Cara's Commentary & Community Chat, Wed., Apr. 29, 2009

.....

Question: aren't these GDP figures released today just an advanced release, much like we had for Q4 last year when the equivalent figure was -3.1%, and was subsequently revised to -6.7%?

EDIT: Yeap, the equivalent advance figure for Q4 was -3.8%, who knows what Q1 2009 really is.

I am in bewilderment after observing most equites, including financials are up.

RE:>I am in bewilderment after observing most equites, including financials are up.

Just happy to know the sell off is happening for real. Was thinking that equities would go up forever.

Too burnt to short the market good and proper. Maybe accumulate a little FAZ/SDS at the end of day and wait to see what tomorrow brings.

One day we wake up... and the carnage will be real.

3 minutes ago

(AP:WASHINGTON) Treasury plans to auction 30-year bonds on a monthly basis to deal with record debt levels.

getting too cute. went long at 31.63, yesterday's 3 PM price.

The run-up may last into Thursday's end-of-month window dressing by fund managers.

2nd ave is (as he usually is) 100% correct. Day jobs exists soley to provide you with company-sponsored health insurance, as well as a risk-free source of income, however paltry it may be. But please... Do not take that day-job seriously. And you can tell your boss I said so:)

the boss will like to hear that. I'm too GD independent as it is. LOL

ah right, the reason you are putting in a buy limit order - day job. Was just thinking that you're trumpeting your short loud and clear with a limit order. Can the floor traders mess with that?

ATVI - Upgraded at Goldman Sachs to Buy from Neutral based on attractive late-2009 game slate and reduced investor focus on music genre fatigue. See potential for positive EPS revisions as Q1 results and E3 show ease concerns. Priec target raised to $14 from $10.

BMY - Downgraded at Goldman Sachs to Neutral from Buy based on relative valuation and lower potential as a takeout candidate. See greater opportunity in other stocks within coverage universe. Price target trimmed to $23 from $25.

WFMI - Downgraded at Morgan Stanley from Equal-weight to Underweight. $15 price target. Valuation call, as the stock has more than doubled on the year.

sometimes I use a contingent order, if an index reaches a price level, then execute an order on a stock/etf. Pre market orders generally have to be limit orders.

Light trading thus far.

Nice EPS

DVN - Today's benchmark is $51.00, if price closes above this value, support is proved.

...

Nice chart yesterday on the $INDU
http://caracommunity.com/content/caras-commentary-...

However saving and uploading it as a MS Word Doc file requires the viewers to download it and then open it with MS Word. It would be more convenient if after you take the screen shot, to paste it into MS Paint and then save it as a JPG file. Then upload and attach here, that way everyone can just click on the link to see it.

The following also gives some instructions on doing this.

Site Index >> Website Help >> Chart and Link Posting
http://caracommunity.com/content/chart-and-link-po...

Hope to see more of your charts in the future, I luv charts and TA.

Agreed for the longs, the stock was on very shaky ground yesterday and taking some off the table would have been a prudent thing to do.

http://tinyurl.com/cxsfzz
"It's estimated that about 28 per cent of Canadians and Americans contracted the Spanish flu. Worldwide, an estimated 2.5 per cent of the sick died of complications, which made the pandemic one of the most lethal flu outbreaks in recorded history. Certainly it was one that imprinted itself upon human consciousness for several generations.
But there's another way to look at those statistics. You might observe, for example, that they mean that even during the worst ravages of the 1918 flu, 97.5 per cent of those infected survived and recovered. Or that 72 per cent of the population -- even in the absence of the sophisticated public health planning and infrastructure that Canada and the U.S. have since built -- was not infected during the pandemic.

So, even if we had a repeat of the 1918 flu, the chances were seven out of 10 that you wouldn't catch it and if you did, the odds were better than nine out of 10 that you'd survive.

That was during the worst pandemic of the modern era and one which occurred in the days before the instantaneous communications of radio, television and the Web enabled quick public health responses."

QCOM - Price Target Raised from $45 to $47 @ Barclays. Overweight

TZA @ 30.01 p. exit @ 32.61. I still think we end the day in the green, but expect a mid day pull back.

Edit: Adding @ 29.64. Moved profit exit to 32.18

will have to work out how to engage a trade first thing in the morning.

I scanned a list, put them into bestfreecharts to keep an eye on them, but having seen ACI already up pre-market, didn't chase.

What to do?

Monitor the day prior and buy at closing?

Told not to trade in amateur hour. So how to gain on gapping ups like that?

I don't trust this rally, so my patience is being tested. 100% cash.

It isn't every day you get to watch a 20pt rally on the S&P! Didn't we see same yesterday?

i think too many people are playing this stock this way. i think it goes higher

now +8%, go figure

It looks like we will see a test here this morning as the S&P is momentarily 874.2

Will FOMC meeting provide another buy opportunity today? Considering placing limit orders for TBT 100@46 100@45 100@44. Is it media spin or will the fed look to defend the 3% on the 10 year?

I'm sure there are pension fund managers, and other retail participants who are also watching and possibly putting a toe in the water. After all, one of the biggest emotional pulls is not wanting to miss out on a rally and looking stupid, especially after staying in there and getting clocked last year.

It would be interesting to know what groups of people are responsible for different amounts of trading volume.

EDIT: boy volume sure picked up now that we're a heartbeat from 875.

- End of the month markup
- Short covering
- Underinvested managers "needing" to get exposure

60 minute charts point to 885ish?

For those who still follow this solar company. Heads up: the numbers are likely going to stink again, weighted down by another "unexpected" one-time charge. There could also be some good news delivered, but I wouldn't roll the dice ahead of any announcements.

FWIW, I've been very inactive in these markets lately. Much too choppy and uncertain. And, ha ha, much too busy with my day job. ;)

"BofA's Lewis could lose chairmanship at meeting"

I hope he does! I also hope Lewis repents by incriminating the remainder of the criminals involved like Paulson, Fuld, etc.... Whomever is guilty of perpetrating these crimes against the citizens of this planet.

I also hope the recent crime against Hywell Jones does not go unpunished.

It's time we take a stand against crime and put a stop to it. These people must be held accountable for their actions. There are crimes being perpetrated behind scenes and too many people just don't, wont, or can't make themselves believe such things could possibly be true.

WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!!! This is why you pay taxes, to support LAW AND ORDER!!!

MEE - showing greater volume today
ACI - less than when they fell 4/24
TNA - normal, TZA - a bit more volume today
BBY - normal except for 2 spikes ~250K today
BBBY - normal low volume
GG - normal to lower volume today
AAPL - up on normal volume
GOOG - up on normal volume
AMZN - down on normal volume and far less than when they rose 4/24
RIMM - down, a bit more volume today

Weaker dollar . . . U.S. Treasury auctions, more scheduled for next week, rumors of a 50 year, increasing 30 year to monthly auctions . . . supply, supply, will demand keep up?

Contemplated shorting TLT today, however, I'm a little wary as Fed may announce after FOMC meet today that they are buying Treasuries (yes, buying back again what the G is selling) . . . this would increase demand or at least give the appearance of increased demand, lowering yield, increasing price.

Prior to Fed announcement, we should see results of 7 year auction @ 1 p.m. EDT. . .

Talk of U.S. 50-year bond resurfaces in market

http://tinyurl.com/d5pp7g

GS, possibly a tell right before announcement (watch volume) is up +$5.21 presently.

GS is +$5 and the 5 day volume appears normal except for one 400k spike

I got a late start this morning, and before I saw any mention of the hugely negative GDP number, I saw at least 2 or 3 article headlines that read something like:

"Wall Street rises as inventory drop spurs optimism"

I understand that clearing out inventory is a critical reset before production can start rising again, but I'm curious if anyone has insight into the importance of this in todays day and age as compared to previous recessions? And did big inventory declines ALWAYS precede a significant upswing in economic activity?

My gut tells me with continued massive job losses and consumer indebtedness, businesses will have little incentive to 'rebuild inventories' (which is the hoped for positive outcome).

Not to mention that inventories seem to be getting cleared out with some incentives like price reductions, cheap financing (still available where i am according to the radio:), etc. Doesn't this just pull forward demand as people load up on more crap they don't really need? Thus no need for inventory rebuilding...

Guess I'm still a pessimist, and mostly cash

TIPS are where the investor is protected against inflation.
What game is Uncle Sam playing?

edit: GS rising on no volume. Bidding against itself?

Chickenpookie,

With respect, I pay taxes to support JUSTICE, which is greater than and includes
law and order.

In 400 tza@29.11

exercise

The sociologists instruct us that crime and deviance are defined by those in the upper tiers of society, and that those definitions typically conveniently fail to include the sorts of misdeeds committed by members of that upper tier.

That's why squeege-ing windows, selling reefer, and begging in the street are illegal and why exploiting and discriminating against workers, stealing pension money, and lately, why running trillions of dollars worth of banks into the ground while perpetrating a criminal fraud are not.

Remember Sarbanes Oxley? The Injustice department doesn't:)

how many people are willing to bet what the reaction will be before the FMOC announcement:

heres mine, small speculative position taken in what i think might happen:

after the meat of the annoucment is made, gold will have a small but sudden gap up, followed by a more gradual fall that will by tommorow bring us much lower, taking the miners with it.

will short if the POG gaps up around $910, w/ a stop at $920. will unload if the POG falls back towards $865 or so.

if not much happens or gold continues to side track ill just sit tight. TLT is looking ready to collapse but something always seems to bring it back in play.

as usual i think the reaction will either be minimal, or contrarian.

good luck.

at 57.05, right around the price at which I have acquired it. Planning to buy it back cheaper today or tomorrow. I think this kind of inventory-based optimism will last a little longer.

2nd
Hard to tell if this is real or not. But I am staying away for now. Do not have anything right now. Missed big time on IBN. I was afraid about coming election result

Someone sure wanted that to happen.

ALOHA !!

WOW ... look at that AUD soar ... up 3.16% today against the USD which is down BIG!

I hear ponderings about GOLD ... Ponder no more because as this hyper-deflation continues I believe we will see more SPAIN COPY-CATS, where desperate for income countries who are underwater as debtors will sell off their gold to make ends meet! Kind of like LITTLE LEAGUE strategy of "HIT HARD AND HOPE!" Meaning close your eyes and swing with all your might and hope and pray you get a homerun.

Yet ... you have to ask yourself when these gold sales are announced ... WHO IS BUYING? In 99.9% of the SELL announcements the buyers are never exposed. That is why it such a shock to hear CHINA is buying. Countries like Russia and OPEC announce they are increasing gold reserves all the time, but CHINA keeps quiet. It would not surprise me to hear buyers are the same bullion banks that are hoarding TARP funds now. Oh and CHINA ...

So who's SELLING but more important ... who's BUYING?

All these global DEBT based governments, especially the USA, are just ... buying time!! I am wondering when the USA will announce we are selling gold reserves. Perhaps never and that would be highly suspicious ... After all, we are DEBT based!

DEBT ... DEBT EQUALS WEALTH! Hummmmm??? OPRAH?

Les,
Yea, I almost sold it ~28.50, had my finger on the trigger. I am looking at the TNA chart and see it was 10.34 on March 9th, momentarily it's 26.46. It's a reverse replay of the 2008 falloff, where the market kept going down and it felt like it couldn't go any lower, then it did. Now I'm fighting the price trend that I am supposed to follow. I'll hold TZA overnight as it seems to 'bounce' up and down every few days and soon it should go up. I may pickup another 100 shares to have an even number and lower the break even. But, I'll do that closer to 4pm if at all. At least I am still mostly in cash.

So as to take some advantage of this rally, I have just covered at $1 my short position in May $25 ERX puts, which I sold at $4.30 a few weeks ago. Had I kept these puts until expiration and they actually expired, my absolute gain would not have been that large from this point (only $1 per share). But by covering them now, I have freed up the cash I kept as a collateral, which I can re-deploy on any market plunge. I think this flexibility is more important now than trying to hold onto a small absolute gain.

I split firewood.

It got me through 14 years of needing to learn software upgrades so I could do what used to only require a pencil, pastels or paints.

Also makes for a relaxed winter evening.

Have a bid in @ 31.61

...

Fed commits to printing $1.7 Trillion to buy trashy loans, gold instantly drops $10 in response.

Got rid of my TZA@28.88 for a small loss in that little up move. WTI crude has pulled back so the SCO bid ran away from me. 100% cash again.

bugger. broke cardinal rule and daytraded once too many times without thinking about it. IB has blocked new buying for 3 days to maintain compliance.

time to clean up the kitchen...

Hopefully no radical movements next couple of days.

night all.

Well there's some volume.

Looks like the 3pm fun has begun early today.

Glad I made it back today. Looks like I'm going to have to do some work to clean up TZA. KGC doing nicely.

Edit: TZA adding @ 27.93

Edit: 1/2 off @ 28.80

Edit: Second 1/2 off @ 28.81. Net-net 2.67% loss.

So if the goal of the Fed is really to lower interest rates, I'm thinking it didn't work so well. TLT dropped like a stone after the announcement. They can play with gold, but they don't seem to be able to play with treasuries. Maybe that's the better way to play this whole thing?

The Fed may talk about QE and lowering rates, but they're really just sopping up the excess treasuries that the foreigners aren't buying, avoiding a failed auction. And they're providing a bid for all those mortgaged backed securities as well.

Would ya look at plucky little gold? It's coming back, back to 900 already! Ok gold, I won't desert you yet... :)

And the S&P back below 875..

increased my current short position by 50% at $41.41. Placed a buy to cover limit order at $39

Thanks Quasi, that's a great pic!

Vinod- I'm waiting until Friday at the earliest. Sticking to the NGas play for now.

about feds take on inflation.........and my view
people don’t look at the price of gold, or Treasuries, or the money supply.
They look at the cost of a loaf of bread, a ride on the bus, a pint of milk, maybe a gallon of gasoline.
The heating bill, the rent. All that stuff can actually get more expensive - even during a depression

2nd
i had some canadian stock last year and it created problem at Tax filling time. so i decided to stay away from them. I had TGP and other --don't have now

Yep, 13.08

Will we break $900...ever?

Dr. Cosa, Kaimu?

ABX reported more losses? any opinions on them?

Gold has been capped all day in NY so it is doubtful if it will move above that level during NY trading. Asia will most likely loosens the chains tonight but shenanigans in the overseas gold market have been increasing lately due to suspicious activity in the NY Globex market. Impressive rebound in gold since the 2:15 pm take-down.

In my K9 travels I sometimes luck out. Got comped the executive suite in Reno once, floor to ceiling picture windows overlooking the strip, a stocked bar and a sunken bath tub. Usually it's a Best Western with a broken ice machine...

Grym, I would split firewood but it was safer for me to just get out of the office for a while. Splitting firewood sure brought back memories of growing up though. I miss the simple old days.

Looking at Googlefinance.com, their charts look to be distributed again, unless I am missing something.

Literal meltdown for Olympic steel.

opened a 1/2 position at the close with stock down about 2% today. Earnings are behind us and they were a beat. VZ will be the first to roll out 4G and rumor has it they are talking with a number of companies about bringing something out to compete with the i-phone. We shall see how this trade unfolds. Trade around it a bit and collect a 6% yield is the plan. They have a far superior platform to AT&T so if they can find something to compete with iphone I think it could be a bit of a steady eddy.

A boring trade, but I have good intentions of eventually holding something of a long portfolio again one day. :' )

I have done this play a few times and always made money. When Its sell the news on decent earnings VZ is a good buy. analysts always poo poo the declining landline business, but the wireless is best in breed and will be the main earnings driver. I will look to enter a position tomorrow. THanks for the heads up.
Bob

ALOHA !!

I do not care if its CHINA buying or a very wealthy, but very cool, CHIMP! Any time you take supply off a market, any market, the price rises. So, do I care if CHINA buys or RUSSIA or OPEC or GLD or TARP funds are used to buy GOLD? NO ... DO I trust COMEX? NO ... I consider the futures markets as corrupt. This is all massive intervention on a daily basis by the US FED, backed by the political agendas of the US GOVERNMENT and other global central banks. They all have a lot at stake in this current power struggle. Intervention on this scale destroys the C WORD and eventually the markets will collapse.

Tell me one market that is not manipulated ... Where isn't there intervention?

The global governments live and die by the Fiat!

My thesis is a systemic collapse of the US GOVERNMENT and its ability to generate tax revenues. Any idiot can follow that and I am 100% positive that all holders of US DEBT have a keen eye out for such data. In the absence of revenues all any government can do is either CUT SPENDING drastically or PRINT DEBT in larger quantities. It seems OBAMA has so far, chosen the latter. Cutting SPENDING in any substantial manner is political suicide and obviously OBAMA knows that and that is why he has made minuscule cuts!

None of this bodes well for global Fiat as every country in the World is on the same path to massive DEBT ...

I never sweat the short term but I will take advantage of any large dips. I have been at this since 2000 and little has changed except that the POG keeps going up not down. This is par for the course and I have seen the POG "Capping Game"(not so different than the Crying Game ... surprises abound)for years now.

Many people have forgotten GOLD'S main advantage ... It has no liabilities or counterparties ... no exposure to BK ... never needs a BAILOUT! As more and more markets collapse ... commercial real estate comes to mind as next in line ... more and more entities will seek "safety" from BK, even many US States(like California)will be under the DEBT GUN! California cities are already filing BK. This is only going to get worse ... There is huge malinvestment into the "false wealth" side ... Even CALPERS wants to get rid of BAC! What do you think the rest of the pension funds are thinking?

Buying time is the only PLAN any of our leaders have ...

In the meantime, IT IS WHAT IT IS ...

Art Cashin,
UBS Financial Services director of floor operations, offered CNBC his take on Wednesday's market.What about swine flu? "The market's adopting a 'wait and see' reaction," Cashin said.
"On Monday, we had a quick initial reaction" to the flu outbreak, which hurt industries including shipping, travel/leisure and airlines. "Then drug stocks shot up." But both of those trading trends "got tempered" and seem to be levelling off Wednesday, as financials make steady gains.
However, he stands by his correction caveat of last week: Some indicators hint of a "very, very sharp move between now and the end of this week," Cashin said.

kaimu - So you don't think the FED will rain money on the parade in an effort to save their T.P.?

Nice move in PNP.TO today. Another move like that and I would be ready to sell some of my PNP.TO. To capture this possibility, I am placing a sell limit order at $2.14US for 1/5 of my current position (for which my cost basis is $1.14US).

Just wanted to convey my thoughts about the swine flu. Take a deep breath of fresh air if this has gotten you riled up.

It is real and will cause illness and will cause more death. All forms of the flu virus do this and this version is no different. Take the same precautions you have taken every flu season and you will have about the same odds of dying from any other version.

Beyond this, myself and my colleagues cannot figure out why it is receiving heightened attention. I'll go out on a limb at this point and speculate with a great deal of comfort that most of the hype is exactly that... hype. Which makes me wonder... why the hype? That is a more important focus. There are some anomalous aspects of this event that are suspicious on a variety of levels, but these anomolies do not change the hard data pertaining to virulence and pathogenicity. I'll let you know as soon as I see something that changes my opinion.

But as long as the media and the powers that be continue to flog this horse, by all means trade the panic.

If it bleeds it leads. It sells.

http://tinyurl.com/d23gs9

up 14% after hours

"I would like a nice, lean portfolio" -- Obama. Who wouldn't?

Bill,

You make a very poignant point.... one with which physcians across the planet struggle. To never forget the humanity of those we are tasked with treating. Over time, we learn to build walls around our emotions so that we can continue to treat our patients without allowing very emotionally trying circumstances to affect our judgement. We must learn to separate the patients' pain and circumstance from our own emotional makeup... or we burn out. It is a tricky balance and most of us lose perspective from time to time. All it takes is someone like yourself to refocus our attention.

I got into this career to help people in the most pure and simplistic terms I could imagine; by relieving their pain. Politics, Religious affiliations, prejudices, etc. are all left at the door. And I've made great personal sacrifice over the years in order to earn the right to do this...some 12 years of higher education without payment to date.. no family, no house, a 20 year old car, long hours, relentless classwork, labwork, and battery after battery of standardized tests... and another 6 years before I will receive any compensation. Needless to say, I dont trade. Rest assured that anyone fortunate enough to end up in my care will receive the benefits of all of this work. Also rest assured that I had no intention of belittling the pain and anquish this form of illness or any other form will cause.

With respect to the CDC, the WHO, etc... they are as much political animals as any of the other alphabet soup agencies we might list. They obey the mandates of an intrinsic hierarchy that is made predominately of political appointments. I worked for several years under one of the UN's physicians... someone who reported to Kofi Annan directly... someone tasked with elevating the level of medical care and medical research throughout the third world....someone with a most impeccable and unimpeachable CV... and I saw much of the political processes involved within the top tiers of international medical governance through this mentor's eyes and experience.

My post was intended to reassure this community that the risk currently described in the press is greatly exaggerated based on the information the medical community has collected to date. Nothing more.

...

You beat me to it by a few seconds, 2nd. The risk I feel in this action is that it's this Mar.9 - date rally blowing off, ... or not. As Bill says, be careful out there! (I like this "Wall of Worry" so much more than what we've had to endure the last 18 months)

I share your concerns re the near-term future of nuclear ( stocks ). However, the other day U3O8 price finally started to come up off the floor. Very recently, Korea Electric took a 20% position in DNN/DML @ $1.30 CDN and have locked in 20% of DNN's output for their purposes. Meanwhile the Rep of Korea is peddling some of their own reactor designs and will need assured supplies of U3O8 for customers. I've been looking to exit DML but keep taking my order off the table as volume increases and price recovery in underway. Today: DNN +22.6%, DML +21.3%. With little else to excite me it's a case of watchful waiting.

MtnGntx-

I think it was 3 or 4 years ago I read John Barry's narrative about the 1918 influenza epidemic ("The Great Influenza").

It's been awhile, but two points I recall are:

(a) Too little too late on the part of many authorities.
(b) Fighting the epidemic spurred many discoveries/lasting changes in medical science. Which by implication means there must have been serious disagreements among public health experts at the time.

No one knows right now if the 2008 swine flu will be "the big one." But with stakes so high, it would seem prudent to assume the worst. We can breathe a sigh of relief if it turns out to be just 'another flu.'

"the 1918 influenza epidemic ("The Great Influenza"). "

That was a rough one, I hope to never get that one again!!!

Submitted by Mark Barry (505 comments) on Wed, 04/29/2009 - 10:43 #25302 (in reply to #25301)

TZA @ 30.01 p. exit @ 32.61. I still think we end the day in the green, but expect a mid day pull back.

I've asked my wife to remove all of the sharp knives from the house. Got to run, I hear the bus coming with my name on the tires.

"It never ceases to amaze me the great depth we as a community have and how much we can help one another. ... MtnGntx, I feel your spirit, and I think most others here do too. (Bill)

Speaking for myself, I do too. This Community, which Bill has assembled, amazes me everyday. Some days, after reading an endless litany of "into Faz" and "out of Fas" posts, I feel like it has no more to offer and then I come across posts like yours, reaffirming what drew me here in the first place. Rest assured, MtnGntx, the sacrifices that you have made in your life will be rewarded in due time, leveraged many times over!

Mark,
Check the weekly charts of 4 horseman & also $indu. Candles are getting smaller and smaller, that does not bode well if the uptrend is to continue....

check X, NUE, MT. They are all ready to roll over

Shiva,
I did, thanks. I still believe we are do for a pull back, but that trade was made just to make one. Not good. Like I said before, I've been trying to get short for a week and keep getting my finger burned over the flame. My 1 year old learns faster. On the other hand, I am working harder on my NG play. The futures clearly agree with my premiss. As I am still 90% cash, I am happy to let this trade play out over the next 6-10 months. It was interesting today that PXP out performed HK. I am looking to add DVN, CHK, HK, and PXP on a pull back.

Shiva,

And then I see an earnings report from TRN and I begin to wonder?

Mr. Cara,
I do not agree with you about Obama's salesmanship.
I was not fooled when Obama was the Democratic nominee.
Obama did not have a decesion making background. .
A smooth talker is no where near as appealing to me as a person of substance.
The emperor has no clothes!
I do appreciate all your opinions, sharing your wisdom, trading tips and providing this forum.
Mr. Cara you I respect, Obama I have to accept.
Bear E

NYU,

Your girl friend must be as understanding as my wife. Perhaps the risk to reward is worth it?

I thought the big deal about this one is that (like in 1918) in Mexico City, it was "military age people" who had the highest death rate - from 25-45. Most "normal flu" mortality comes in people with weaker immune systems. Perhaps it was this aspect that gets the WHO in an uproar.

To quote a CNN report: "Researchers do not know how the virus is jumping relatively easily from person to person, or why it's affecting what should be society's healthiest demographic. Many of the victims who have died in Mexico have been young and otherwise healthy."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/29/swine.flu/ind...

To all the medical doctors here: my sister is one of you. I do not envy you your career path one bit. I saw what she went through, I'm not sure why after we outlawed slavery so long ago, it's still permitted to exist in certain areas of our society. Best of luck with residency.

http://money.howstuffworks.com/becoming-a-doctor14...

"Being on call while in residency means that you stay in the hospital over night and care for the patients on your team and the other teams, and care for the new admissions. This means you will be working up to 30-36 hours with little or no sleep. This is done every 2nd, 3rd, or 4th night depending on the institution and specialty you are in."

ALOHA !!

Lots of OBAMA exposure on TV but where is JOE? Is he in Cheyne's bunker?

Here is a glimpse of who JOE is tied to ... Here is what his son and brother are doing and somehow JOE must be guilty by association. This should not be shocking as I have no doubt 99% of the US CONgress is neck deep in hedge funds and banks!

From BRONTE CAPITAL blog ... I have cut and pasted the more pertinent part but the link is below.

READ ON:
All of this would not be the biggest story on my blog except that Ponta Negra is marketed out of the office of Paradigm Global – a fund of hedge funds owned and controlled by Hunter Biden and James Biden. Hunter and James are the son and brother of Vice President Joe Biden respectively.

You can find this several ways.

1. Ponta Negra gives its address in the second marketing document as 650 Fifth Avenue, 17th Floor. This is the same address as Paradigm Global.

2. The contact on the first marketing document for Ponta Negra is Jeffry Schneider. This is the same Jeffry Schneider who is quoted in this Wall Street Journal article as being the marketer for Paradigm Global and effectively spins for the Bidens.

3. This SEC filing gives an address and phone number for Ponta Negra. The address and phone number is a number through the switchboard of Paradigm Global and until recently it was a way of getting into contact with Ponta Negra.

At a minimum Paradigm Global – a fund of fund managers owned the Vice President’s family housed an alleged fraudster. The alleged fraudster used the same phone number as the Vice President’s family business, the same marketing machine and traded off the good name of the Vice President’s family business.

There are numerous posts about Ponta Negra, Paradigm and other assorted entities (Onyx Capital for one) that I have withheld posting on. I will put them up as a series. The ties between the Vice President’s family and some very questionable dealings are very strong.

The next step for the SEC has the surname Biden. Are they up to it?

Link: http://tinyurl.com/d7vmhy

Kaimu - REAL WEALTH will prevail once the extremely inordinate gargantuan size of FALSE WEALTH is unwound.

It occurs to me that you could replace the word "wealth" with "gods" and use that same level of passion and be quite a successful tv evangelist. :)

"Cease praying to those false gods! When the apocalypse comes, only the One True God will save you!" Etc.

I mean, I happen to agree with you, but still. I'm just saying. :)

You can listen to John Tumazos (commodities analyst) and Tom Keene on Bloomberg podcast dated 22 April. Tumazos pointed out that US Steel has nine foundries and 4 of them are closed, the other half working at far reduced capacity.

he calculates steel use down 55% since peak months mid-2006.

The aluminium market has been apparently suffering overcapacity... since the collapse of the soviet union.

Already been mentioned here but this WSJ article is an interesting look at reality faced by public health officials and drug companies in the coming months.

"To devote their facilities to a swine-flu vaccine, the firms may have to curtail production of regular vaccine for the next flu season -- a move that could have dire consequences. While swine flu appears to have killed about 150 people as of Wednesday, seasonal flu kills 250,000 to 500,000 people world-wide every year and causes three million to five million cases of severe illness, WHO says."

http://tinyurl.com/c9kqhj

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-terror-plane-de...

"How much does a terrifying, pointless photo-op for Air Force One cost the U.S. taxpayer?

$328,835."

Mark-

I know how you feel. It doesn't matter which bus you take, or which bus line. You'll notice the destination signs all read "Maximum Frustration." I guess the trick is to get off the bus before the final destination.

Once the bus hits the end of the line, it generally dumps most of the passengers and picks up waiters for the return trip. This usually gives you another chance to disembark in one of the better neighborhoods.

I notice you have a high cash percentage, which will hopefully allow you to make the round trip with little/no damage. Maybe even a few detours into greener pastures.

Good luck.

Bill,

Your Obama assessment is exactly why I once voted for him here in Illinois — he's a marvelous salesman. If he had been selling real estate — I would have lost my shirt. As it is I have lost belief in any positive changes coming from this administration.

His speeches remind me of the punchline to a lengthy story...

"On the surface it's deep, but way down deep it's shallow."

Grym, as a former advertising careerist, I can say I recognize the sizzle before the steak most days. What troubles me is how we sit back from our superior corners and poke at this person who so brilliantly represents what we want to believe is possible in America. It's only possible if we get up off our arses and help become the change we are waiting for.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124103947970470201...

Here is the link Les, I have a subscription to the WSJ