I suspect it is more like a sword fight where each participant has a hidden dagger just waiting for an opportune moment.

Is anyone else seeing the turbulence in the market in terms of the U.S. election instead of the EU woes? I'm of the opinion that domestic concerns such as the Bush tax break expiration, loss of the SS tax break, etc are starting to weigh much more on the minds of investors. It is not overwhelming.... yet.

DarJones

[QUOTE=Zeta-Flux;305959]Are chess players dishonest for not revealing information to their opponents? [/QUOTE]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_information[/url]

Just sayin' :smile:

[QUOTE=axn;306019][url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_information[/url]

Just sayin' :smile:[/QUOTE]Exactly. The information asked for is not part of the game. :-)

WWJMBD?

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;306033]WWJMBD?[/QUOTE]
What would [URL="http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/press/museum-created-germans-hid/"]Barbara Preusch[/URL] do?

[QUOTE=ewmayer;305936]
Even a cursory web search turns up numerous links,[/QUOTE]Maybe _your_ cursory Web search turns up numerous links, but mine didn't. Do you remember how you worded yours?

[QUOTE=Zeta-Flux;305937](And by the way, I would not describe myself as a conservative.)[/QUOTE]

I try to restrict my "conservative" appellation to the ideas you present, rather than apply it to you yourself, but I may sometimes fail. I thank you in advance now for letting me know when I've mislabeled you in the future, so I can correct that.

[QUOTE=cheesehead;306051]Maybe _your_ cursory Web search turns up numerous links, but mine didn't. Do you remember how you worded yours?[/QUOTE]

I googled the 3 keywords [i]obama promise transparency[/i]. Pretty subtle-genius stuff, I admit. :)

---------------------------

Markets dancing furiously thanks to the [url=http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/07/market-soars-on-whatever-it-takes-mush.html]latest emergency dose[/url] of "Europe is saved!"-oin ... well, saved until Monday at least.

Mish has a nice, wide-ranging interview with the oil-focused site Oilprice.com, [url=http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/07/is-global-trade-about-to-collapse-where.html]here[/url].

An aussie buddy of mine have been discussing the denial in Oz about that's country's lending/homeprice bubble, which has been kept afloat several years longer than most anyone expected thanks to an even bigger bubble crafted by the leadership of China, which has cause exports of Oz minerals products to remain strong ... until recently. He just sent me a copy of a recent piece from [i]The Daily Reckoning Australia[/i] - I have been unable to find a direct article link in [url=http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/author/greg-canavan/]the author's archive[/url], will edit this post to add it if/when I find it:

[quote]Dear Reader,

Take a look at this bridge...

It opened one year ago in the eastern Chinese port city of Qingdao.

It traces a wide arc across the Bay of Jiaozhou, linking the port to the island of Huangdao.

It's six lanes wide and 42.5km long — enough to sit 38 Sydney Harbour Bridges end-to-end with room to spare. It took 10,000 workers more than four years to build and cost over $1.4 billion. It's a monumental feat of human engineering and construction.

But it's more than just the world's longest and most expensive bridge.

It's also the poster child for what could be the largest strategic economic error since the end of the Second World War.

And for Australians, it's a symbol of what could be the swift and painful reversal in our 21-year stretch of economic expansion...a trend that's already starting to play out.

Two weeks ago I published a [url=http://clicks.portphillippublishing.net//t/AQ/AAuyrw/AAvGcw/AAcjDg/AQ/AtlC2Q/vC-p]controversial idea[/url] about this crisis that I'm sure will earn me jeers and derision from the mainstream press...and probably even worse from the Australian government.

I explained what I think is really going on behind the Great Wall, what China's end game is, and what it means for millions of Australians who have made heavy bets on our mining sector.

This wasn't an 'opinion piece'. I'm not up on my soapbox or my high-horse.

My job is to analyse the numbers and information from a macro-economic perspective — something the mainstream media isn't doing — and report on the important financial developments that will affect my readers.

One of those ideas is the ongoing and enormous build-up of debt in the Chinese banking system. I'm talking about trillions of dollars worth of loans made to construction firms and invested in infrastructure projects that have no hope of returning a decent profit.

China does this to maintain employment and social stability.

This strategy of 'profitless economics' has had an obvious and tangible effect on China and Australia. For China it's kept its workers employed and its economy growing at a record speed.

For Australia it's underpinned the biggest commodity boom in history. It's a boom that has occurred in two distinct phases. In phase one, from 2003—2008, just about every commodity from base, to bulk, to agricultural, went sky high. Then the credit crisis hit. In response, China effectively ordered an infrastructure boom, financed by bank lending.

This ushered in phase two, were the boom narrowed to iron ore, coal and natural gas. It unleashed billions in expansionary investment in Australia. But just this week, Deloitte Access Economics released a report which stated this second boom had peaked and has only a few more years to run.

That's because China's 'fixed asset investment' growth model — designed to keep employment high at the expense of company profits — has reached its end.

Beijing has been lending money hand-over-fist to keep wholly unprofitable businesses afloat. They employ heaps of people to make heaps of stuff, but no one is buying it anymore.[/quote]

[b]Friday Funnies, Thursday edition:[/b]

In spite of the latest equity-markets meth-cookout party tody, apparently the Midwest drought has also caused crops to wither on [url=http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/technology/for-zynga-a-reversal-of-fortune.html?partner=yahoofinance]some well-known virtual farms[/url].

[QUOTE=ewmayer;306104]
[b]Friday Funnies, Thursday edition:[/b]

In spite of the latest equity-markets meth-cookout party tody, apparently the Midwest drought has also caused crops to wither on [url=http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/technology/for-zynga-a-reversal-of-fortune.html?partner=yahoofinance]some well-known virtual farms[/url].[/QUOTE]There is more funnies to this actually, Zynga is responsible for about 1/8 of Facebook's income and Facebook is announcing earnings after market closing today. They are trading near their low end of the range. I'm trying to find it right now, but one of the business rags has a countdown timer on it for the Facebook earnings release. It made me laugh out loud.

I couldn't find the link -- I must have read it in an incognito browser window. I think it was Business Insider and they might have taken it down because they are live updating some sort of article now. Well the ad revenue is up so it is not so bad and expectations were low already so the news is not crushing.

Ross (only_human) - you sure you got the sign on that AH price for FB right? I see -6% right now, not +6%.

...Ah just caught your edit. So if earnings really were "less woeful than had been dreaded", why down so much AH? Not that I really give a rat's behind about the daily price noise ... mainly FB for me is the poster child for dotcom bubble 2.0, that's the only real interest for me.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;306110]Ross (only_human) - you sure you got the sign on that AH price for FB right? I see -6% right now, not +6%.[/QUOTE]I had got the number from the live updating article without checking. Shame on me about that. They cleaned up their article too. Wow I can't believe how fast FB has dropped. 10% in a half hour. Schadenfreude here; feelling slightly guilty about it.

edit: FB now below $24