US Stocks Close Higher As Industrials Rally

A morning report showing a declining pace of job losses in August helped industrials, including General Electric and Caterpillar, lead stocks higher Friday, although the gains weren't enough to pare all of the week's declines.

For Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 96.66 points, or 1.03%, to 9441.27. Pacing the index higher, General Electric tacked on 42 cents, or 3.1%, to 13.87, and Caterpillar rose 1.07, or 2.4%, to 46.11.

For the week, however, the index finished down 102.93, or 1.08%, snapping a two-week winning streak and marking only its second decline in eight weeks. (more)

The Wall Street Journal Asia September 4-6 2009

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McAlvany Weekly Commentary, Sept 2, 2009

The Monetary Sin of the West

September 2nd, 2009

Free download of the book, The Monetary Sin of the West: http://mises.org/books/monetarysin.pdf

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The September Syndrome

As just about everyone knows, the stock market crashed in a big way in 1929. Analyst Nick Guarino reminds me that it rallied 15 times before it hit bottom fours years later, having lost 90% of its value.

And the truth is, when adjusted for inflation, the market didn’t break even again until 1960. (If you’re a “buy-and-hold” investor, you MUST account for inflation. It is the single biggest “invisible” tax in our wonderful Fed managed economy.)

But before people could get too happy with making money again, along came President Johnson and the “Great Society.” I don’t know who it was so great for – the market began crashing again in ’66. Once again, adjusted for inflation, it didn’t get back to breakeven for another 30 years. (more)

China pushes silver and gold investment to the masses

We are indebted again to Paul Mylchreest's Thunder Road Report for news that will bring big smiles to gold and silver investors everywhere. Apparently China is pushing the idea of buying gold and silver for investment purposes to the general population in the way that Western television sells soap powder. If 1.3 billion Chinese citizens start buying gold and silver, even in tiny quantities, imagine what that will do to the market! (more)

Russian Professor: Collapse Of America Could Begin In Two Months

Russian Professor Igor Panarin says that events are continuing to confirm his doomsday prediction first made over 10 years ago, that the United States will completely collapse like the Soviet Union before the end of 2010, and warns that the chaos could begin to unfold in as little as two months.

Panarin, doctor of political sciences and professor of the Russian Diplomatic Academy Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told journalists during the unveiling of his new book yesterday that President Obama has done nothing to forestall the fast approaching crisis and that it could begin to properly unfold in November. (more)

Obamarket Update for September 2, 2009: The 1-3-6 Rule and Gold Begins to Move

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Scam hell ahead

By The Mogambo Guru

There are plenty of nightmarish things in the world today, but few nightmares match the terror of finding your wife still awake and waiting for you to get home after you had a late night on the town, or if you have money invested that is in the hands of professional money managers, as a New York Post article reports, "Harry Markopolos - the whistleblower on Bernie Madoff who proved to be much smarter than the SEC - says there are evildoers out there who will make the Ponzi scum 'look like small-time'."

Both of these horrors mean that a "Bad Day At Black Rock" is in store for somebody, which in one case is me directly, and in the second case is me, too, but indirectly, in that I don't have any money invested with slippery con men promising outlandish returns, but that all that money being lost, then the government... (more)

Money Market Safety Net Ending

Money funds, once considered a safe place to park cash, could become moderately risky again when the government program hastily initiated last year to guarantee money fund deposits expires on Sept. 18.

In 2008 the colossal Reserve Primary Fund, with $62.5 billion in its portfolio "broke the buck" when Lehman Brothers defaulted on $785 million in bonds which the fund held. Investor redemptions skyrocketed.

This prompted then Treasury secretary Henry Paulson's unprecedented intervention to protect all money market assets, approximately $3.5 trillion, and thus avert a panic, writes Joe Nocera in The New York Times. (more)