Be Prepared Channel: The Stock Market

Welcome to another episode of the Be Prepared Channel. Sorry it has been a while since I posted. Work has been crazy and had me tied up. Today we are going to post a quick update on the state of the economy and the state of the stock market and what is going on.

The Market Melt Up?
CNBC has taken a full time role of playing market cheerleader and pusher of big government bailouts, manipulation, and market meddling... Unless of course your talking about the government talking about the trade practices of these countries we are running the massive deficits with then CNBC(parent company GE) shows it's fangs and pretends that what we have is a free market economy and any pressure to do something about the currency exchange issues or to consider tariffs or other measures is just insane protectionist rhetoric according to the talking heads on CNBC. I really find it hard to tune into this channel just to hear blatant lies and manipulation spin in high gear. Sadly I know I have to tune in just to have an idea of what is going on so I can be prepared for. It is really just very sad.

So the stock market has been in rally mode since March 2009. Looking at the charts and the activity of the markets the volume has been less than 1/3rd of normal market trading volume. Traders are seeing outflows, and little interest from customers which has everyone trying to figure out what is going on. How is it our markets have been able to rally this way and with this kind of volume? Well there are more and more people that are connecting the dots and it is really starting to look like full fledged manipulation by the Fed. Looks like someone at TrimTab's thought the same thing back in January and did the following interview which I think helps explain a lot.

Trimtabs - On Bloomberg

So it appears that something is extremely fishy about what is going on. CNBC even today is reporting trading volume is very very light. So nothing has changed and the manipulators continue to push up the market. The well known, but not acknowledged by the government Plunge Protection Team(PTT) has had it's hands full. It appears they have pushed up the market by 7 trillion which says a lot considering the volume of selling. It surely means that the PTT and Feds have dumped probably 20 trillion into the market to get that 7 trillion in increase market valuation. Pretty scary stuff! It must be nice to own the printing presses eh?

I pity anyone who has or is getting sucked back into the market based on this credit card rally. The US government has dumped trillions in bailouts and stimulus into the economy... And yet no jobs created. They claim the economy is growing but it surely isn't showing up on main street. You want to see the benefits to our credit card spending binge then look to China and India's economy. They are roaring ahead as we export our jobs and manufacturing as fast as a too big to fail banks can cook up some funny money and contracts to get it done with the too big to fail multinational companies that are exploiting our stupidity. And of course our government felt they weren't spending money we don't have fast enough. Just today they approved more stimulus spending called the Jobs bill. Yet another boondoggle of waste being put on the government credit card. The president is out saying this will be the first of many jobs bills!

Folks we are on the fast track to economic Armageddon. The projected CBO deficits just a couple of weeks ago stated we were going to rack up $10 trillion in more debt over the next 10 years. Considering the new spending and fraud since then that number was published makes it pure fiction at this point. Our debt to GDP is skyrocketing based even on the fraud numbers the government produces which does not address the unfunded liabilities of Medicare/Medicaid, and Social Security. So we are in hot water. We will not make it 10 more years at this rate. Those who are still stupid enough to lend us money by buying our debt will have vanished for the exits long before then. Worse yet our borrowing at today's ultra low teaser rates are going to get killed as rates are forced to climb and our government will be forced to either default on that debt or print it out of thin air to pay the bills as the debt payments become an ever growing line item in the budget. It is coming folks, not an if, but a when.

Bank lending is down, foreclosures are up(even though the banks are not foreclosing on people due to the fact they cannot get the houses sold) the numbers are still rising. Sale tax reciepts are declining in 37 of 41 states just polled. So that should speak volumes regarding the real health of the economy. I heard one guy call into Cramer's show and actually suggest something that is incredible and probably true... Americans have stopped paying their mortgages if they are upside down on their loan to house value. They have heard the stories that the banks are not kicking them out so they figure they stop paying them they will get them to adjust the terms, or they may just be banking on the fact that the banks won't boot them and when they finally do they will have gotten to live there for 6mths or a year or more rent free. So the caller says he sees the retail numbers are picking up and suggests that people are taking that money that was for their mortgage and going out shopping with it! You know that guy might just be right! Makes more sense than what the government is telling us.

So Jimmy Cramer is out there today telling you that the market is solid, sound, and it is time to watch for a pullback and jump in... Anyone listening to this momentum trading moron is looking to get their head handed to them. Best of luck if that is you! Trading volumes down, professional traders are saying the game doesn't add up so who you gonna trust? The guys who are admitting they are getting killed or the cheerleader?

Living large on credit cards...
Now imagine a world you were just laidoff. You are out of money, you have bills and debts up to your eyeballs. Ok, for some of us that is this world... but I will continue the story :-) Now instead of immediately going out and canceling any non-essential expenses you cannot afford, economizing your expenses, and looking for ways to cut corners you take out your credit card and start not just paying your bills with it, but going out on a wild spending binge, buying stuff you don't need... And the grand idea is that by doing this it will help you get out of this whole your in!?!? That is the governments plan. To heck with tomorrow, we have credit cards today.

Healthcare - no checks and balances - defending the healthcare bubble
Now to add more gas to the fire Congress and Senate are pushing the healthcare bill through using a slimy parliamentary procedure and will be tacking another $1 trillion dollars(according to the fake numbers out of the government and we know the cost will be double or more the estimates) to the debt all the while lying to us and saying it will reduce the deficit. What they don't want to admit is they are trying to protect one of the last untouched bubbles in our economy which is the health care industry. Rates have gone through the roof, costs for everything has skyrocketed. Why? Because most people have insurance... But how does that make this a bubble? When was the last time you asked your doctor what something costs? Nobody does! Why? Because insurance has it covered. We blindly just do what we are told without using our head and shopping around for the best rates, best prices, and best services. The insurance companies use strong arm tactics to lower costs to them by challenging care you have gotten and refusing to pay for care you have received. So what we have is a system that has grown wildly out of control. Costs are still going up, and guess what? People are losing jobs... IE they cannot afford insurance. Once this reaches critical mass the entire health care system is about to collapse. So the government without admitting what they are doing comes riding to the rescue of the system. They think if they can force everyone to buy insurance we temporarily get the needed cash flow to prop up this bloated pig of a system. Have they fixed anything? No! Have they just added a huge liability to a system which is already stretched? Yes So just like our runaway budgets or our too big to fail banks instead of addressing the problems we are going to try and hyper inflate it to keep it alive.... The end result will be a disaster.

Ultimately many of us won't be able to afford insurance. I know nobody wants to face reality, but that is it. Many of us won't be able to afford the insurance. And until the insurance companies get whiff of this new reality they will not lower rates or costs. Those are the facts. But when that finally happens that the system collapses from all the bloat and fraud in the system of cooked books is run out then maybe, just maybe will we once again be able to afford to go to a doctor and pay for the things we need done out of our pockets. The end result will be costs returning back to reality but hey what can I say? I am a dreamer... But I don't see how the current system stays alive. Now that the government is involved trying to save the health care system we are sure to see it not just fail, but do so spectacularly.

Now if anyone is wondering just how this end run around the constitution, and no checks and balances involved makes any sense I wish I could tell you. The health care bill is apposed by the vast majority of the American people yet these scumbag politicians know what is best for you... and despite the fact that they don't have the votes to do this legitimately they press ahead anyway. Obama went as far as to state in the State of the Union that he will just use executive orders to get done anything Congress and the Senate does not send him that he wants passed. We have stopped even pretending we are a Democracy let alone a Republic. The president should just sent Congress and Senate home since he can just decree anything he wants passed into law. The health care bill will be a disaster for our country over the next 5+ years. Frankly by the time the benefits kick in for the health care bill in 2014 the economy will be struggling with the real possibility of the Greatest Depression. At the rate of spending right now I don't see how we will be on any kind of footing to be able to fund this nightmare legislation. Math has never been the strong suite of the progressives... or the constitution for that matter. I can only hope there will be a rash of states that stand up and pass legislation like Virginia which states that Virginia will not honor the any health care mandates pushed upon the state. So we will have to see how many other states join this bandwagon.

Capitalism on trial?
Is capitalism on trial? Free markets? No, this is the Federal Reserve and it's member banks doing whatever it pleases and hiding behind the Federal Reserve act and behaving as if they are above the law. This is the government meddling with every aspect of the markets forcing mutations and distortions to the market place. It is favoritism and good old boy network that has created this environment of racketeering and fraud and not capitalism. Where are the gatekeepers? Where are the good guys with the cuffs and guns to protect us from the most blatant fraud on a massive global scale by those that are pretending to be part of the system to ensure that our markets work?

You see for our markets to work, for capitalism to work you have to transparency. You have to have trust. You have to be able to see what is going on and be able to make decisions based on the facts and fundamentals. Everything that has and is happening is being done behind closed doors by the good old boy network. Any time data is available for us to use as a yard stick to determine what is going on they take that data away, or change the rules to hide the facts. For example witness the CPI basket used to measure inflation how they substitute anything in the basket that drives up the cost and call it suitable substitution. Of course they exclude food and energy because nobody buys food or energy. Another example is the Fed removing the M3 money supply so that we cannot see the money creation in the system. Any time they don't like the numbers they do anything they can to disconnect the idiot lights from the dash of the economic car. In the current environment with limited visibility, and deliberate behind the scenes manipulation you would have to be insane to put your money at risk in these markets. The game is rigged folks so play at your own risk.

Lies, dang lies, and where are the perp walks?
Well the Fed chairman is out telling us today that demand is high for US debt by foreign investors and that he sees no decline in demand... Oh and the recession ended last year and the economy is stable. Well folks if we could get a Federal Reserve Audit, it is statements like this that very well could land Ben Bernanke in cuffs. One can only hope... We have to demand a Fed Audit. The truth is we have already caught the Fed monetizing and quantitative easing... IE printing money to cover peoples rear ends... So we know how this game works. Even some of the guests/hosts on CNBC know this to be fact that the Fed through private intermediate parties is buying up that debt and pretending there is still foreign demand. This game is rigged folks.

CNBC - Fed buying up to 80% of the debt - Ponzi scheme

Lehman Fraud Explained

CNBC - Fedex showing signs of double dip

So folks CNBC and the talking heads are all out there telling you there is a 'Melt Up' going on and that the recession was over last year. The government and the Fed chairman says the recession is over. They are out calling for DOW 12000 and acting like life is good... But the entire time we are living on credit cards at our kids and kids kids expense. It is theft and it is criminal on so many levels. I can hardly imagine how we are going to be remembered or thought of. It brings tears to my eyes to think about it and what we are doing to those that aren't here to defend themselves. I can only hope and pray that there are enough of us to stand up and demand answers, demand people are arrested, and that we get back to transparency, trust, and honest open markets. Until that happens we are on the fast track to bankruptcy. How many of these moron talking heads will admit they were wrong in a few years from now when the real depression kicks in with the collapse of the economy? Anyone want to take/make any wagers on that one? These are the same experts who didn't see this mess coming... You have to be blind to not see this coming...

Do I have a point?
At this point I am sure your wondering if I have a point in all this ranting. Yes, there is a reason. I am posting this to just warn and remind you that the fundamentals have not changed in this market. The conditions that setup the crash still exist and in fact has gotten worse. The credit and derivatives problem has actually grown. Nothing has changed or been fixed. Only thing that has changed is the Fed and our government has taken to massively printing and borrowing money and throwing it in the system to try and salvage the Titanic.

Pay off your debts
Build up emergency cash on hand
Don't get fooled into this stock market.
Don't start spending money you don't have.
Carefully choose what you spend, focus on your preps
Build your emergency kit - basic needs for food, water, first aid, emergency plan