IMF Wants Countries to Raise Taxes on Individuals to Pay Off Trillions to International Bankers Who Engineered the Housing Bubble

Which Countries Are Most in Danger from the Global Recession?

April 17, 2009

U.S. News & World Report - While the collapsing U.S. housing market may be at the root of the global economic recession, the downturn's effects are being felt hardest overseas. Take Iceland, for instance. Its biggest banks failed, its economy may shrink 10 percent this year, its government fell, its central banker was sacked, the country was bailed out with a $2.1 billion IMF loan, and 7,000 people (in a country of 300,000) took to the streets in protest.

Which countries have the greatest chances of being the next stories of failure? U.S.News looked at some countries that are currently facing severe economic disruption that endangers their standards of living, attractiveness to foreign investors, and political stability. First, we examined what Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's had to say about them. These firms rate the risk of sovereign bonds, securities that finance the debt of a country. Many of the countries we identified have poor bond ratings or ratings under review for a downgrade, showing that these governments are perceived as being at greater risk of defaulting on their debt.

Second, we looked at what global markets think about a country's debt, based on data from Markit. The financial information company provides daily pricing on credit-default swaps, contracts between two parties that provide a kind of insurance on corporate and government debt. Analysis was also supplied by credit-rating organization AM Best. It ranks countries into five tiers based on the risk to insurers posed by the countries' economic, political, and financial systems. Using these analyses, here are five countries in deep trouble and five worth keeping an eye on.

Five Countries in Deep Trouble

Mexico. Thousands of would-be tourists from America and elsewhere had to cancel spring break trips to Mexico due to ongoing violence related to the drug trade... The violence and tourism decline could not come at a worse time. Economists predict a 3.3 percent contraction of the Mexican economy this year. The poor economic growth means that the government is getting strapped for funds. In April, it asked the International Monetary Fund for a $47 billion loan. While credit-rating agencies don't expect Mexico's debt to grow riskier soon, and the risk of its sovereign derivatives has not skyrocketed like some other countries on this list, serious problems still remain for the Mexican economy. The country depends on the United States to consume its exports and pay Mexican immigrants who send money back home. If the U.S. recession deepens, Mexicans will feel the pain as much as Americans.

Pakistan. The country has already almost gone bankrupt once in the past six months. In October, only an emergency $10 billion in support from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and others prevented Pakistan from defaulting on its debt. During that crisis, the cost of insurance on Pakistan's debt exploded... The economic situation isn't all bad. The Asia Development Bank recently predicted that Pakistan's economy will grow 4 percent in the next fiscal year beginning in July, compared to 2.5 percent growth estimated this year. But the wild card that could change everything is the country's political situation. Pakistan is one of the most unstable countries in the world. On April 13, White House counterterrorism consultant David Kilcullen said that a political collapse in Pakistan could come within months. A 2008 report from the U.S. Joint Forces Command identified Pakistan as a country at risk of a "rapid and sudden collapse," one that would create a devastating security problem for the world. The report says that "the collapse of a state usually comes as a surprise." Anyone banking their money on Pakistan's economic growth might not know what hit them.

Ukraine. While Iceland may have suffered the worst financial collapse of the global recession, Ukraine has also received a dubious honor: It had the priciest sovereign credit-default swaps for the first quarter of the year... As the government tries to solve the crisis, Ukrainians are getting squeezed. Kiev, one of the oldest capitals in Europe, has had to shut down free clinics, schools, and increase public transportation costs in order to close a deficit. The Institute for Economic Research and Consulting is forecasting a GDP contraction of 12 percent. The Ukrainian stock market has fallen 25 percent so far this year. The Ukrainian currency, the hyrvnia, is also plummeting, falling 35 percent against the dollar in the last six months. The Ukrainian government's efforts to shore up the currency, including setting a floor for which the hryvnia can be traded, have so far been in vain.

Venezuela. Hugo Chavez has inextricably tied the Venezuelan economy to oil, and that didn't look so bad before the financial crisis. Oil profits helped deliver massive economic growth, so much that 4.8 percent growth in 2008 was seen as a disappointment. But with oil prices having plunged due to the global slowdown, the fortunes for Chavez's strategy have changed. Many economists are predicting negative growth for Venezuela this year, such as the 4 percent drop predicted by Morgan Stanley...

Argentina. The Argentine economy is notorious for its boom and busts. The country last defaulted on its debt in 2002, but enjoyed economic improvements through most of this decade. During that last financial crisis, citizens staged protests known as cacerolazos, which means "banging of pots and pans," but the demonstrations resulted in broken windows and fires. Argentina has not seen that kind of violence stemming from the current financial crisis yet, but foreign investors are worried the economy is back to "bust" mode. CMS Datavision ranks Argentina as having the third most expensive credit derivatives in the world. Right now, Markit composite prices show an annual cost of $3.2 million for an investor to buy protection against $10 million of Argentina's sovereign debt. Moody's rates Argentina's sovereign bonds as B3, meaning a high, speculative credit risk, and S&P as B-, meaning that more bad economic news for Argentina could lead to default. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development gives Argentina a seven, its riskiest classification rating.

Five Countries to Keep An Eye On

Latvia. Iceland isn't the only country that's seen massive protests against economic hardship. In January, a 10,000-strong demonstration in Latvia's capital, Riga, turned into a riot. Tremendous economic growth since the end of the Cold War earned Latvia its place as one of the "Baltic Tigers." GDP growth was 11.2 percent in 2006, for instance. But Latvia's Ministry of Finance forecasts a 14.9 percent drop in GDP this year. Latvia is getting a $7.5 billion emergency loan from the IMF, but the organization is sitting on part of the money because of the Latvian government's failures thus far to reform its budget. The past two years have seen the cost of Latvia's credit default swaps increase over one-hundred fold. Moody's rates Latvia's bonds as Baa1, or "moderate" credit risks, and projects that they could become riskier bets in the medium term.

Croatia. The country's beaches on the Adriatic Sea draw so many visitors that tourism is almost 20 percent of the country's GDP. But since the recession is taking a bite out of travelers' pocketbooks, Croatia's economy is getting bitten as well. The government forecasts unemployment could rise as high as 12 percent this year. And a recent poll found that 78 percent of Croatians think the country is going in a bad direction, with unemployment cited as the primary reason. All this bad economic news might be one of the reasons S&P projects a possible rating decline for Croatia's BBB-rated bonds. The BBB rating means that Croatia does not have payment problems yet, but are in a position where their ability to pay for debt could be easily weakened.

Kazakhstan. While the Central Asian nation's GDP has grown in recent years, Kazakhstan has two problems that have created the potential for economic disaster: a reliance on foreign lending and a reliance on oil. Kazakhstan holds 3.2 percent of world's oil reserves. But the soaring oil prices that have boosted Kazakhstan's economy are no more, and investors have pulled money out of Kazakhstan in response. The cost of buying protection against Kazakhstan's debt has skyrocketed about 75 percent during the past year. The cost is back up to a peak reached in October, and it currently costs $875,000 a year to insure $10 million of Kazakhstan's debt. S&P has a negative outlook on Kazakhstan's BBB-rated sovereign bonds, meaning they could get riskier in the next six months to two years.

Vietnam. Unlike many of the other countries on this list, Vietnam has had some good news recently. The Asian Development Bank forecasted Vietnam's economic growth at 4.5 percent for the next year, the highest in Southeast Asia. Yet the country just registered its slowest economic growth in a decade. A survey found that 46 percent of Vietnamese were afraid of unemployment in January, up from 9 percent in September. Both Moody's and S&P have a negative outlook for Vietnam's sovereign bonds. The price of its sovereign derivatives has almost doubled in the past year. Vietnam falls into the riskiest of the five tiers as rated by AM Best. In particular, the firm identifies Vietnam's financial system, plagued by "relatively poor infrastructure and cumbersome bureaucracy," as "very high" risk.

Belarus. Minsk, the capital of Belarus, was mostly destroyed during World War II and much of the city was rebuilt in the form of hulking, utilitarian, Soviet-style buildings. Belarus also retains a heavy Soviet influence in its financial system—all but one of the country's 31 banks is controlled by the state, according to AM Best. Because of Belarus's failure to reform its financial system, the firm gives the country its highest score for financial risk... Belarus's problems aren't just speculative. Although its economy is still growing, the IMF expects it will expand 1.4 percent this year, compared to 10 percent last year.The country's government has also been approved for a $2.46 billion IMF loan. But the IMF now forecasts that the country will need a further $10.7 billion in 2009. Still, other experts disagree about just how fragile Belarus's economy is. Its bonds are rated as B1 from Moody's, meaning high credit risk but also at the top of the pack of the high-risk countries.

IMF: Countries Need to Raise Taxes to Pay Off Trillions Spent Fighting Global Recession

August 21, 2009

Toronto Star – The International Monetary Fund says most countries will need to raise taxes to pay off the trillions of dollars they spent fighting the global recession.

IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard says in an article to be published today that governments acted properly in ramping up spending to stop the worst slump since World War II.

Soon, he says, nearly all countries will have to raise taxes to pay the recovery bill.

Canada's Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has rejected the idea he will have to raise taxes to pay off about $47 billion in stimulus spending.

Blanchard, meanwhile, says with the recession virtually over, what is left are deep scars that will take years to heal. He sees positive growth for most countries in the next few years, but says it will be sluggish.

"The recovery has started," Blanchard says in the paper released by the Washington-based lender. "The crisis has left deep scars, which will affect both supply and demand for many years to come."

In many countries, the potential exists for economies never to return to where they stood before the recession hit, Blanchard states...

Blanchard cautions that rising government debt levels mean fiscal stimulus programs cannot continue for "very long" unless private consumption and investment replace public support for growth.

"We may not go back to the old growth path," he said in the paper. He adds that a sustained global recovery may hinge on the ability of Asia to boost domestic demand to levels that help U.S. exports.

"The United States was not only at the origin of the crisis. It is central to any world recovery."

Inability or unwillingness by China, Japan and other Asian economic powers to reduce current-account surpluses could lead to a slower U.S. recovery and political pressure to pump in more fiscal stimulus and borrow more.

U.S. inability to trim debt, then, would become a concern. Fiscal deficits could feed "worries about U.S. government bonds and the dollar ... causing large capital flows from the United States," Blanchard added. "Dollar depreciation may take place, but in a disorderly fashion, leading to another episode of instability and high uncertainty" that could derail recovery.

Korean Unions End Ssangyong Occupation on Company Terms

August 7, 2009

World Socialist Web Site - The Korean Metal Workers Union (KMWU) called off a 77-day long occupation at the Ssangyong Motor plant in Pyeongtaek after striking a deal on Thursday that accepts the mass lay-offs demanded by the company’s court-appointed management. The union also left hundreds of workers facing the threat of criminal prosecutions.

The occupation began on May 22 in opposition to the company’s plans to slash its workforce by 36 percent and eliminate more than 2,600 jobs. While 1,670 workers accepted redundancy, the remainder refused and occupied several buildings in the plant complex.

Ssangyong is majority-owned by the Chinese Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, which lost management control after the company entered bankruptcy protection in February. The other major shareholder is the state-controlled Korea Development Bank (KDB). Investors registered their approval of the union deal by pushing up Ssangyong Motor shares by the daily limit of 15 percent.

Union officials entered renewed talks with management yesterday after the violent events of Tuesday and Wednesday, when more than 4,000 riot police, police commandos and company goons stormed the buildings that were held by 600 to 700 workers. Scores of people were injured and hospitalised during the paramilitary-style assaults, which included baton-wielding elite police being lowered by helicopters onto the roof of one building. Helicopters were also used to drop liquid tear gas and chemicals on workers manning barricades...

Germany: 6 Million Unemployed

August 6, 2009

World Socialist Web Site - In Germany, the real rate of unemployment has risen to nearly 6 million. This figure is approximately 2.5 million more than the official figure.

Unemployment is one of the main indicators of the extent and consequences of the economic crisis for the working population. Official job statistics in Germany have been doctored for years precisely to disguise the real extent of unemployment and corresponding levels of poverty.

“The German economy is in the severest recession since the founding of the Federal Republic,” declared the Federal Labour Agency (BA). The economic crisis has left “clear traces on the job market.” The fact that the increase in the unemployment rate slowed in July, when seasonal factors were taken into account, “cannot be evaluated as a trend reversal.”

The number of registered unemployed rose in June by 52,000 to a total of 3,460,000. This is an increase of 250,000 compared to one year ago. Taking into account seasonal adjustments, unemployment in Germany increased by around 6,000 in July.

The latest unemployment figures mean that the official rate has risen to 8.2 percent throughout Germany. In east Germany, the rate is significantly higher at 13 percent. Immigrant workers are especially hard hit, their level of unemployment at nearly 17 percent.

“Seasonally adjusted” means that many redundancies resulting from the current economic crisis can be blended out of the unemployment statistic on the basis of seasonal influences. Many employers—e.g., in the construction industry—seek to save on costs by dismissing their staff over the summer and re-employing them some months later. There are many indications, however, that this year many such workers will not be re-employed.

The BA was forced to concede that the relative slowdown in the unemployment rate in July was primarily linked to a “reorientation of the related labour-market policy instruments.” Without such a “reorientation,” unemployment would have risen by about 30,000—also on a “seasonally adjusted” basis.

In fact, this “reorientation” involves the cancellation of a number of current BA schemes and a change in criteria, which means that many existing unemployed persons no longer appear in the statistics.

Since the start of the year, 370,600 unemployed have been transferred into new “measures for activation and vocational integration” and are not officially regarded as unemployed.

In addition, the following groups are also not included:

• 176,000 unemployed undertaking a short training programme or who have been declared incapable of work.
• 658,000 persons seeking work who are engaged in government-subsidised “one-euro jobs,” retraining programmes, or older workers in early retirement.
• 232,000 unemployed who have terminated their unemployment by setting up their own small businesses or older workers carrying out part-time work...

Official Says China's Jobless Situation 'Very Grave'

August 3, 2009

Associated Press — China's jobless situation is "very grave," with millions out of work due to the global crisis and the threat that unemployment might rise despite recent improvements in the economy, the government said Tuesday.

Beijing is trying to create jobs for laid-off workers, new college graduates, migrants and others, said Wang Yadong, deputy director of job promotion at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

"The employment situation in China is still very grave. We are still under enormous pressure to provide employment services," Wang said at a news conference.

Officials have warned that China's recovery is not firmly established despite an acceleration in economic growth last quarter to 7.9 percent over a year earlier, up from 6.1 percent the previous quarter. That was boosted by Beijing's 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus, which is pumping money into the economy through building highways and other public works that have created construction jobs.

"To make things worse, the financial crisis has still not bottomed out," Wang said. "There is still a great potential risk of unemployment."

Employment is especially sensitive for the communist government, which bases its claim to rule on delivering economic gains and worries about unrest among jobless workers.

As many as 30 million migrants lost jobs when factories closed as global demand for exports collapsed last year, according to the government. It has given no details of overall unemployment and how many new jobs have been created.

Wang said Beijing is confident it can keep official urban unemployment below 4.5 percent this year after it hit 4.3 percent in the first two quarters. That rate measures only a narrow segment of the economy, focusing largely on big and state-owned companies, and it is unclear whether it shows anything about overall employment.

Wang said the government would continue trying to boost domestic demand to spur job growth.

About 3 million recent university graduates, or one-third of the total, are unemployed, Wang said. Many come from the urban elite of businesspeople and professionals who benefited most from China's economic reforms, and Beijing is trying to retain the support of their families by promising to make finding jobs for them a priority.

Some 3 percent of the 67 million rural migrants who returned to cities following the Spring Festival holiday in February are still looking for jobs, according to Wang.

Causes of the Depression Yet To Be Addressed

August 1, 2009

The International Forecaster - As we enter August we are getting closer and closer to real disruptions with the US dollar, as well as problems with the British pound, as both economies feel the sting of rising inflation within a progressive depression. The stimulus package has exhausted itself for this year, so the economy in the US can at best stay neutral at a minus 4% of GDP.

The causes of our depression have yet to be addressed as the Treasury and the Fed flood banking, Wall Street and insurance companies with funds to keep them afloat. The deterioration continues unabated as Wall Street and banking report higher earnings by laying off workers and by playing accounting games.

US debt is on it way to causing a retest of USDX to 71.18. This will cause higher interest rates. There will be a furious effort to re-liquefy the US economy causing ever more inflation. The entire international financial system is in no condition to meet such a challenge.

The US Treasury is so busy trying to find buyers for Treasuries they have little time to solve anything, as unemployment at 20.5% throttles the nation. The economy is not going to recover by saving the anointed few in banking and Wall Street. Americans and Brits are no longer buying the ridiculous fairy tale of green shoots. People are catching on that the economy and the markets are being temporarily rigged.

By the end of October, we believe banks in the US, UK and Europe will be in serious trouble again. That should really knock markets and the world economy to new lows. It could also corrupt any improvement in GDP anywhere. The problems of 2007 and 2008 will return, because the façade of the public bailout of banking and Wall Street will crumble again. Further impoverishment is on the way. More and more will be laid off and there will be no new jobs available. Savings will be exhausted and most homes that have been financed will be under water.

You must put in dehydrated and freeze dried foods, a water filter and plenty of guns, ammo and clips. All stocks and bonds should be sold, except gold and silver shares and Canadian and Swiss Treasuries. All cash value life insurance policies and annuities should be sold. We’ll deal with pensions later. All IRA’s, Roth’s and 401(k)’s that you control should be in gold and silver shares, funds and coins.

The phony GDP numbers won’t fool actuality. You cannot have a recovery without an expanding jobs market, and we are going the opposite way.

Devaluation and default are in the air and it is only a matter of time before it happens. Be out of dollar and pound denominated investment except gold and silver mining shares and gold and silver coins. Convert as fast as possible.

Following the collapse of both the US and UK economies, New York’s Wall Street and the “City of London” will cease to be the centers of world financial powers. Then will come the real investigations and trials of those who stole from the people and committed treason. And, all the kings’ horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put the Illuminati together again.

Globalization has been a disaster for the US, Europe and the UK and Canada. It may have brought relative prosperity to the third world and transnational conglomerates, but overall it has simply been a method of redistribution of wealth. This deliberate policy by internationalists will eventually push us back into tariffs, a device that helped keep competition fair, not free. We found out in the late 1700s what damage British Colonialism, known as British mercantilism, visited upon our young economy.

The one-worlders who brought us free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcing also brought us the collapse of our financial system. Due to their control of the Fed and the Treasury Department, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase brought about the demise of Bear Stearns and Lehman Bros., and caused Merrill Lynch to be bought out. It is handy when you have the power to destroy more than half of your competition. Not that they were not broke, they were, but so were GS and JPM. All these firms and banks and many others used 30 to 50 times leverage, which has and is insanity.

Making excuses for these players doesn’t wash. All they are doing is borrowing money at zero interest rates from the taxpayer, and these are the people who caused this disaster. Contrary to what the banks say, it will take a lot longer to work out from under their debts. They are just starting to get hit with credit card debt, commercial real estate debt and face three more years of foreclosures in residential real estate. We might add that former Treasury Secretary Paulson, on loan from Goldman Sachs, made sure that banks and Wall Street were rescued along with a cluster of insurance companies.

Very little was done to assist some of the deserving public. Those who were saved were the ones who approved subprime, no-doc and option ARM pick-and-pay loans, along with the rating services, which committed fraud jointly in the sale of collateralized debt obligations. In addition, Paulson, who threatened Congress with insurrection in the streets if his demands were not met, raised $700 billion from Congress. This is the same Paulson who strong-armed the FASB to change the accounting rules from mark-to-market from mark-to model to allow financial institutions to falsify their books. We might also add that while he led Goldman he allowed 50 to 1 leverage and he was a major player in securitizing loans.

Banking leverage over the past ten years has risen form 19% to 50% versus tangible equity and is currently about 45%. In England it is 55%. UK bank assets are 5 times GDP, whereas they are 2 to 1 in the US.

It is not cavalier to demand a purging of the system. No matter what is done by the Fed and the Treasury the music must be faced with a deflationary depression. Yes, unemployment would go to 40%, but it is going to go there anyway. Little effort is being made to deleverage the banking system and that is one of the major problems. Remember, those banks, and those on Wall Street and in insurance that were rescued by the taxpayer, were all elitist firms.

US unemployment minus the birth/death ratio is 20.5%. Job losses are now equal to or greater than at any time since WWII. All job growth since 2002 has been totally wiped out. The average workweek is 33 hours as more and more companies request employees to take unpaid leave. That, government says, amounts to more than 9 million people or 5.8% of the workforce. Those figures are greatly understated as factories work at 65% of capacity utilization. The average length of official unemployment is 24.5 weeks, the longest since stats began in 1948.

Unemployment is spreading at an unprecedented rate: 92% of this year’s stimulus was spent to pay down debt, as savings jumped to 6.9%. That spells sufficiently scared. That should shortly send consumption to less than 70% of GDP. The corporate bottom line is being fattened by layoffs. These problems are going to get considerably worse before they get better.

Homeland Security is going to change their program that allowed local police to enforce federal immigration laws. The law is very effective – catching some 60,000 illegal aliens annually, most of who are deported. Now we cannot have an effective law like that can we? Thus, it is being done away with. It increased deportation by some 24%.

There is no question that special inspector general Neil Barofsky’s quarterly report to Congress made intelligent heads spin. Our projection of the government’s financial exposure at $14.8 trillion was woefully short of Mr. Barofsky’s $23.7 trillion estimate. Incidentally, all of Mr. Barofsky’s figures are official releases of data. If we had the time we’d come close to the same numbers. Regarding our estimate, we saw only two similar estimates, one at $12.8 trillion and the other at $14.5 trillion.

It should also be kept in mind that all government figures are bogus, thus, Mr. Barofsky’s real figure could be $30 trillion. He said that the federal government has devoted $4.7 trillion just to save the financial sector. We ask, what is the real figure? Perhaps $8 or $10 trillion? We’ll never really know, will we? That is because the Fed, a private corporation, says it is a state secret and won’t release any information. That is why we desperately need HR 1207 passed. The Fed has to be abolished; otherwise it will totally destroy the world financial system. If you are curious, Mr. Barofsky’s estimate puts every American $88,000 deeper into debt, essentially to rescue the shareholders of the Fed.

One of the things that deeply disturbs Congress and we suppose is one of the reasons Ron Paul’s HR 1207 has 276 sponsors, is that the Fed absolutely refuses in detail to discuss the quantity and quality of assets backing all of their programs. This means, at this time, losses to taxpayers could be upwards of $50 trillion. Worse yet, the Comptroller’s Office doesn’t – can’t account – for $12 trillion in an audit of the Fed. They won’t even tell us who the TARP recipients are and how they used the funds. In the final analysis neither the Treasury nor the Fed have any credibility left. They either lie or stonewall on every issue. These are the people who are running the financial sector of our economy...

Our Illuminists, Treasury Secretary Geithner, says the Treasury is not in a position to give an estimate of taxpayer losses due to bailouts.

Not only is the housing market not stabilizing, but it is getting worse. The housing crisis, as bad as it is, shows that rental vacancies are surging and rents are declining. The bottom is a long way off at the end of 2012. Housing prices will fall 20% to 30% more.

Capital One’s shares jumped as a result of better than expected earnings. This was accomplished by not declaring costs of paying back TARP funds and by not increasing provisions for loan losses. The income was created out of thin air, a fantasy. Their earnings were really flat, or less than declared. This bank, like many other banks, has serious problems and is to be a voided like all bank shares should be avoided. This is an example of the lies and chicanery being employed to deceive by almost all large banks, probably on orders from the Fed.

This week the Treasury will borrow $203 billion. If they do that each month, that would aggregate $2.4 trillion. If this happens weekly, that is $10.5 trillion a year.

World economies, particularly those of G-7 countries, excepting Canada and Germany, are so buried in debt that they cannot respond positively to further economic stimulus. The current debt driven crisis within the G-7 means the euro won’t survive if Ireland, Spain, Italy and Portugal default. The mainstream economists are finally realizing that the system has to be purged, something we believe the ECB-eurozone is already attempting. The growth of their M4 will determine which direction they will go in.

Next the mainstream will finally discover the manipulation of all markets by the Fed and the outrageous suppression of gold and silver prices. That is why gold and silver are so important. They are your only safe haven.

Last week markets were pushed upward by phony earnings reports, particularly by financial institutions... Most professionals and investors are surprised to see the Dow over 9,000 again. Stocks have again become totally divorced from reality and economic fundamentals that when the next drop comes, which it will, most will be caught flatfooted. There is a total disconnect between the equities market and the credit market. Of course, the summer’s thin volume has masked the upside moves.

The Treasury has borrowed last week and will this week some $235 billion, a colossal sum.

The Rasmussen survey tells us 25% of those polled say the stimulus helped the economy; 31% said it has hurt the economy.

The week before last the Fed pumped $80.2 billion into the bond market and other markets as well. Last week they removed $33 billion. The more important earnings releases are already history, so we ask what can the market do for an encore?