Monitoring on a Monday

I continue to check the spreadsheet for Krypto.  The numbers for this pullback are intriguingly uniform.  All stock equity classes (US, Europe, Pacific & Emerging) are uniformly down a bit, but gold & real estate are either up or flat.  That makes getting good dip buys tougher.  I continue to wait.  No buy signals are close.

Jobs

The jobs numbers stunk Friday.  Interest rates are extremely low even for long term bonds, which means the QE2 worked for its desired first order effects.  The problem is national policy emanating from the Dark City.  They tax and regulate jobs, subsidize shipping jobs overseas, and plan to load more costs onto US jobs in the future.  Is there any wonder that the US now seems to have a long term, structural lack of jobs?

Far too many people are now long term unemployed.

On another front, the lack of home buying is caused by DC, too.  Homes are a screaming buy for the common man & woman.  Interest rates are low as are prices.  But people can't get a mortgage loan since FNMA and Freddie have tightened standards hugely.  Most self-employed people are frozen out.  Obviously good refinancings can't be done do to stupid underwriting rules.  All that should be changed.  Hello, Obama?  Are you listening?

Word of the Day

"Facile" - adjective [$10] This is a word I have trouble remembering.  I came across it twice reading books over the weekend and had to look it up ... again.
Facile means 1. specious, superficial; 2. mild or pleasing in manner or disposition.
Sentence:  Can a politician who is not facile be elected in America nowadays?  Both the positive and negative meaning of facile apply.