Think this is bad? Wait until Japan begins to melt down. THAT could happen a lot sooner than many people now believe. It is the 3rd largest economy, not very far behind China. They go ahead with their plan to shut down their nukes, and they will have a hard time paying for the tremendous amount of fuel they will need to import. The USA has problems, but fuel and food aren’t among them. (Thank god, we would be killing each other.) Japan has neither. With a dying country with huge debt, (the population is shrinking) that isn’t good. To me, it is a ticking economic nuke.
It will be interesting to see how bad things in Japan will have to get before they drop their racist policies and allow some legal immigration.
Gold is heading to $2,000 soon thanks to the Fed nearly announcing QE 3.
DOW at highest level since May 2008. My forecast of 13,000 for 2011 might end up being off by a little over a month. With everybody creating electronic debt money, happy days are here again, until the next black swan. Greek default is priced in. Portugal can probably hang on until early 2013, which looks like it will be a very rough year with the US set for massive tax increases and/or budget cuts. Think of the inflation we would have without all the cheap stuff from China. How many years will that last?
Leading US economic indicators are UP .4%, BETTER THAN EXPECTED. Median house price is at $210,300. I did pretty good with an an ALL brick veneer 1,700 square foot on a 70′X125′ lot with attached 2-car garage, for $140,000. They even finished the roundabout on Brownswitch Road. I can get almost anything I need and be back in 10 minutes without waiting for any signal lights. I like when drivers in the roundabout STOP TO LET PEOPLE IN ! Southern politeness?
How about that shocking video of the mob chasing the Australian Prime Minister away on Australia day. Try something like that in the USA, and you would be facing a hundred of BIG, mean cops within 10 minutes. It looks like their police need some insensitivity training. I only saw 1 young policeman who knew how to handle a mob on all the videos. At least their soldiers can fight. You can’t reason with a mob. Violence needs to be crushed in a democracy, or you don’t have a democracy for long.

@ Ed.:

There’s no hot link!

Ed Note: Wait 2 seconds and its starts automatically now.

@ obewon
He is showing off his high tech abilities. I hit my sound off button, if it interferes with my important TV watching.
Unemployment in Spain has reached 22.8%. It is 39% among those below 26. The rocket scientists in Germany keep up with the punishment, and they just might cause the depression that Mr. Koo, from Nomura, warned about. Nomura doesn’t hire just anybody to run their research institute. Some Spanish hospitals aren’t paying their bills for drugs. I’m liking our US ability to create magic electronic money more and more. It might fall in value, but it sure beats NO money.