Thoughts For Monday, 12/13/10

I'm worried partisan politics will cut into business and consumer confidence and economic growth in the last half of 2011.

Will the market move sideways in 2011?

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

-- William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2

Increased hostilities between the Republicans and Democrats may become a challenge to the market and to the economic recovery next year. As the 2012 election moves closer, President Obama will probably reverse his seemingly newly minted centrist views.

"The day the Fed came into being in 1913 may have been the beginning of the end, but the powers it caused took a long time to become a serious issue and a concern for the average Americans."

-- Ron Paul, "End of the Fed"

On the other side of the pew, as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy, Congressman Ron Paul's fervent criticism of monetary policy and the lack of transparency of the Fed may lead to further friction between the parties.

We are at, or are approaching, a bullish extreme.