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The new Spanish government has announced that it plans to flaunt Eurozone rules regarding it's fiscal deficit. The 4.4 % promised by the previous government in its deal last year with the European Commission has been tossed aside by the new Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. So much for fiscal austerity. Spain now has the worst of both worlds -- expanding debt and no real spending curbs. The Spanish economy has the highest unemployment rate in Europe, pushing it's way toward 25 percent. Not surprisingly, the new Spanish government cannot survive politically if it fully implements the austerity program that it agreed to just twelve months ago. This will be the continuing tale. European countries will not live up to the austerity agreements that they forge with the ECB and the European Commission. Merkel and Sarcozy are wasting a lot of people's time with this. It is not going to happen. Meanwhile, interest rates on Spanish debt surged upward. The beat goes on. S...

Nicholas Kristof has a piece in today's NY Times depicting the plight of present day Athens. He concludes that the economic collapse of Athens is the result of "Republican-like" policies enacted by the Greek government. Really? According to Kristof, the problem in Greece is the result of "austerity" imposed by Germany and France. I'll buy that. But, the question is why is the austerity being imposed. The answer, which Kristof seems blissfully unaware of, is that Greece is broke and cannot borrow any more money from anywhere. Thus, on their knees, they have gone to the ECB for funding. Should the ECB simply write them a blank check. That seems to be the view of Kristof. Kristof joins a long list of commentators that cannot seems to add and subtract. Where is the money to come from to continue to support Greek profligacy? Kristof, like most far left commentators, seems unconcerned about who pays for all of this. But, at some point, someone must pay ...

Why does the US government need an "energy policy?" The free market is available. Oil companies, owned mostly by average Americans through their pension investments, will develop whatever is needed. Recent natural gas discoveries and production have blunted the environmental argument against the use of fossil fuels. So, why doesn't government just get out of the way? The Obama crowd seems to believe that if they legislate a drop in demand that will solve the energy problem. I guess, in the extreme, if they were to outlaw the use of cars, fossil fuel consumption would drop precipitously. Outlawing cars probably seems extreme even to the Obama crowd, so they have taken the half way step -- tell everyone what car to buy -- the Volt. Since Americans don't want to buy the volt, the Obama folks sweeten the pie with a $ 7,500 tax subsidy per car (now, urging that the subsidy be raised to $ 10,000 per car). But Americans don't like the Volt and it's sales are m...

We are treated daily to news accounts of families suffering from removal of government benefits that such families had come to expect. Today's NYTimes features a community in England facing the loss of a government-provided day-care center. These stories describe the often desperate plight of families suddenly deprived of something that they had come to depend upon. This is the cruel downside of the modern welfare state. Inevitably, the welfare state, in every country, expands it's reach into every aspect of life. Eventually, with the elimination of private saving and a sense of personal responsibility, the welfare state becomes wildly unaffordable. That's where we are now in most of the Western world. Now comes the painful, but inevitable, process of dismantling the welfare state as the promises run up against reality. The money has to come from somewhere. No matter how loudly welfare proponents proclaim the existence of this economic right or that economic right (n...

On Tuesday, the Dow dropped 1.57%, its first significant loss in 2012. While it was widely expected by analysts that the huge gains to start 2012 would slow down because stocks were overbought, the true culprit was Greece. Fears of a possible default in Greece brought the market to a halt, lowering the three major indices by over one percent each. A Greek default could cause over one trillion euros of damage to Europe. In addition to Greece, both China and Brazil showed slowing growth that added to the fears of the global economy. Because of these global issues, the dollar gained and the euro/dollar dropped to 1.3115. The last time the Dow dropped over 200 points was on November 23, ending a run of over three months without a major loss. Also, the S&P 500 dropped over one percent for the first time since December. The markets have started off hot in 2012, but fears in Europe and in the global economy as a whole finally took precedence over Wall Street optimism. Only time w...

The 82nd Geneva Motor Show opened its doors today for the press, while the public can only start entering on the 8th. The Geneva Motor Show is one of the many annual auto shows where carmakers from around the world can show off new designs, models, and technologies for the cars of tomorrow. This is a great marketing scheme on the carmakers end because their new cars will receive much hype, especially the ones that are due to be released soon, like the new Mercedes Benz A-Class line or the new Audi A3. What's important about these annual shows is that carmakers, although hurt from the recession, are still heavily investing in new technologies for their cars in order to make their cars more efficient and advanced, thus benefiting all types of technology sectors. For example, Apple's stock price went up today, after Mercedes announced that its new A-Class line was fully integrated with Apple's Siri technology. Vincent Tang

The smart money is still bearish. With the Dow Jones hovering just below the 13,000 level, the financial pundits are almost unanimous in their bearish outlook. The exception to the gloom is the optimistic view of the sell side -- the brokers. They like the market here, but then, they pretty much always like the market. It comes with the territory (that is, the job). So, are the bears right? Is the party over? Is it time to take a pause? First a caveat. The only honest answer is that no one really knows, no matter how convincing one's argument may be. That said, my guess is that the pundits are wrong. Common stocks will likely be much higher in value ten years from now than they are now. It would not be a surprise to see stock performance exceed historical levels over the next ten years, which would mean a Dow Jones of over 30,000 by 2022. But what of the next twelve months? Will the market conveniently sell off or pause to give the late-comers an opportunity to climb abo...