There are times when the economy is constrained by creation of goods. In those situations you need supply-side stimulation. It would probably be better to focus on education, role models, and various aspects of infrastructure than to purely throw money at the issue, but during those times, focusing on the supply side can have very positive impacts on society as a whole by raising the baseline for everyone.

    This is not one of those times. In fact a large portion of our history (at least from a monetary stimulus perspective) has centered around economic issues that are more demand-side in nature. You can tell when you have a demand-side problem when larger and larger percentages of the GDP go to supporting inflated asset prices while the middle class shrinks and consumption in non-asset areas of the economy diminish in a way unrelated to quality.

    Most frequently these problems manifest based on the supply side distribution paradox. Put simply, given 1 billionaire and 9 people sleeping behind a church, try to sell 10 houses. You can't do it. It is not just the person who would have bought the house that suffers, but also the people who would have built the houses who can now no longer afford to buy the TV and VCR they wanted. Now the people who would have made VCRs and TV's suffer. If not enough people are buying the VCR's, then the VCR companies might go out of business. Ironically, when the middle class shrinks, the rich person is no longer able to buy some of the periphery goods and services for the simple reason the companies that made them are gone. Thus even the rich are poorer, despite having more money.

    This means that the same action can have completely opposite results. Moving money from consumption to capital investment can have positive results if capital investment dollars is the economy's limiting factor. In times like now, for example,
    even a very massive stimulus is having very little effect because we have done nothing about the massive leak from the consumption cycle and because the stimulus has been introduced using the same trickle-down dispensing method that is already not working elsewhere.

    Given that there are massive campaigns out there to push the idea that removing money from the spending cycle (whether it be using the "fair tax" proposal, capital gains being taxed at a lower rate than income, reducing wages whether by busting unions or by reducing minimum wage, or whatever else.), I would tend to applaud anyone who is stumping the message "If you want to fix the problem of weak demand, you have to do it by putting money in hands where it will get spent." Pulling more money out of spender's hands and putting it in saver's hands is the exact wrong direction.

  32. As a European I saw The USA falling from the cliff but it started many years ago. You started 49 big and small wars since 1945 spending trillions off $$$$. Bush started two big wars based on lies spending billions and now republicans for political reasons try to tell the American people that Obama is the reason for all the problems America has and will have in the future. How stupid can you be to believe this? Bush told rich people they didn’t have to pay taxes anymore. How is it possible you do not criticize these stupid decisions instead of condemning Obama. We have problems in Europe but we condemn the old politicians and not the once that are in power actually. Americans time to think rationally.

  33. I agree with some of what you say.

    However, can you please mark any "political videos" which don't really add any value to our trading, so that we can skip them?

    Thanks

  34. I am from down-under, and I have learnt the lesson, often painfully that emotions do not play a role in trying to understand what the market is trying to tell us. Therefor I feel it will be better if our own personal feelings are kept to outselves and that we concentrate 100% on staying afloat in these terbulent times, which by the way have been created by many politicians, ceo's and yes by us in the past, with our complete disregard of the basic laws of do onto others what you would like them to do to you

    Keep smiling, Konrad

  35. I am from down under, and have been taught some valuable lessons when trading. One of the most important one is to keep your emotional feelings out of your decission making. Therefor my humble advice is to keep politics out of our trading and concentrate on what the markets are trying to tell us.

  36. If any body watch the movie TITANIC. He found the answer of Current Situation of USA. The same situation as the water filled in the ship or you borrow the more debt, at last you sunk into the bottom.Now its the last part of the movie is being run.

  37. How sad it is.........Rome and Greece repeated. Your comments are well founded but so little so late. As I said to my 67 year old brother 6 months ago: "Please understand that we have been afforded this wonderful life charged on a credit card(government debt) beyond the imagination of any fiction writer".
    The saddest part is that 'we' are to blame...........particulary those of us over 50 who have neglected our basic duties and responsibilities as citizens of a Democracy. 'We' were too busy enjoying our wonderful lives to be 'involved'.........I guess we are as bad as Obama in wanting to blame everyone else.
    And for the Black guy, I am sure Bill Cosby would straighten him out and let him know that it was a sad commentary on that race when Obama garnered 95% of their vote merely because he was black. Oh, and please don't call me racist as my black son in law or numerous black friends might object.
    In reality.............it ain't Obama's fault(although he's either an idiot or a socialist)........just look in the mirror!

  38. I've been on the sidelines with most of my investment funds since late '09 waiting for some resolution to the madness. It appears that the Obama administration prefers to govern as a plutocracy as it steadily weakens the traditions of our constitutional republic. Who knows, in time we may even see a full blown kleptocracy. The unending wars, manipulated media, expanding surveillance, and top-down planning are straight out of Orwell's "1984".

    Who can invest in these markets when arbitrary decisions in smoke-filled rooms make a mockery of the little guy? We've become a nation of gamblers playing in a rigged casino.

  39. Adam may be right in his particular that this type of trip is wrong in terms of its 100% tax payer funding, but with the mega horn Fox style cacophony going on about cutting all spending as it is somehow all wrong , how does a responsible President get his point over that something like infrastructure is a critical investment , not 'spending', and here is a plan which needs your support to get past the blocking impact of the new and messianic extreme right? Like to hear your view on that Adam.

    The same applies to critical need for loud support from all commentators for tax reform which could be used to lower corporate tax rates (eg much lower payroll tax to encourage job creation) with neutral budget impact.

    1. Graham,

      I am all for tax reform. I would like to see all American pay taxes. A flat tax would be fine with me and do away will all the loophole for everyone. Make it simple so that every American can fill out his or her taxes on one sheet of paper. I made x and I pay this %. Now eveyrone could understand that and we would probably save a fortune by just cutting the IRS down to size.

      I was under the impression that the stimulus money was for infrastructure, instead it was just thrown around to any agency or State that had the presidents's ear. In fact, and I am sure that this will come up in the moths ahead leading up to the elections and that is the president even joked on camera that those "shovel ready jobs" were not there.

      Adam

  40. No worries, whoever gets the Republican nomination will be the next President. Instead of a fast death to the economy it will be a slower one, BUY GOLD.

  41. Adam your right. However the Beatles tour made a lot more sense. Those 3 buses cost a millon dollars each. Yes, they were just purchased. But, we have to all compromise and sacrafice. The president doesn't seem to get that most people want him to compromise, but the only thing he wants to compromise is th future of our country. Correction, the present also. When Obama took office unemployment was at 6%. He said the stimulus would keep it from going over 10%. Well its gone there and stayed. But I am sure its still Bushes fault. Today he said he has had bad luck. Hmmm, has he had a 9-11, a Katrina etc, to deal with? He has also has the press as his cheer leader, but they are finally having to come around to the fact that he is the champion of a completely failed presidency.

  42. Adam,
    Help us with our investments, and please don't editorialize about politics. If you use a site like WolframAlpha's data base and analysis tools, you will understand why every reputable economist says there is no debt crisis. It is an aberration caused by the global flight to U.S. treasuries, thus increasing the debt, but at rapidly declining interest rates on the treasury paper everyone is buying. We have a jobs crisis because your favorite party, the Republican (Tea Party) has been forcing spending cuts. There is no growth without deficits. It is distressing listening to people who are out of their depth in economics and history, pontificating about Obama having no Jobs program or Bernanki printing money or whatever. Look up the curves for M1 and M2; the money supply is not expanding and the government is not on a spending binge. Obama is not doing a good job, but not for the reasons that the public has been mislead to perceive.

  43. You wanna know what I resent? I resent the fact that our troops were asked to fight a war that was fought in the wrong place and I resent paying taxes while all of the big corps are being dealt a free pass to pay little or no taxes at the expense of the middle class American worker. And I resent the huge hole that GW drove our econmy into, and I resent the fact that the repubs are selling this country and our great traditions out from under us to the big multi million/billion dollar corporations. And you want to worry about paying for the Commander In Chief going out on a road trip? Yeah, that's a pretty big deal....I guess, sigh.

  44. President Obama is an "empty suit". There is serious crisis of confidence in Washington. No ideas, no plans and no budgets. The magial mystery tour is just one of many snafus in his adminstration. Only 16 months before he is swept out of office. Its time we the people serve up change we can believe in and its not Obama. Anyone but Obama in 2012.

  45. "The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, assistance to foreign lands should be reduced lest Rome become bankrupt, the mobs should be forced to work and not depend on government for subsistence."

    Cicero 55BC

    Over 2000 years later and it's the same old story, and if you think anything will change you're kidding yourselves.
    C'mon guys, this should be a trading website not a political one. (Although I absolutely respect your right to voice any opinion)
    As traders, this has no bearing on the market. Just look at treasuries after the downgrade, the market speaks the truth and we should all listen very carefully if we want to make money.

  46. Adam: Obama is listening gathering input regarding people's ideas on job creation. Your comments and observations only reflect your existing bias. You don't want to get it.

    1. Carl,

      Thank you for your feedback. If the president wants to create jobs he would find out what small businesses need and what the government can do to help. Meeting people who are out of work is not going to create jobs. That you can take to the bank.

      Adam

  47. Leonard...thank you for bring Atlas Shrugged into the discussion...you are so spot on. Kudos to Adam for speaking his mind....truth is in behavior...and Adam is simply commenting on behavior...

  48. Hello, I can't begin to tell you how upset I am with this present administration..The Fool ON THE HILL sums it up puts it in a nut shell and ties a little pink bow around this entire situation..However pres. Bush wasn't any better.He did the major damage,and left press.Obama holding the bag?This is MAJOR! The countries economic problems should be first and foremost..I Know CEo's of global corporations that first address the co's problems before they take their leave..they live and breath "the Co."...Press.Obama should do the same.Hold a press conference,tell it like it is,inform the country and then go play golf...What is this all about?Why go on tour?You said it maybe the Pres. Will see your message and get the hint?It's all about politics!
    ............Bill Clinton wasn't so bad.....at least he left office with the coffers overflowing!!!! And that's a fact.!

  49. Adam, you are spot on with your comments. It is a sign of the times that a few remarks touch off such an ugly response from some people; could it be that many, many people are at or near the boiling over point? And hence have lost all manners!!

    Keep it up, your web site is great.

  50. I can’t begin to tell you how upset I am with this present administration..The Fool ON THE HILL sums it up puts it in a nut shell and ties a little pink bow around this entire situation..However pres. Bush wasn’t any better.He did the major damage,and left press.Obama holding the bag?This is MAJOR! The countries economic problems should be first and foremost

  51. Whatever the president does (good, bad, or indifferent) AFFECTS the markets in various ways. So what the president does should be important to you and to the rest of us as we make money -- or don't make it if we ignore his actions, decisions, and behavior. I think that Adam is absolutely right to criticize him in this case. This bus trip is not a "major event" but it DOES show us something about the president, and I thank Adam for being so aware and so bright, and for calling it to our attention.

  52. Just in case you have not heard of the oldest prescription for good government:Pray for your leaders

  53. Hello, I can't begin to tell you how upset I am with this present administration..The Fool ON THE HILL sums it up puts it in a nut shell and ties a little pink bow around this entire situation..However pres. Bush wasn't any better.He did the major damage,and left press.Obama holding the bag?This is MAJOR! The countries economic problems should be first and foremost..I Know CEo's of global corporations that first address the co's problems before they take their leave..they live and breath "the Co."...Press.Obama should do the same.Hold a press conference,tell it like it is,inform the country and then go play golf...What is this all about?Why go on tour?You said it maybe the Pres. Will see your message and get the hint?It's all about politics!

  54. I agree with Adam 100%. I don't understand some who do not want to hear what you have to say. What about freedom of speech. I believe obama would shut up all dissenting speech if he could. If he gets four more years, he will get his wish.

  56. I agree 100% with Adam, I do not understand those who are against you speaking your opinion. I thought this was a free country with freedom of speech. Of course I believe obama does not believe in free speech. His surrogates make that clear to me.

  57. None of these mainstream politicians are the least bit interested in doing anything for mainstream America unless of course it benefits their corporate sponsors as well. THEY CANNOT do anything for the American people if it is not what their sponsors want. What corporate America wants is not what "We the People" want so “We the People” continue our journey off the cliff while they prosper. If any politician goes off course and tries to do right by "We the People", they will lose their funding and go down in flames. Anyone who does not understand this is either completely naive or a beneficiary of the Status Quo.

    Money has completely and totally corrupted our political system. I know it, you know it and they know it! And now the Supreme Court has blessed it....

    And b-t-w Is there anything that any president does that is not on the taxpayer's dime???

  59. Our economy is in horrible shape, and I agree with your comments about Obama, he does not seem to be taking the situation seriously. I was very excited and proud of our country when we elected Obama, I had no idea then that his presidency would be such a disaster. It is embarassing that he is blaming this on the Japanese earthquake, rather that on what seems to be a deliberate squashing of the business community by the current administration.
    Adam, I am sorry that you got accused of being a racist for expressing an anti Obama political opinion.
    Everyone should have the right to express a political opinion without being personally attacked by someone who disagrees, otherwise there is no way people can sit down together and fix the mess! Good for you for standing right up to it!
    What I have noticed more than anything about Obamas bus trip, is that it's all about blame, and nothing at all about solutions, so I agree with you, it's a sad excuse for Presidential leadership, and Obama could be doing a lot better and more than what seems to be just crummy political campaigning.
    jenne

  60. I totally agree with you! It has nothing to do with Obama being a Democrat or being African American! This trip should have been paid by the re-election folks, not us taxpayers!

  61. I've been watching this disaster pick up speed and gain momentum over the years, and I say to myself in wonder over and over, "Atlas Shrugged, it's happening." Nonproductive people of every race, creed, and color electing cheap politicians of every stripe to give them bread and circuses. The government has been taking money from the pockets of the productive people, the small businessmen and honest laborers, and giving it to all kinds of leeches, feeding essential capital to generations of degenerates and gamblers running banks, insurance companies and dinosaur corporations. Nobody and nothing should be "too big to fail." The "bail-outs," insanely low interest rates, and quantitative easing do nothing for Main Street. It was the largest theft in broad daylight in the history of man. Joe Citizen feels in his bones that something is wrong, even if he doesn't understand exactly what it is. Trillions of dollars went to bail out European banks and governments, and pay obscene bonuses to connected hot shots. Banks and big corporations are rolling in money donated by the taxpayers, but they won't loan or invest a penny here in the US. The prudent citizens who want to save capital and people on fixed incomes are in a world of hurt, because they can't get a decent return on a CD or savings account. Interest rates have been artificially suppressed, because once interest rates finally rise, the government will strangle on the weight of its debts. The interest alone on the national debt is growing exponentially to the point where it will soon eat up the entire budget, and leave nothing for true governmental functions. The only way out the government sees is massive inflation and debasement of the dollar to devalue the debt and interest payments. I saw a story where BAC is demolishing perfectly good homes to reduce the overhang of foreclosed properties. You can't grow the economy by throwing rocks through windows so they require repairs, or digging holes and filling them back in. We can have no true growth in jobs or productivity while the prudent businessman is hunkered down, fearful of making any investment. Let the invisible hand of the marketplace decide where capital should go. We must cut taxes and bureaucratic red tape. Let the federal government get back to its business of defending the country and stop micromanaging our lives. Central planning just doesn't work. Just ask the communists. There is very little hope for our great country.

  62. Adam, your comments are spot on! Bad enough that the President is squandering the most valuable asset: TIME -- Time that should be spent solving our crushing
    economic problems; worse still that we are on the hook for it. Glad you used this forum to present your views.

  63. Rory, if you think denigrating the economic decisions of this president don't effect how we make money, you should not be investing.

    The end

  65. I AGREE WITH ADAM...OBAMA SHOULD OF DONE SOMETHING ABOUT THE JOBS FIRST WEEK IN OFFICE..THIS IS NOT ABOUT RACE, FOR HEAVENS SAKES--HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT TO ADAM A MAN THAT HAS DONE SO MUCH FOR THIS WEB SITE, AND THE PEOPLE THAT FOLLOW HIM...GET LOST, YOUR ON THE WRONG BUS...

  66. The references to racism made in the comments above -- and all the other comments made in day-to-day political America -- are part of the problem. Let's establish one fact that supercedes ideology: whether you are socialist, capitalist, Caucasian, African, Asian, short, tall, male, female...The Markets Don't Care!!!

    Economics trumps your ideology. Look at Greece...they elected a Socialist government thinking surely they would continue to spend and keep the good times rolling. But even THEY had to bow down to economic reality and fire 15% of government workers, raise the retirement age, and force wage rollbacks on the rest. Same with Ireland, Spain, Iceland, and now Italy. No matter what stripe your government -- or the color of your skin -- the result is the same. Once Americans get off the petty spit-ball politics and realise the whole ship is headed for a waterfall, they might be able to save it.

    But until America hits rock bottom (riots, inflation, high unemployment, obscene crime levels with the unemployed roaming the streets) it appears as though everyone keeps bringing up the political ghosts of the past as though it was 1975 and the whole thing is an interesting political debate...it's not...it's the economy, stupid!...and this could be worse than the 1930's. America is the largest debtor nation in history and 51% of its citizens -- each of whom have a democratic vote -- do NOT pay taxes. In other words, 51% have no role in the cost of the game and will vote for the ship to go over the waterfall as they try to get what they can out of the state.

    I agree with Adam. Perception is everything. When citizens see their leaders taking their plight seriously, they are a lot more forgiving. Listening to the president -- and the opposition!! -- say over and over again that "Americans are hurting," but then seeing absolutely no urgency on the hill to get people to work, demoralizes the average unemployed Ameican, who is left with an attitude that nobody cares.

    This is a liminal moment in American history...NOW (Not 2 months from now) is the time for true leaders to step up and get the country out of this mess. Even a perceived vacation in the middle of the worst economic crisis in American history is disgusting -- and that goes for ALL members of government, not just the president.

  67. @ Billy Morgan:

    I think you're the one with an obvious political bias. And no, I am not a Republican.

  68. Stick to talking what you know and stop denigrating the President of the United States who ever that may be. Your shallow comments detract from what we are here to do, make money.

  69. Clearly obama knows he is on the ropes and doomed to lose the election. His aids probably convinced him this was

    a good idea. To the middle class america it looks semi stupid. But in his case he is getting a little desperate.

    Obama has a ton of new grey hairs now ,so to me it appears he cares somewhat but in my eyes he is finished and

    everyone knows it also.

  71. Tisk tisk tisk. Seems kind of weird - but this guy looks old enough that he should have heard the term "working vacation" by now. And does he really think the Prez actually sits down and puts his pen to work in every stage of his proposals? Be assured he has someone designated to take care of the more boring stuff. I think this commentator may just be another one of those ???? Why didn't he just title the video with what he really meant instead of Fool on the Hill he really meant....well you know what he meant. He was referring to the color of the man on the hill - nothing else.

    1. Dustin,

      I really resent the fact you're trying to paint me as a racist. Nothing could be further from the truth. I live in a mixed neighborhood and I am proud of it.

      I have a number of African-American friends, I think that's the politically correct thing to say, I happen to think of them as friends no matter what color their skin is.

      What I am mad about is the fact that the taxpayer is paying for this little reelection trip and not the the Democrats reelection committee. It is another waste of our money.

      Adam

  73. Adam, your political bias is obvious.
    Firstly, you made a big deal of the bus ride at taxpayer expense. Has it really been any different for past presidents on the campaign trail- republican or democrat??? Obama is in campaign mode and is probably promising to put something on the table after it has been fine tuned.
    Did you rant at Bush when he originated the mess we are in including the massive deficit & financial meltdown not to mention the housing bust???
    face it, with sharp lines being drawn & parties unwilling to budge, the entire process will continue to be paralyzed until the majority swings left or right and for better or worse!

    let's all try to trade well inspite of the politicians.

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