Is This A Great Country Or What?!

The partisan politics is destroying America. This is a nation divided and a dream comes true for the Oligarchy who now effectively owns this beautiful country. The two party system of democracy is the worst curse that even the enemies of America could have wished for it. This two party system is sucking the life blood out of the American democracy.

I present you with two cartoons just to show my love for both the parties..

Coming back to debt ceiling debate, I suppose what goes back, comes back. Here is something from our dear leader:

“The fact that we’re here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign — is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”~ Senator Barack Obama, 2006

Has anything changed in the last five years Mr. President? Yet, we want the debt ceiling to be raised and it will be raised in two days time, despite the game of chicken that is being played by both sides. Raising the debt ceiling will do nothing to solve the mess that we find ourselves in, but at least it will kick the can down for a month or two.

The good news for the evening is that both the parties have presented plans for raising the debt ceiling. The bad news is that both are non-starters.  You cannot wake up a person who is not sleeping. And the President is going to whine more on national TV. Man, does he love his teleprompter! This game will continue for some more time untill one side blinks. But blink one side will for sure. Republicans know that if they blow up this debate, they will effectively hand over the congress and next Presidential   election to the Democrats on a platter. They are daring Obama to pull the trigger and we have to wait and see if he can.

From MSNBC: With their revised plan, House Republicans backed off an earlier insistence on $6 trillion in spending cuts to raise the debt limit.

And Obama jettisoned his longstanding call for increased government revenues as part of any deficit reduction plan.

So you see the mating dance of the tarantulas continue. (Picture courtesy : macromike)

But where does it leave you and me and the giant casino which we all love to hate. We would be better off remembering that we are just small pawns and insignificant bits in the giant scheme of things of the big boys, who rule the casino. From a technical perspective, not much damage was done. I was looking for a drop of 10-15 points in SPX. The market did drop 15 points but clawed back half of that. In my morning post I wrote “The market in all possibilities will start lower and may slowly work its way up. The world is not coming to an end, yet.”

Sure enough, markets followed the script and SPX ended the day with a loss of 7 points.  At some point NDX even went positive, before closing in red. I went long along the way. The market is still on buy signal.

Most likely tomorrow will be another boring day and I do not expect any fireworks tomorrow.  As usual, Zero Hedge is having a good time predicting the impending doom of America, all newspapers and talking heads are full of horror stories.  But the market is calling Washington’s bluff. From CNN Money: "I think fundamentally, the market is telling us it doesn't believe we're truly going to default. Somehow, some way there will be a decision," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer with Harris Private Bank in Chicago.

Is there a guarantee that the issue will be resolved in the next few days? No, there is no guarantee of anything in life. There may be a collective death wish among the politicians that we don’t know about. If so, we will have the curtains called before time. I would be watching the market behavior keenly for the next few days for any possible signs of reversal of course. 

But for today, let me finish with an internet humor. (Hat tip to marketsniper of slopofhope.com)

Senior health care solution--according to Maxine  
 
Senior Health Care Solution 
 
So you're a senior citizen and the government says no health care for you, what do you do? 
 
Our plan gives anyone 65 years or older a gun and 4 bullets. You are allowed to shoot 2 senators and 2 representatives. Of Course, this means you will be sent to prison where you will get 3 meals a day, a roof over your head, and all the health care you need! New teeth, no problem. Need glasses, great. New hip, knees, kidney, lungs, heart? All covered. 
 
And who will be paying for all of this? The same government that just told you that you are too old for health care. Plus, because you are a prisoner, you don't have to pay any income taxes anymore. 
 
IS THIS A GREAT COUNTRY OR WHAT?!

P.S.
By the way folks, do you recall my post on Euro where I said Euro will go to 1.50+ ( http://bbfinance.blogspot.com/2011/07/euro-will-survive-for-while-and-larry.html ).
Euro just broke 1.44