It just amazes me to watch the government REWARD bad behavior. Time and time again, they say that we are headed for doom, if we don't fix this economic crisis. Well, all you got to ask first, is how did we get here? The sun, the moon, the tide, no, POOR decisions and incompetent behavior. Yeah, one or two may be bad luck, but since when do reward bad behavior with more of the same?

I couldn't have said it better myself.. Its giving to the incompetent from the competent. Here is a great quote from Jim Rogers, one of the world's most prominent international investors:

"Without giving specific names, most of the significant American banks, the larger banks, are bankrupt, totally bankrupt," said Rogers, who is now a private investor.

"What is outrageous economically and is outrageous morally is that normally in times like this, people who are competent and who saw it coming and who kept their powder dry go and take over the assets from the incompetent," he said. "What's happening this time is that the government is taking the assets from the competent people and giving them to the incompetent people and saying, now you can compete with the competent people. It is horrible economics."

Our mother wouldn't be proud. But I guess thats what you get when the country is really run by the rich, the string holders of the politician puppets.

Bottom line -- Politics is making your motives LOOK like everyone else's desires.

Wow, all those people that had millions in mutual funds this year, ALL, I repeat all but ONE lost money with negative returns. See the article. That's right, out of 11,585, only 1 made a positive return! While I know its been a bad year, there had to be more than 1 person who saw this coming! Ouch, talk about a lack of foresight. Actually, they comment about my leader board positive returns in this article which is nice.

When you strip it all down, this is a classic case of resting on your laurels and becoming complacent. Forgetting to study history, and just using what happened the last few months as the precedence. All those fancy lunches, slick brochures, decadent offices, and hot secretaries didn't make a bit of difference when picking your fund manager. See, nothing is too big to fail. And this is a classic example of how following the "herd" can be detrimental to your health. It goes to show you that you can lose 10 years of gains, in just one year. Don't think of it as a problem in just in financial markets, but such a devastation can happen to your health, your house, or more abstractly, your mental state. Things compound, and reach a tipping point, often a cliff, so the way down is often a free-fall. Please watch for the warning signs, signs that I will try to give you on my blog.

Believe it or not, they make mention of me in this article, and my stock returns are very positive in this bear market. I happen to be shortseller. One of the reasons I bring this up is to show you that I put my money where my mouth is. I am just not some bear who talks about doom and gloom, just for fun and profit. Not because I am negative or cynical, but because I am a realist. A "watch out for what the herd's doing" prudent individual. So, just to develop some credibility, I am posting my gains on my blog.

I am not looking for praise or status, this is to let you know I am more then just an alternative health "granola" as some they call us. :) I'll let the returns speak for themselves, and they are realized, I sold everything on Nov. 20th. It took probably 1000's hours of studying and research, but I have done it. :)

So, if you want to stay abreast of my musings, enter your email address in the box to the right. ;0 Good luck in this volatile market. Not trying to scare you, but I hope you are ready for the Great Depression II. Try not to get too down, this is a time for renewal and to get back to the fundamentals of what life is all about. Now that you look back, didn't things quite a bit excessive? And we all know what happens when you get to much fat! All kinds of diseases bubble up!! No pun intended. ;) Little Recession humor anyone?

There is more to follow, so add your email to the subsription newsletter on the right!

Every few years a Noble Cause or some sort of Bandwagon appears that seems as though it has real traction to make a change for the better.

One of those "Bandwagons" is the Environmental or Green Movement. Now don't get me wrong, I am all for Saving the environment. Yes we all need to conserve, recycle and not be so wasteful. But what happens, when someone uses that platform for their own selfish needs? Does it happen?? WE would be naive to think otherwise.

If I were to tell you that all PLANETS in the solar system have been slowly heating up in the past several years, would that change your outlook on Earth? IT SHOULD! If there are not humans on other planets, then how else can you explain it?? Solar system changes, primarily sun and its relationship to the earth.

So with that said, maybe there is a guy like Al Gore who lost barely in a previous election, would want to make a major comeback somehow?

The fact of the mater is that as temperature goes up, C02 levels rise. Not the other way around. C02 is create in mass amounts from sea organisms, I mean massive amounts. Just go to Youtube and search for "Global Warming Hoax", its all over the news. Al Gore dares to use a green moral platform in a unethical way. If you knew how many research jobs this movement created to line pockets and support this Hoax. Yes of course some are needed, but the lie created jobs that are wasteful.. It makes me sick. Of course we need to reduce C02, but twisted lies and scare tactics are not the way to do it.

Check out the Pen and Teller Video below, its a perfect example of why you need to question different proposals or platforms based on a herd type movement. This is a great example where all people need to do is hear a buzzword, and they are on board. No questions asked. This is why herding mentality can hurt us all. This is why you must have free thought and honestly examine things where it always seems like the "CROWD is on Board". Its why financial and stock bubbles get created. SO much to be said, but lets save it for another blog entry! :)

How funny ehg?? I love it. Ban water, yeah lets do it! So how many other "H20's" are out there that shouldn't be banned!?? Or for that matter how many ideas or substances shouldn't even be in the environmental movement. Food for thought. Then again, the food may be laced with pesticide, so watch out!

Always question the Herd.

Adios, Sean

Capitalism is an amazing thing. How many times have we said to ourselves, "If I only had a ten thousand dollars, things would be much better. Well, in the past 20 years while the market has trended up tremendously, many of us have reached that goal. Of course initially its a goal, but in time unfortunately it becomes a milestone.

Think about it, when we reach that mark, we say to ourselves, "Wow, if this is what $10K feels like, imagine what $20K will fill like!! Bam!" Unconsciously we think that our life happiness might double, so we go for it. And in time, we get to the same milestone, and ad infinitum. A viscous cycle that seems great, but more often than not it just leads to more hollowness. Don't get me wrong, some people learn that enough is enough, and live a happy life with a more modest desire for business successes. Its hard, I struggle with it, we all do. Everyone wants to retire in 1 year or less.

I think Charles Payne said it best from Minyanville,

Don't get me wrong: Capitalism is in the DNA of human beings. We love to compete. We love to help each other and if we�can make a buck in the process all the better. We love to build, starting from those sand castles at the beach when we are only toddlers to families, businesses and skyscrapers. The thing that happens is, we become victims of our own success. Even when people are doing great financially and are making more money than they have in the past, they tend to feel bad about themselves if someone else is doing much better. That's envy at work. I hope it doesn't rip apart the fabric of our country, because there are a lot of folks hoping that happens.

Capitalism is a double edge sword, unfortunately we don't realize it until we lose what we so dearly worked for. A classic example of how history repeats itself, and the previous generation is gone or to senile to remember or remind us of such important lessons. :0

Until then, try to stay in balance with all your desires, albeit financial or any other, its the key to good health and longevity.

-- Bloggers note: Reader's Peter Schiff is one of the few economists who REALLY saw this downturn coming before it happened. Many jumped on the bandwagon after the fact, but not Mr. Schiff. He is a great forecaster, and extremely succinct writer, I recommend following him. --

This is a partial reprint of Peter Schiff's Article on Financial Sense Website
Peter Schiff, Euro Pacific Capital | October 27, 2008

Insanity is often defined as repeating the same action while expecting a different result. Recent Congressional activity to push through this year's second economic "stimulus" package certainly indicates that many of our political leaders may have special needs.

Responding to the $150 billion stimulus that was passed at the beginning of the year, I made the following observation in my February 15th commentary Upping the Inflation Dosage : "The failure of the stimulus plan to cure the economy will cause the Government, and the Wall Street brain trust, to conclude that it was simply too small. Their next solution will be to administer an even stronger dose."

It's interesting to recall that at the time, just 9 months ago, the $150 billion package caused much hand wringing, especially from Republicans still clinging to notions of Federal restraint. This was before an avalanche of more than $2 trillion in new spending initiatives -- before Bear Stearns, wide open discount windows, AIG, Fannie/Freddie, Federal Mortgage Auctions, Detroit loan guarantees, and preferred shares in the banks. In retrospect, the $150 billion stimulus seems quaint. It is not surprising that the latest package is expected to be twice as large. When this one fizzles, look for "Stimulus III" to be even larger.

Continue Article on hosted site

It amazes me how I can read so many articles time and time again, or watching the pundits on CNBC fleece the public into thinking the bottom is either here or very near. Do people suffer from short term memory problems? Or are people wising up to the fact that these "experts" are really no experts.

Month after month, over 80% of the experts and money managers say we are almost out of the woods. They say things like, "Its a buyers market", "Invest for the long term". The narrow sightedness of these people is appalling. Half of them should be shot for swindling people into investing recklessly on the way up, and now its holding on the way down. Why do people continue to listen to these people who got them into this mess? Instanity.

Very few of these experts, study economic history, except the 1 to 40 years of experience in their own lives. Since when is 40 years a snapshot of everything that society has lived through? This is precisely why history repeats itself.

They don't do any long term projections. They don't pull up charts showing how this macroeconomic formula shows that this imbalance has now been corrected. Of course not!! They are fat cats just spewing hopes and some minuscule sliver of micro economics about X data figure looks good so thats the sign we need.

You could take any month in the past year and hear them say, its about over or it will be next quarter. Of course people believe them because that's what they want to hear as they have thousands being drained from their 401'Ks and Retirement plans. I feel so bad for people after the market is down nearly 50%!

So when is it going to be over? You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. If you study the many theories on social mood, that I have mentioned before, it all makes sense, usually after you have lived through it. SO try to live through it by studying history, i.e. the great depression or other times in World history like the Japan's 90's economic deflation crisis or the economic disaster of the Revolutionary War.

The big picture says this, "when people are afraid, I mean really afraid like sworn off the stock market afraid". When most of your friends say, "Stay out" or have dire stories of how they lost almost all of their life savings. That is the time to buy, that is when the bottom is in. This is no minor correction. Right now they are still exuberant to get in, afraid to miss the capital gains, as shown by the many volatile swings upward. Social mood comes in waves, so don't expect it to bottom all in a straight line now.

Not to toot my own horn, but thankfully, there are people who can make money on the way down, puts and shorts like myself have a field day. Many say its not right to make it on the way down, but honestly we should have never gotten that high in the first place. Besides, people lose on the way up if they don't sell, in fact, you could have been the one who sold the stock to them.

Look at the market going down near 7400, then up for a few weeks and then down again some more. Its real easy to say and swallow when you haven't been sold a bill of goods for the past 10 years. I am sorry for anyone who has been sold this bill. Next time, run from market hysteria.

Best of luck, happy investing.

With an overwhelming action by the guys at blogactionday.org, bloggers all around the world have decided to write on how to end poverty. In my opinion it has to come from two directions. From the top down and from the bottom up.

First everyone is partly responsible for this mess. It mainly stems from the lack of motivation, greed, and unfortunate circumstances. The greedy take from the many, the poor lack the motivation many times to make their situation better. While there are many poor who desperately are trying to make their situation better, their circumstances gives them no breaks. This is where we need to focus.

While in the first 2 areas its all about morality, I can't change that without many days of nurturing and lessons, which is phase II. Phase I is helping with immediate needs at places like Atlanta's Union Mission and giving to "legitimate" charities that don't pay their principles millions like the United Way. Give to the Salvation Army and find the smaller outfits and we all can make a difference, piece by piece. As a whole we can end poverty.

I finally made it back to good ol' Georgia, from a great month in the Outer banks, kitesurfing and working on an alternative energy project! It went well, and all is well. I hope all is well with all of you in these crazy times!!!

On more important matters, as I called the financial meltdown. Here is what I think is next on tap..

Slowly we are sliding into a loss of liberties, and this videos sheds a great new light on it. Here is the history lesson from Keith Olbermann, so you don't think this has never happened. When you watch it, keep in mind, at an approval rating of 20% and his way out of office, do you think Mr. Bush really cares? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqxmPjB0WSs&feature=related

Flash forward to the most current events, and in the next video Naomi Wolf does a great job without spewing venom, conspiracies, or unsubstantial evidence all while laying out a plan on how to fix it.

Naomi Wolf's Take back the Republic Video, will FLY and go Viral.. wow 150K viewws in 3 days!! Here is an interesting video .. This girl is cute too! I think its time to stop bickering over Dems vs Repub, and as they say find a "Bi-partisian" solution.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XgkeTanCGI

Since times are looking like the are going to be tough, I started a blog, please read it and post comments. If things get worse its time to try and become more independent.

My prediction is we really will have to rise up and fight together. But unfortunately, we will have to lose many liberties, BMW's, boats and summer homes before we make a move. Slowly this is happening, the slow erosion is why you don't notice it much. Most people don't take action until a loved one is affected. We can see it happening, don't wait until you have no resources to get the things you need to survive.

I welcome a brave new world.

Sean

What a wild roller coaster it has been in the financial markets!!!. I think everyone and their brother just got a HUGE head fake on this Likely Bank Bailout plan passing. I am shocked, but also relieved in some way, despite the fact I lost a few G's in the market, hope for America exists as shown by the slight majority of level headed Congressman in the House. They know mainstreet gains little and wallstreet gains everything on this plan.

So, do you think I could go to my bank without charts, business plans, graphs and my first born, in my efforts to get a business loan? I think not! Then where is all the justification, the recourse, the impact studies on this proposed bailout? Maybe I wasn't watching the right channel, or that's just classified, but good Lord, obviously Paulson and Bernake and buddy Committees don't do their homework. Maybe India doesn't write term papers anymore, I don't know. All they know is their banking buddy executives are in trouble.

Based on all the rhetoric and media coverage, the minority whips, speakers, president, FED, etc.., all said "progress" was being made. Doesn't it seem odd to you that 90% of the interviews were all slanted on the opinion of passing? Yet 55% were Against the Bill? HMMM... sounds like the media is more of a controlling puppet, not an unbiased independent news source. But who is controlling the puppet on decisions on how to report the news and who to interview? HMMMM... Food for thought. My guess is the corporate elite who run this country, who unequivocally got us into this mess WITHOUT oversight and Transparency. T & O, whats that? I think if I hear these words, along with the notorious "Bi-partisan agreement" , I think I am going to Puke! Wait, if I call it "Rescue Upchuck" I am sure it will taste much better! LOL! Anyway, The mere fact that they try to change the name is just a sign of the leaders agenda.

These words are like some kind of new, ground breaking moral code that will change everything. So, its not something their Mothers taught Them? I guess not. ETHICS and COOPERATION, thats all it is, like they should get a gold star or an automatic free pass for doing such things? Come on we weren't born yesterday. Hmm. can you Legislate those values. I think not. Hence another likely breakdown is sure to follow. You can't trickle down funds and expect it to work. It never trickles down enough.

Nevertheless, I am certainly not in favor of the Big Financial Bank Bailout, and if anything is going to work it has to go to mainstreet first. No other way. The other way is giving more crack to the crack head. Its rewarding malinvestment and greed. When is America going to learn that recessions or depressions are a cleansing cycle? Its like taking the car keys away from disobeying children. Or its like the pain of 10 cuts vs. 100. 10 Now or 100 Later. You choose. It hurts, but its a necessary evil in any cycle, economic or otherwise. Once this is understood, "Shiva" would be proud.

Congratulations my friends you have a front row seats to the onset of the greatest depression since I don't know when. I may be wrong, but forget about 1930's, were on a track to something worse than that. But it won't feel like that because its 1000 cuts not 100, thanks to the good ol' Treasury printing press. Devalued dollars. Currency Debasement. Robbing you slowly. As an example, 630 Billion was injected into the fiscal system on this new "Black Monday" by the Federal Reserve!!. Who needs Congress to Inject 700 Billion into the Financial System when you got the FED? Fascism could be right around the corner.

Good night and good luck.

Hello again. Well, once again the Gold Bugs are out in Full Force stroking their egos because they got the last 2 weeks right. They are all saying, "I told you, I told you". Wow, like after 2 years, they finally got it right, prices will skyrocket.

Why is it that, they never seem to play devils advocate on themselves. Of course not. My guess, which sounds pretty logical, is that GOLD Skyrocketed more last week then any time in history because of one thing. The ban of naked short selling. Bad news has been out for over a year. Gold has been coming down as of late.

It wasn't but 60 minutes after the BAN on Naked Short Selling, did GOLD Skyrocket to the moon. Hmmm.. can you see the connection? Yes, the Gold Cartels have been keeping the price of Gold down with Short selling Gold contracts. Such spikes, one must look at "different" immediate causes, and no one but a few did.

Below is what you will typically see in a GOld Newsletter, and my responses in red. Now don't get me wrong, I am bullish on Gold, but it will go through bigger corrections then what most people see based on Elliot wave perspectives.

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Wow, once again, the FED, which is really a private bank, and no more Federal the Federal Express, comes to the rescue!! Holy crap, a $85 Billion dollar loan for 2 years. Good god. What if a bunch of us regular citizens said maybe 10% said, "Look, we made some bad decisions in all our business decisions the last few months, we were too risky." Can you loan us $3000 each? Yeah right, wouldn't happen. ITS the same amount of bailout.

INSTEAD, they will concentrate it all to a rich executives and sell it to us as "Necessary to upkeep the financial system". Hows that?? The economy is run 60% by consumers, and I don't remember needing any services from AIG. I need food and I need shelter. The bailout is to rescue the millionaires who created financial engineering. What a joke. Let is fail and teach those greedy bastards a lesson, that's what the LAW of Economics is all about. We don't share in their profits, so why should we share in their losses?

I am not the only one who feels like this, take it from the 30 analysts from www.ElliotWave.com, a truly logical, fundamental, macro-economic market analysis company. Directly quoted from the Elliot Wave THEORIST, Sep. 2008 edition:

"Wasn't the bailout necessary to save the financial system? Government officials and newspaper editorials even those from skeptical writers have been unanimous in claiming that a bailout no matter how unpleasant was "necessary." But this is nonsense. The only thing that has changed the only thing the government can ever change is who pays. A week ago people on the hook were speculators who voluntarily took responsibility for losses when they grabbed the opportunity for gains. In fact they have already booked years of gains in the form of interest payments along the way. Now those on the hook are people who had nothing to do with the transactions in the first place. This bailout will drain money from people who are solvent and thereby damage the financial system more in the long run. Producers and savers are the very people upon whom recoveries depend. By shifting the losses onto them the government has now assured the ultimate devastation of the entire financial system. The bailout is not just unnecessary it is another disaster."

I couldn't have said it better. You now have front seat viewing of the greatest financial calamity since or the great depression. Since things are leveraged at least 10x greater then the 1920's and the population hasn't grown that much, look for a depression 3 to 5x as bad. OF course that's in real terms, as the printing presses may cause the dollar may be inflated to 2 to 300 percent of today's values.

All that on top of no rate cut? I can't believe it. Finally, no more drugs for the needy. But to watch the FED's plunge protection team turn markets around after 2:15, from 100 down to 100 up in 10 minutes is astounding. Collective aggregate reasoning included, no one changes their mind that fast. About no other way to explain it. More PPT evidence at another time.

Believe it or not, I am positive person. I just want the truth and realism. Economics is fascinating, but was even more fascinating is everyone's denial of the perils and threats at hand. Part of it is no one wants to believe that their BMW's and cushiony jobs are at risk. Its going to be bitter sweet for those who saw it coming.

All the best. Hope your preparations get you where you need to be. The first thing is raise cash!

Wow, as things erode in the financial world, I am absolutely amazed at the speed, ferocity, and broadness of the financial calamities. If the original founders of Lehman and Bear Sterns would have known what they know today, they may have never started it. To think that 50+ years of sound money could all be erased in about 6 months? Are the so called owners so inept that they don't know how to protect a small stock price and mortgage change? Holy cow, their is only one word for that lack of foresight, its called over leveraging. To much risk, with YOUR Money IN THEIR derivative investments, and when things go bad they go bad. Dam, bankrupt in just a few months. Those poor shareholders and employees of Lehman.

If you think were out of the woods, you are nuts. Just because you have never lived "to tell and experience" doesn't mean it won't happen. Its not in our logic, so most people deny it. Get ready for major financial calamities, bank runs, increased crime, potential bank holidays, and defunct 401's and pension plans. Add to that, a 70 Billion injection today from the FED, the most since 9/11, and the writing is on the wall.

The bottom line is you must prepare, raise cash, get out of the market, and buy some emergency food. I am working on some Organic MREs, or Healthy dehydrated food, but in the meantime go to John Lipscumb great citizens site survivalistseeds.com or go the source by googling "viable seeds" or "heirloom seeds" are the key words so you don't get genetically modified seeds. Genetically modified food has been proven to shorten the life of rats by a huge margin! Here is a article regarding The Dangers of Genetically Engineered Foods from a trusted source, Eden.

Until next time, all the best!