I decided to split off my postings of economic links from Jim's Thoughts, so that I can get that topic back to what it was intended to be, a place for me to post trading ideas and thoughts I had that I felt could be of interest to the readers.

This topic is where I will post links to various economic articles, for those that find them interesting. If you want to read (or post) articles about the unfolding debaucle, this is the place to look. If you are a short-term daytrader or swing trader and have zero interest in the economy, you can now just read Jim's Thoughts and not have to wade through this type of dicussion.

At best I think this material only has a direct effect on longer-term plays, the bigger swings that make up the major legs of the bull and bear markets. I follow this stuff for that reason, and because I want to have a handle on things, if that is even possible in this era of lies and deception, so that I can make decisions on life issues.

For example, as I posted in the commentary on the website and discussed with many people well in advance, this was something that wasn't hard to see coming. I saw many people who told me as late as Oct 2007 that 'this thing is about to 'break out' to the upside, and that Dow 20,000, and then much higher, was 'just around the corner' '. The type of articles I am posting discuss the type of information that helped me form the viewpoints I had back then.

If this is far from over, as I suspect, we are in a similar postion now as back then. With the rally that is unfolding right now the talk is the bull is back, the bottom is in, and we are set. I'm not so sure. So, I try to weigh up all the factors and not get too sucked in by the hype. To that end, I will post things here I find interesting.

Here's the Richard Russell link for what I mentioned in the trading section:

http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2010/05/18/richard-russell/

Plus this cool link from the above page:

http://www.businessinsider.com/global-macros-raoul-pal-heres-why-a-crash-is-coming-in-two-days-to-two-weeks-2010-5#ixzz0oJCsISyW

Here's a great read on contago in regards to energy ETF's, and about what I have been saying for years, the financial markets in grains, energy, etc. are 'infinitely' bigger than the actual physical markets, and hence we pay a lot more at the pump and the grocery store (and every other store as energy prices trickle down) because of the speculative run up, the ongoing 'premium', in all these items. In my opinion it's been the world's biggest screw job (okay, second now to the worldwide financial nightmare), it costs us hundreds of billions over time, and no one cares, or will ever stop it. In other words, same old, same old.

http://www.investorsinsight.com/blogs/john_mauldins_outside_the_box/archive/2010/05/18/the-commodities-con.aspx

A simplified overview of some of the basics, but a good read:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-fact-vs-fiction-todays-economy

This one is only for those sprecifically interested in the Eurozone, Greece, Germany, exit from the Euro, and so on. Very good description of the conundrum. Can you say 'Totally screwed, boys and girls?'

http://www.investorsinsight.com/blogs/john_mauldins_outside_the_box/archive/2010/05/20/germany-greece-and-exiting-the-eurozone.aspx

If you are wondering about gold as a potential investment, have questions about the games being played, are a fan of GATA (I am), or anything along those lines this is a good read:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/lbma-lmpcl-and-use-fractional-banking-techniques-and-derivatives-gold-market

For all you business owners, get ready for a lot more hours doing paperwork, a lot more tax dollars wasted, and the gov to know a lot more about your every move:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north846.html

And BTW, unless I am mistaken, the required TIN you must give every vendor, if you are a sole prop, isn't that your social security number? Now mandated by law that it must be given to every vendor you make a purchase from of over $600...

And if that worries you, check this out:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/consumer-protection-bill-just-one-huge-governmental-subversion-privacy-ploy

I truly believe we are on our way to totalitarianism.

So, I've been thinking on this. If I go in to Best Buy, or better yet, say Wal-Mart, and I buy a new laptop for my business, I have to now issue Wal-Mart a 1099!!! And if the person is a sole prop, complete with their social security number on there! Imagine you use a particular pizza place to do business lunches on a regular basis, $30 here, $30 there. Over the course of a year, you're over the $600. Uh-oh, get them that 1099. All you poor sole prop slobs, fork over that social security number. You go on a business trip and the rental car or motel is over $600 total for the year to one company, 1099. Your cell phone? Over $600, fork over the 1099. Every business in America, doing this for everyone. This is just unbelievable. The identity theft potential, the endless paperwork, holy crap. Your tax dollars at work.

Very interesting concept:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/greek-bailouts-two-secret-exit-clauses-why-europe-now-cheering-its-own-demise

A must read, from 'Jim the scary guy':

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/paul-farrell-sees-dow-sinking-below-6470-end-capitalism-and-great-depression-ii-imminent

Read the first comment, #374265. Too funny.

Just one guy's thoughts, he's been wrong before many times:

http://www.xtrenders.com/2010/05/correction-is-about-to-be-over.html

I forgot, I do have another hero to go with Ron Paul and David Stockman, and that's Nigel Farage. Here's his latest:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-17/farage-unleashed-you-are-common-criminals