More Rain

There is another heavy rain falling here at the bunker. Since I have a strong position on a hill, flooding is no problem. But the dogs really don't like going outside in the rain, so I have to be carefull and force them. Sometimes I have to go out with an umbrella to show "leadership".

Russia says its offensive is halting. Time will tell. But from the maps, they seem to now have sufficient control to impose a settlement. Whatever the causes, the Russian offensive seems to have been well prepared. Perhaps this was just a contingency plan on the shelf. Or perhaps it was more. But so far, this mess seems to be a child of the west's policies on Serbia and Kosovo, plus some petulance on the part of the Georgian President. I am wary of commenting further as I do not trust the media in reporting the truth of what actually happened to cause this or even what the situation is now.

The market held up well yesterday, extending the gains of Friday. The S&P broke through and closed over its 50 DMA*.

All the commodity gurus who were saying the commodity boom was going on forever and "it was different this time" are now saying the commodity bubble is over. And the global growth falloff is the cause. Uh... how much really changed in two months in the outlook for global growth. It's really just the speculators leaving their favorite "trade" These huge money pools are causing havoc in the real economy and need to be regulated.

*DMA = day moving average

Word of the Day

"Diachronic" - adjective [$10] from linguistics, etc. [compare to "synchronic"]
Diachronic means concerned with the historical development of a subject (especially a language).
Sentence: Understanding the turmoil in Georgia requires a diachronic analysis of the events on the ground and the creation of the province borders.

Here's another sentence for the word of the day: Chart analysis of stocks is almost purely diachronic, except when it uses current volume as an indicator.