The futures are so bright, we have to wear shades this morning.
Those shades would be blinders, like we put on horses to keep them from being distracted by reality while they race forward as we left 3 of our jockeys – Japan, China and the UK back at the paddock as they are all closed today, making this a very thinly traded open to 2011 and causing us to take all the early-morning exuberance with a Lot’s wife-sized grain of salt.
Oh we’re ready to get bullish! Ready in much the same way a fraternity pledge is ready to eat the worm at the bottom of the tequila bottle – it’s disgusting and we’ll probably be sick tomorrow but, for tonight – we get to hang out with the party boys and, if nothing else – we’ll always have our memories to look back on.
The Republicans have already put Obama on Double Secret Probation, threatening to “go nuclear” and shut down government by refusing to raise the debt ceiling unless Obama agrees to “a range of painful cuts.” According to White House Economic Adviser, Austan Goolsbee, the Republicans are “playing chicken with the Nation’s financial credibility.”
This is not a game. You know, the debt ceiling … is not something to toy with. If we hit the debt ceiling, that’s … essentially defaulting on our obligations, which is totally unprecedented in American history. The impact on the economy would be catastrophic. I mean, that would be a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008.
“To not raise the debt ceiling could be a default of the United States on bond and Treasury obligations,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. “That would be very bad for the position of the United States in the world at large,” Graham said. “But this is an opportunity to make sure the government is changing its spending ways.” Graham, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said he would not vote to raise the debt ceiling unless spending is cut back to 2008 levels.
So happy 2011 to you, we’re really starting the year off with a bang!
Investors should, of course, thank the Republicans for their convoluted stance as this latest round of idiocy is already undermining faith in the dollar and…
