republished post
by John Bougearel, author of Riding the Storm Out
Tormented by a recession/depression, surging unemployment and foreclosures, plagued by policymakers and lawmakers throwing perfectly good taxpayer money at bad banks and bad policies, the stock market has been unable to gain any traction this year. In fact, the stock market has declined 29% from the Jan 6 year high. That is quite a bit of devastation in two short months, especially since it comes on the heels of the devastating market declines of 2008. rom the October 2007 peak, the SP500 has fallen 58%. Annoyed with the new Obama administration, market participation have taken to calling the new bad economy “Obamanomics.” With the new administration continuing to serve the private self-serving interests of bad banks and insurance companies, I have taken to calling what is happening to the American people an “Obamanation.”
On Friday’s NFP report, we find that it is beginning to look like peak job losses occurred in December with 681,000 jobs being lost. Almost 2 million jobs (or 1.5% of the employment base, have been lost in the last three months alone. Job losses are at their worst since WWII wartime production wound down, when all the Rosie the Riveter’s were laid off. To date a total of 4.4 million jobs or 3.2% of the employment base have been lost.
But, the mark of the beast (666) lit a fire under the SP500 late in the trading session of the abysmal March 6 jobs report. Having its little fanny scorched at 666, it leapt from the flames of hell to close roughly 3% higher at 688 in the final 30 minutes of trade. With a little help from the angels (not to be found in Washington!) perhaps they can pull the stock market back up from the flames of hell for a spell!
