Socialist and communist and other lunatic leftists of the world are united.

Goldman Sachs Group said Thursday it earned $4.79 billion in the fourth quarter — a windfall that came in part from slashing its obscene bonus package in response to American public pressure over their Marie Antoinette cake obsession. The Obama administration thinks Goldman's profits in 2008 and 2009 were analogous to Goldman selling poison to children in aspirin bottles and then taking life insurance out on the children. The insurance is what paid off handsomely. The poison sent the American economy to the hospital

The Obama administration threatens to use a lead pipe on Goldman and the rest of the financial system if necessary to break it up. The socialists in London said on the BBC that they love that idea and wish they thought of it first. They say being in a socialist government is like being in an orchestra. They all have to be in tune and follow the leader or it sounds terrible. Among the issues causing a cacophony in Europe is health care. But it isn't the Obama administration at fault. No the BBC thinks Obama is right and the American people are just country bumpkins. No the BBC today is attacking Ms. Merkle, the leader in Germany who is not behaving like a good national socialist and is looking for ways to help the taxpayers… you know the ones who still bring home the bacon that keeps the socialist parasites and communist maggots alive.

The BBC showed today that Hilary Clinton, the American Secretary of State, does not sing on tune either with communist maggots. The Chinese Communists think she has a lot of nerve saying that China will be cut off from freedom and prosperity if they continue to hack in like criminals to steal information from competitors and get information on dissidents so that they can legally shoot their dissidents according to the law of the jungle which they call their solemn communist obligation. It is apparently ok for communists and other National socialists (Nazi's) to tell their big lies about success as long as other sovereign states do not criticize their lunatic leftist leaders. Criticism of communist arrogance and stupidity and insanity and instability, and insecurity, and oppression ist verbotten!

American liberty is far better than socialism, or communism, or the other lunatic asylums and rehabs that wealthy airheads adore and think are what government is for.

World Outlook
China continues to react to 20% real estate inflation in industrial cities by putting the brakes on their economy. That means they will have less cash to buy US treasuries and rates may begin to rise in the free world as well.

Market Week Reports:

Housing Market Index: Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes declined another point to 15 in January on continuing concerns about the poor job market and large number of foreclosed homes for sale, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI).
Citigroup Inc. posted a $7.6 billion net loss in the fourth quarter as its investment bank missed out on the deluge of virtually free money the socialists have been throwing away.
The euro hit five-month lows against both the dollar and sterling on Wednesday as the European currency broke decisively below a key support level.
New Housing Starts fell in December, government data showed Wednesday, to an annual rate of 557,000 during the month, down 4% from the downward revised November rate of 580,000, the Commerce Department said.
The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods moved up 0.2 percent in December, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This rise followed a 1.8-percent advance in November and a 0.3-percent increase in October. Prices for finished goods advanced 4.4 percent in 2009, after falling 0.9 percent in 2008. For the last quarter of 2009 prices increased 2.3% or at an annual rate of 9.2%.

Yesterday
The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance surged to a 2-month high last week. There were 482,000 initial job claims filed in the week ended Jan. 16, up 36,000 from an upward revised 446,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in its weekly report.
The Conference Board Leading Economic Index™ (LEI) for the U.S. increased 1.1 percent in December, following a 1.0 percent gain in November, and a 0.3 percent rise in October. The stock market correlates with this.
The unemployment rate correlates with the Conference Board Lagging Economic Index™ (LAG) which declined 0.2 percent in December, following a 0.5 percent decline in November, and a 0.2 percent decline in October.


Friday, Jan. 22:
No reports today

Market forces January 22, 2010
If Trim Tabs was correct in their evidence that the Obama administration may have floated the stock market to stabilize world markets, then an angry Obama has the power to cut off that money if Wall Street refuses to continue to accede to his demands. But the billions of Wall Street dollars that floated the lunatic left into office in 2008 turned to a trickle in Massachusetts this week and instead swept Senator Brown into office on Tuesday past. That is a dicey game to play and Obama could drive the markets to their old lows again. After all the Washington leftist lunatics tried and almost succeeded in causing a Great Depression in 2008 in order to take power.

We remain 90% out of the market. It is time to begin researching new bargains.

Asian markets were down sharply again over night; Shanghai down -1%, Hong Kong down -0.7%, India down -1.1%, and Japan down -2.6%.

European markets are down again with the average in a range from -0.9% to-1.2% this morning about half way through their day.

US pre-market futures are down at about -0.3% today at 8:30 AM EST. American morning futures are not too reliable.