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An essay by Egon von Greyerz of Matterhorn Asset Management perfectly captures the insanity of these times, most particularly the belief that printing press money will spare us from economic disaster.  Click here  for the complete essay, from which I have extracted the following: "The US is haemorrhaging financially and economically. It has lent or committed almost $13 trillion in the last 18 months to prop up the financial system.  The estimated government deficit in the current year is almost $2 trillion or 50% of the budget. All the money committed so far has only achieved two things: Firstly it has created some short term hope which together with totally illusionary sightings of green shoots have generated a small stock market correction (which we forecast in our January Newsletter) and some belief that the crisis is ending. Secondly, all the funds printed so far to save the system have gone to Wall Street but has done nothing whatsoever for the real economy. Every single sector of the real economy is deteriorating whether it is production, unemployment, corporate profits, real estate, credit defaults, construction, federal deficits, local government and state deficits etc. "And what is the government doing about it. They are doing the only thing they know which is to print more money. This is total lunacy! How can any intelligent person believe that printed pieces of paper can solve an economic catastrophe? If that were the case we could all go home and write out pieces of paper or use Monopoly money to spend in the shops or repay our debts."

Our favorite cycles expert, Peter Eliades, is getting the second-highest overbought readings in 40 years from his New 10 TRIN indicator. However, the conclusion to be drawn from this is not so obvious as you might expect. Here's Peter:   "It would seem simple to say that such a reading must be marking a market top if it is the second most overbought reading of the past 40 years.  But as we have pointed out so often, extreme overbought readings on virtually any momentum-type indicator can turn out to be bullish rather than bearish.  In fact, if we trace back all the readings on the S&P 500 New 10 TRIN lower than .40 over the past 37 years, almost all of them occurred soon after important bottoms were formed and almost all of them marked low risk territory for the market.  They occurred in October 1982, January 1987, January 1988, May 1990 (this was one of the few readings that was registered near a market top), October 2003, November 2004, and the current readings in July 2009."

With yesterday's takedown in gold, the bullion bankers showed that they eat big trading funds for breakfast. Click here  for a link to Dan Norcini's think-piece posted at Jim Sinclair's site.

The bloom is off the rose in Dubai, where now-jobless expatriate workers are causing a plague of bounced checks.  Click here  for the full story at TimesOnline.

Although I am quite skeptical of  President Obama's health care plan, I want to present his side of the argument in the best possible light so that you can decide for yourselves.  To that end, I have provided a link below to an NPR interview with Maggie Mahar.  Maggie is not only the best reporter I know -- among the very few to have received a five-star rating from Forbes Media Guide --  she is a long-time personal friend. (Her first story, freelanced to Barron's, was the poison pill saga in which I was involved.)  She is diligent, honest and meticulous in mustering her facts, and that is why I am recommending this interview with Terry Gross to all.  Click here  to access either the audio version or the transcript.

Rick Ackerman  gives his views on the continuation of the rising conventional stock market in this concluding segment of The Korelin Report.  Click here for audio.

545  PEOPLE vs 300 Million By Charlie Reese Politicians are the only people in the world  who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever  wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits? Have you ever wondered, if  all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have  inflation and high taxes? You and I don't propose a federal budget.  The president does.. You and I don't have the  Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of  Representatives does. You and I don't write the tax code, Congress  does. You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does. You  and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve  Bank does. One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one  president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human  beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally,  and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague  this country. I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve  Board because that problem was created by the  Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty  to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank. I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a  sound reason.. They have no legal authority.  They have no  ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash.  The  politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what  the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility  to determine  how he votes. Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy  convincing you that what they did is not their fault.    They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

Think the Chinese are going to dump their Treasury bonds because they’re worried about a possible collapse of the dollar?  Not a chance, says U.S. forecaster Rick Ackerman, who was recently interviewed on the BBC show On the Edge with Max Keiser.  Far from being worried, say Ackerman. China has written off its trillion dollar exposure and knows the day is coming when other currencies will supplant the greenback in global trade. To access the interview, click here.

Peter Schiff hacks his way through a jungle of lies to explain why the Obama Administration’s “charm offensive” to talk up the dollar, and therefore U.S. Treasury paper, cannot possibly succeed over time.