Morning Audibles - 9.21.10

Here we go with a new thread, if it becomes "convoluted", I'm sure someone will be along to fix it...


What's "convoluted" to me is that we're on DAY 13 of THE TELETHON...

C'Mon Everybody! Let's Raise Money for Barry's Kids!

- Let's raise the stock market
- Let's raise taxes
- Let's raise hope (now that the "Summer of Hope" was a bust)
- Please Dog - Let's raise our vote count

The Only Part That Mattered In Obama's Telethon

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=167032

From KD


"Let me direct you to the only question that had value from an investment perspective:



SANTELLI: Mr. President. If I were to ask an investor would he invest in a company that for every dollar it spent it had to borrow 42 cents, I think that investor would think long and hard. Now if you look at the amount of money the government takes in and the amount of spending, those are pretty much the numbers for our government right now.


Does it bother you that 42 percent of our spending is borrowed even understanding that we have to deficit spend under tough times. How long can the U.S. continue to spend in that fashion without potentially hurting our long time financial health.


OBAMA: Well, it bothers me a lot. It bothered me when I was running for office and it bothered me when I arrived and I had a $1.3 trillion deficit wrapped in a bow and waiting for me in the Oval Office.


So, the answer to Rick's question is we've got to do something about it. And we have to do something about it fairly rapidly. The first thing you do is not dig it deeper. That's why this tax debate is important. We can't give $700 billion away to some of America's wealthiest people. We've got to make sure we're responsible for our budget, that's point #1....


The one thing I have to say to the public is that about 60 percent of our budget is entitlements, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And a lot of the discretion I have is somewhat limited on these programs.


Now part of the reason health-care reform was so important is because the biggest driver of our long term budget deficits is Medicare. If our economy is growing at 2 or 3 or 4 percent, but health care costs are going up 6, or 7 or 8 percent, than the budget will blow up no matter how many cuts I make in other programs..."

Worst Over in Global Poll Pointing to Reduced Market Returns

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-21/worst-over-for-investors-in-global-poll-pointing-to-reduced-market-returns.html

For you applied logic afficianados, do some math on this algebraic equation...

(a)"Three out of five global investors say the world economy has weathered the financial crisis and has stabilized two years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

(b)Few believe the economy is recovering, with only (c)one in six of those surveyed describing it as expanding, according to a global quarterly poll of 1,408 investors, analysts and traders who are Bloomberg subscribers. (d) Forty-one percent aren’t convinced the financial situation is stable and say further turbulence is likely."

A+B+C+D = drumroll please - cue Jeopardy music...

“When taken as a whole, the world has stabilized,” says Uzi Zimmerman, a respondent to the Bloomberg Global Poll..."

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OK... It's probably my CONVOLUTED logic here that doesn't allow me to understand how and why:

- the world has stabilized
- Equity markets have risen 9% in September with no correction, (and 14% in the quarter - which often happens in functioning bull markets)...
- Bloomberg blames the "crisis" on "Lehman"
- Obama blames the crisis on "Bush"
- The solution for all these problems is MORE (growth, taxes, prices, convolution, whatever)

I'm clearly suffering from some form of logic dystrophy so I'm going to need help...