Money Matters Newsletter

Marc's Notes:

Hungry anyone?  

Actually the PIIGS were!  PIIGS meaning Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. These 5 are called PIIGS as they are the EURO currency countries that are in bad shape debt wise (beside US) and Greece was the most visible.

Well, don’t look now but the debt “disease” is spreading like I told you it would. This morning HUNGARY came out and said it might default. Wow, they weren’t even on the list!  Just goes to show there is never just one cockroach. The debt disease started with homeowners, then to companies, then to our banking system and now is in entire countries! This HUNGRAY news pounded the EURO again under 120 per US DOLLAR and aren’t you glad I told you to get OUT OF THE EURO last year.
You can expect an even more aggressive money printing plan by the European Central planners, violating their own rules by bailing out countries, as the EURO contagion makes its way into other hosts.

Marc's Notes:

The trouble with governments is that they always get larger. Governments throughout history have expanded until they can expand no more due to the cost to maintain them. Most governments start out with good intentions with central planning evolving around national security and law enforcement not covered by the states. Mediation between states is also a function of a national government as well as breaking up or managing monopolies. But as forecasted by many before us, as soon as the public learns it can vote in the candidate that promises the most from public purses, the Democracy begins to self destruct. An originator of the Constitution said “ Gentlemen, I give you a Democracy, if you can keep it”.

Marc's Notes:

The markets are now reset at a lower low of 10,200 DOW.

This is appearing to be a lower low, lower high scenario where the new direction is down. The BEAR market never really died, we just saw a Bear market rally as it ran from 6,500 DOW to 11,250.

The Euro currency crisis has set the Bear running now and we may be looking at a new DOWN phase. The old adage is SELL IN MAY AND GO AWAY. This may ring truer still.

Marc's Notes:

The markets are reflecting the Greek contagion that is the result of money printing and spending governments everywhere. This is the “Black Swan” event that will trigger the next downturn. As I keep saying. “It wont be enough”. Close to one trillion in bailout money for the Euro was not even enough to keep the rout at bay more then one day. Prepare for the next downdraft and I hope you HAVE prepared as I have indicated in the newsletter. You will need that advice in the days and weeks to come. This next wave could be more frightening then the last, but making astute investors oodles of money if prepared correctly. You should be mostly in cash, contrary funds, a few dividend payers with mental stops if you haven’t already been stopped out, interest rate funds, foreign currencies, physical gold and silver, gold funds, and in Swiss Annuities.

Marc's Notes:

The markets tumbled the day I left as well as the following day as I suspected they would. Friday brought a bad sunburn to my extremities due to lack of sunscreen but the market had a technical bounce which materialized only during the last hour to close up 125 points DOW and change. The FEDS work no doubt. Reality will most likely set in this week as our RED ALERT remains in effect. I wouldn’t touch this market with YOUR 10 foot pole and recommend you take the steps indicated in my last newsletter I sent out before I left. (All newsletters are on the site).

Marc's Notes:

The markets look anemic if not downright dangerous now as the Greek contagion is spreading. The brief bounce in the DOW lasted one day after the European Bank violated its own rules about bailing out individual countries by agreeing to now bailout Greece. This is a Greece bailout but really a bank bailout as many banks hold Greek debt. Another bank bailout!
The bond market guys know “It wont be enough”, something I have been saying for months if not over a year. Even with the bailout of close to one trillion, they know if you add Greece with Portugal, Spain, Italy and Ireland, a trillion wont do it.

Marc’s Notes:
The markets rebounded off the morbid 1000 point Thursday and investors now ponder the reality that perhaps these markets are really not for all your retirement funds. The stop-out fiasco that sold investors stocks at ultra low prices because of a market glitch is outrageous. Some investors who had stops (automatic sell points) got their stocks sold at a penny, only to see the same stock back at 45 dollars a few minutes later, yet they had lost all their money. Cases like this will surface in the news as the weeks roll by. I now recommend removing most of your stops on big stocks like GE and IBM and Apple and RIMM because those are the stocks that were affected the most. It is a sad day when what we thought normal markets safeguards no longer function. You can guess who made out like bandits on this last go around. The banks and brokerage houses.
These markets are now bordering on laughable.

Marc's Notes:

European policy makers unveiled an unprecedented loan package worth almost $1 trillion and a program of bond purchases as they spearheaded a global drive to stop a sovereign-debt crisis that threatened to shatter confidence in the euro.

Stunning is all I can say. A TRILLION DOLLARS?