Thoughts

I think the key to a sustained stock market advance will have to come from AAPL.


One of my favorite rap songs is "911 Is A Joke;" the SEC is also a joke. A bad joke.

The SEC may rebuke Lehman executives for their role in the firm's demise but will not sue them. Unbelievable. They get a slap on the tush for nearly putting the world into global depression. You mean to tell me that everything that took place at Lehman was on the up and up?

The SEC is a joke. It missed the boat with Bernie Madoff. It cannot coordinate with the CFTC, which is also a joke. It will try to beat up on GS because that is Washington's favorite punching bag.

This is really an outrage. Will Stan O'Neal get a free trip to the Caribbean for his role in destroying Merrill Lynch? How about Franklin Raines? Will he get the Congressional Medal of Honor for his role as Chairman of Fannie Mae? At least Angelo Mozilo was charged by the SEC and wound up settling for cash.



Just as I question the economists' ability to forecast, I also question the government's ability to accurately aggregate and analyze labor information for a one-month period of time.

At the end of the day, the best economic metric is corporate earnings. I am expecting those to remain strong.



In the coming days, maybe even over the weekend, I expect the White House to flinch and agree to substantive expenditure cutbacks in order to expand the debt ceiling. The White House is the biggest loser today.



Double-dip recession? QE3? Weak dollar? Stagflation?

The Labor report was weaker than expected. While the report was weak, another problem is also in expectations.