A Long Year Beckons ...

Not much today - a late start.

Chinese exports boom; they benefit also from the decline dollar as they peg their currency's value to the dollar.

In the "There's a Sucker Born Every Minute" Club, FT tell us that "A group of Russian oligarchs are priming their companies for multi-billion dollar London listings ". Gosh, a chance to buy shares in the Russian versions of "The Organization", aka Al Capone, Inc.

Bottom-feeders are scooping up US commercial real estate. FT: "The beleaguered US commercial real estate sector has been attracting a new wave of money from sources including foreign banks, US private equity firms, and a leading Chinese sovereign wealth fund."

The urban heat island continues. Temperature in the woods at my bunker - 7F; temperature in Boston - 18F. This is one of the many serious problems with the theory of human caused global warming. How much warming has really occurred and how much is systematic measurement error ? This has been raised and documented by many people checking the data, but of course the "scientists" on the government payroll deny and obfuscate the problems.

The states are in serious financial trouble. Years of ratcheting up spending on payrolls and benefits is now at a crushing level. Pensions and benefits of state employees much be cut. That means big political battles.

Market

The averages continue to grind up. I'll wait. I think the next big money for a speculation will be in a correction sometime this quarter or early next. Seasonal money flows tend to dry up around April, and that's when the Fed's purchases of mortgage securities is scheduled to end.

Word of the Day

"Fain" - adjective & adverb [$10] poetic, archaic
Fain means (predicate adjective; followed by 'to' plus infinitive) 1. willing under the circumstances to; 2. left with no alternative but to; (adverb) 3. gladly.
Sentences; Which is correct: [meaning #1 or #2] Obama is fain to raise our taxes. OR [meaning #3] Obama will fain raise our taxes. I think it's #3.