I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S UP WITH THE MARKETS

Here we go again! I still don't understand exactly how this blog thing works.

I don't understand the wild swings in the stock markets. I know a lot about the markets and I probably spend too much time following them, but I am clueless as to what is going on now. The extreme volatility is not warranted by the economic conditions. Now that almost all my wealth is in equities, I am very interested. I no longer own any real estate and the cars I own are barely above junkers, but I still have a considerable amount of gold and silver and I know where to get more at below current market prices.

I do know that when prices and values go up, they go up too high and when they go down they go too far as well. I knew that 14000 on the Dow was too high and was a bit of a bubble but 8000 on the down side is way undervalued. What I don't know is where these wild swings are coming from. Up to 10% of the total value of all the markets around the world in one day.

The amount of money involved is enormous. It has to be in the trillions of dollars. It is far more than any government can come up with. I don't seem to follow the flow of money. My financial advisers tell me that small and medium investors like me are standing pat. I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories, but it is suspicious that this is happening just at the time to influence the election. Where is the selling pressure coming from?

Also there is the short term trend that commodities (oil, Gas, gold, industrial metal, grain) usually move opposite to the financial markets. Not so this time. Precious metals are down 30% from their highs and oil almost 60%. Go figure.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS UP WITH THE MARKET

AUTUMN CONTINUES

And maybe I'll tell you what I really think next time I see you. It wouldn't go in a family site.

My apologies to my land lord. He had a crew in last weekend and put a whole new roof on. I suspect he knew he needed a new roof for some time, but was waiting for a complaint.

I spent the whole of the last two days arranging my winter vacation. I hope that it will be as much fun as it is work to set up. I have discovered that I know more about how to get around the Islands than most of the local travel agents. I can also get significantly lower prices when I deal with the resorts directly. Who would have thought. There is a bundler, usually in Florida, who handles a large number of resorts and then the local agent and they all have to be paid.

But all these places have web sites and 800 numbers and you can deal with them directly.

The middle men provide a useful service, but are usually not ready for the man travelling alone. There are agencies who specialize in travel for single men, but I haven't found one yet for men like me.

AUTUMN, THE END TIME

As the Sun sets this evening earlier every day, I can't help feeling it as a metaphor of the USA. If the Marxist wins this year with a super majority in congress it will be the end of the Republic as we know it.

Some of my children think the replacement of American capitalism with Marxist style socialism is a good think. Well, whatever you think of the Bushes, you will miss them when they are gone.
Not only is Obama a Marxist, but he is a machine politician and crook of the worst sort. Chicago politics is as bad as Tammany Hall or Boston's Irish Mafia. Unfortunately for the nation, Obama will be in a position to halt all investigations and prosecutions before he is indicted for corruption.

I am sorry for the nation and for the mess my descendants will have to endure. I can only be proud and grateful that I had the good luck to live in the United States and serve it during the period of its greatness.

I can only hope that the American people will realize what is going on before it goes too far and reverse course. I am not hopeful because I fear that Obama and Acorn will distort the franchise to prevent any opposition or reversal of the democrats suicidal national policy.

In the meantime, I am going to enjoy myself and spend my money before the new government can take it away.

TECHNOLOGY TRAP

Up until about 1850 a man and his family, a few friends and livestock, tools and a lot of hard work, could set off to the wilderness of Kentucky or Kansas, set up and make do.

I don't have a clue about how to fix most of the things I use everyday, let alone how to build them. I used to know how to do computer programming. Now all I can do is fill in the blanks on applications like Excel. I did have a car I could fix myself (the 65 Mustang) until last year. Now I can't even get my hand into the engine compartment.

Last week I got a greeting card in the e-mail last week and when I opened it I suddenly found myself off the internet with many of my programs corrupted. After many phone calls, I spent three hours on the phone with a very nice gentleman in Madras, India. After a long session, and $250 later, my computer had gotten rid of several very nasty spyware and trojans and I was back online. My accounts all needed to be reestablished but I'm working on it.

Last week I bought a used car because I wanted something a little fancier than my jalopy of the van. Just three days after I brought home I got engine warning lights. I took it back to the dealership and was told it would cost $650 to fix. I maintained my cool and they finally fixed it at no cost to me. I didn't even have to threaten them.

My point is that we are in a situation where all these machines have become essential to our lives. Then consider that they mostly run on electricity from a nuclear power plant a hundred miles away or on oil that comes here on ships from Arabia. Our politicians are more concerned with free school lunches than establishing real self sufficiency. Nuclear power is wrong. Oil companies are evil. No new production. We can't go after new coal production.

Maybe that is why West Virginia is still a wilderness.