Well, I am inspired!
I watched Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s speech at Tehran University this morning in which he called the the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a “definitive victory” and said there was no rigging of the elections while telling the protesters to stop being manipulated by “Zionists, America and the UK.” The crowd ate it up and chanted “Death to America” and “Death to England” (I suppose “Death to Israel” is a given and not worth chanting)– it was a rousing speech!
The best part of the speech for me, was watching the FTSE go up while a stadium full of people chanted “Death to England” but, of course, the US futures loved it too. Perhaps it was just the $2 jump in oil (up almost $3 from yesterday’s lows) that boosted the energy sector or perhaps it was the defense sector – even I was making sure I had a gun handy as I watched 60,000 “students” calling for my death, just in case…
So party on markets! The Supreme Leader said “Whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny – prone to ideologies that feed hatred and excuse murder – violence will gather, and multiply in destructive power, and cross the most defended borders, and raise a mortal threat… We will defend ourselves and our friends by force of arms when necessary… A fewhave accepted the hardest duties in this cause – the dangerous and necessary work of fighting our enemies. Some have shown their devotion to our country in deaths that honored their whole lives… These questions that judge us also unite us. We have known divisions, which must be healed to move forward in great purposes – and I will strive in good faith to heal them.” Oops, sorry, that was Bush’s inauguration speech – I must get a new translator!
Hey, this could be a fun game: Who said it-Bush or Khamenei?
- “The people have chosen whom they wanted. This is challenging democracy after the elections.”
- “I trust God speaks through me.”
- “This crusade, this war,is going to take a while”
- “The fate of the Afghan people is extremely important to us”
- “There ought to be limits to freedom”
The answers are: Khamenei, Bush, Bush, Khamenei, Bush. Pretty good game isn’t it? Someone should call Conan…
On a more serious note, it’s optionsexpiration day and it’s thedreaded “Quadruple Witching” quarter when contracts for stock index futures, stock index…
