Houston, We Have Lift Off

Does anyone remember the dot com bubble? Huge moves up despite no underlying fundamental reason, violent swings back down and everyone got rich until they became poor again. Man that was fun. Welcome back. Despite the Fed artificially keeping rates low, record number of foreclosures is the reality. Despite equities having their largest bull market run in history over the past 8 months, unemployment topped 10% and is poised to head higher.

Crude? Just over a decade ago, crude was about $15. It has since run to $146, back down to $46 and then back up to $82 in less than 16 months. You can compare the most widely used commodity on the planet with most tech stocks during the dot com bubble. The Dollar? The almighty U.S. dollar has been battered down like a third world nation's during a revolution. The weak dollar strategy by the U.S. is a good strategy if they can get China to de-peg the yuan. China is beating the U.S. at it's own dirty little scheme and in the end we will pay dearly for this game of Russian roulette we started.

If it's one thing I've learned, it's to be aware of violent swings and big moves. Something smells funny and although I don't know exactly what, I know it's not a Haggas on my neighbor's cooktop.